The Honey Harvest

I had just one hive this summer, but I was able to pull two supers (the smaller box on the top) from it.  This picture was taken after I had already removed the supers.

Honey bees aren't particularly aggressive bees, but their patience wears thin when you start brushing them off the honey frames.  One of the ancillary benefits of beekeeping is that if your bee veil is not tied on well, bees can find their way inside and begin stinging your face.  This is very painful, but it strengthens your immune system and builds character.  Unless you are allergic to bee venom and go into anaphylactic shock, it takes about 200 strings to kill you, but by the time you have had five or six you will probably take some corrective action.  A hive this size likely has around 50-70 thousand bees.

I kept the frames in our basement for a couple of days with the lights off and a window open.  The bees left on the frames were attracted to the light and flew away.  In this picture I am using a heated knife to cut off the wax capping off the honeycomb.

The cappings and honey fall onto a screen suspended inside a pail

Next I put the uncapped frames into the extractor.

The extractor holds three frames at a time.  I orient the frames in the same way to ensure that they balance each other.

Next, you turn the crank as fast as you can and the honey flies off the spinning frames.  Afterwards you turn the frames so that the inner side is now outward and you spin them again.  As long as the frames are reasonably balanced, the extractor doesn't shake much.  The  extractor stand has an 80# bag of quickcrete for ballast.

A fully capped frame of honey.

The wax cappings contain a gallon or two of honey.  I let them drain for a day or two and then pour the honey into the other pail.

The extracted honey drains into a pail with a similar honey gate at its base.  I will put a lid on the pail and let it sit for a day so allow all the wax and impurities to float to the surface.

Time to fill up jars.  This is the easy part.

Since all the wax has floated to the top, the honey coming out of the bucket does not need to be filtered.  I simply hold a jar under the pail and open the honey gate.  When the jar is full I close the gate.  Whoever invented this little device deserves a prize.

Voila, there you have it, 24 quarts of honey at the cost of only six stings.  In case you are wondering I did order a bee shirt with an attached veil right after those stings.  I just don't trust that old tie-on veil any more.