Happy Chooks
Loving the herd life
I only extracted 8 frames because the outer 2 frames were only capped on one side. Now I have to figure out what to do with those frames because I'll need to take the super off the hive to treat for mites.
It's hard to do the work and take pictures, but here is what I got with my phone. It looks like I'll end up with 2 to 2 1/2 gallons of honey. It's still draining and straining, but I came in to have lunch. Keep in mind this is my first time harvesting, so I'm certainly not a pro at this.
I chose to extract in our well house. It is a sealed building with lighting, so it seemed like a good choice. All set up and ready to go:
Borrowed extractor and double sieve ready.
The person I borrowed the extractor from had this homemade cappings tank. My hot knife, which was very handy once I figured out how to use it correctly.
I chose to use a fume board to get the bees out of the supers. I chose the non-toxic spray Fishers Bee Quick. It worked really well, only a few bees left on the frames to brush off. You spray it on the felt on the underside of this board on top, and the bees clear out of the super in 2-5 minutes.
Frames of capped honey.
After I took the knife to them, but before using the cappings scratcher.
Ready to go for a spin.
And the honey begins to flow out of the extractor into the sieve.
Frames after extraction. They went back into the hive for the bees to clean them up.
Getting more honey now. Pretty amber color.
Had to take a break and let the sieve catch up.
Cappings draining into the tub below, so I can take the honey from that too.
I'm glad I did this in the morning, it was starting to get hotter and the bees were less patient. I had the smoker ready to go, but I didn't need it. No stings either, though 1 bee was trying like heck to get me. Overall, it went well. It's not as labor intensive as I expected, though I did think of some ways to improve the process and make it easier. I haven't done the cleanup yet, so we'll see how that goes later today.
It's hard to do the work and take pictures, but here is what I got with my phone. It looks like I'll end up with 2 to 2 1/2 gallons of honey. It's still draining and straining, but I came in to have lunch. Keep in mind this is my first time harvesting, so I'm certainly not a pro at this.
I chose to extract in our well house. It is a sealed building with lighting, so it seemed like a good choice. All set up and ready to go:
Borrowed extractor and double sieve ready.
The person I borrowed the extractor from had this homemade cappings tank. My hot knife, which was very handy once I figured out how to use it correctly.
I chose to use a fume board to get the bees out of the supers. I chose the non-toxic spray Fishers Bee Quick. It worked really well, only a few bees left on the frames to brush off. You spray it on the felt on the underside of this board on top, and the bees clear out of the super in 2-5 minutes.
Frames of capped honey.
After I took the knife to them, but before using the cappings scratcher.
Ready to go for a spin.
And the honey begins to flow out of the extractor into the sieve.
Frames after extraction. They went back into the hive for the bees to clean them up.
Getting more honey now. Pretty amber color.
Had to take a break and let the sieve catch up.
Cappings draining into the tub below, so I can take the honey from that too.
I'm glad I did this in the morning, it was starting to get hotter and the bees were less patient. I had the smoker ready to go, but I didn't need it. No stings either, though 1 bee was trying like heck to get me. Overall, it went well. It's not as labor intensive as I expected, though I did think of some ways to improve the process and make it easier. I haven't done the cleanup yet, so we'll see how that goes later today.
