Pictures of my first honey harvest

[Happy Chooks]

We have a friend that let us borrow theirs. I do know some beekeeping associations will rent them, we just don't have any close to us.

 

[Alicia]

Those were great pics! Congrats on the harvest and thanks for sharing.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Year #2 honey extraction today. It's a disappointing year for honey, but I kind of expected it with the drought and the cold/rainy weather we had during the blackberry bloom. The bees are doing very well otherwise! No issues with taking the honey, and I didn't have to smoke them with all the smoke in the air from the wildfires burning right now.



I got some new equipment this year, which was very nice for extraction!







I remembered to bring a bucket with me to the hive to make carrying the frames easier. Here they are in the uncapping tank ready to go.





The honey starts flowing.

Empty frames ready to go back into the hive for the bees to clean up the mess.









I seriously doubt I will even get 1/2 the amount of honey I got last year, but that's okay, I still have some left from last year. Plus, the bees are doing so well, I was really amazed when I opened the top how many bees were in the hive. There will be plenty of honey for our family. And next year, hopefully I'll have 2 hives make it through winter and collect honey from both hives!





This was the easy part! Later tonight the cleanup will be the pain in the rear!

 

[Latestarter]

wow. Congrats! I still haven't checked mine and really need to get off my butt and do it. Last I looked the bees were up through the super and on top of the inner cover and I could see wax down inside on the center frames. They weren't happy last time I went in. This time I'm going to need to suit up in addition to veil and smoke I think.

I don't have a "stink pad" (not sure what it's called) to drive them down out of the super... How did you get the bees out or did you just pull the frames, and shake them/brush them off? I have an empty super box... I could pull the frames and put them in that as I get the bees off them. then remove the empty super box. I'd really like to check the 2 deeps as well, but maybe should wait a while after taking the honey super off.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I used a fume board and honey bee quick. It works so well. I spray the bee quick on the underside of the fume board (costs about $12 for the board) and put it on the super. (Remove outer and inner cover). In 2 minutes the bees are gone down into the hive. I had maybe 5 bees to brush off. Remove frames and fume board, put inner and outer over back on.

It makes taking the honey super easy.

 

[HomesteaderWife]

See, if we tried to do this (raising bees), we would fail!
I admire you doing this, as I have been afraid to try and raise bees. We have them living wild around here somewhere, as I saw them back and forth in our Clover this year. But I just worry that if we actually tried to raise them and have honey, something would happen to the bees. So I leave it to the experts, and purchase honey from a local u-pick farm that's been raising bees for the past 3 years. Like I said, I give you a lot of credit for raising these bees! I hope you have continued success with them!

 

[Happy Chooks]

There is a learning curve on how to take care of them, but they are such fascinating insects! You should take some classes.

 

[GLENMAR]

Put everything outside. The bees will do a good job of cleaning it dry for you.

 

[Happy Chooks]

My honey changed color this year. All of our rain must have given them different sources this year. They both still taste fantastic.

This year on the left, last year on the right.

 

[Baymule]

Both jars look beautiful to me! We love honey and buy a lot of it. I have considered bees, but still have so much going on that I know not to take on yet another project.