HONEY

The honey came out in different colors and densities. The dark honey sank to the bottom, it is probably mostly blackberry. The lighter honey is a mix of wildflowers throughout the neighborhood.

LOTS of honey

The finished product. About 11 gallons of honey, about 130 pounds worth. Not bad for the first year off of three hives. And the bees are still going strong - we'll probably get another couple gallons from them.

Extraction Step 5

Honey pours out of the extractor! We used a sieve to remove the big chunks of wax.

Extraction Video

Extraction Step 4

Here Alysia is spinning two frames in the extractor. The extractor is basically a centrifuge that holds two frames vertically.

Jim uncapping

Extraction Step 3

The next step to cut the wax cappings off of the cells, so the honey will spin out. A serrated knife heated in water is what we used. The goal is to take just the cap off and leave the rest of the wax cell untouched, so the bees can reuse it.

Extraction Step 2

The bee escape was on for about 18 hours and most of the bees have left. Here I am pulling the honey-filled frames out of the super and handing them to Jim, so he can brush off any remaining bees.

Getting ready to EXTRACT!

The time has come to extract honey - an extremely exciting day for us. In this picture Jim and me (Alex) are getting the hives ready for extraction. The first step is getting the bees out of the honey super. In the picture I am holding the super up (which probably weighed 40 pounds) while Jim put a bee escape on below it. A bee escape is basically a one-way door for the bees. In the picture it is a hole in the center of the piece of plywood.