Although this post is super delayed from the actual date of extraction, here is the story about extracting honey.
A couple weeks before our actual extraction, we met with all of the mentor class to learn how to extract. Our mentors made the process look extremely simple (we learned that this was solely due to experience...we have none). While at the extraction class, the hive boxes were removed, tilted on their side, and blown with a leaf blower to remove the bees. Simple right? After the bees were removed, the box was placed under a blanket to keep the bees from returning to the frames. The extractor was set up in a building where the frames were removed individually. Once the frame is taken from the box, the caps are cut off and scraped with a hot knife and a cap scratcher to access the honey. Four frames are placed in an extractor. The extractor is a cylinder that has either a hand crank or an electric motor to spin it. As the extractor spins, the honey is thrown out of the frames and is funneled to the bottom of the barrel and out a hole. The honey then goes through a double strainer to remove debris (wax, bugs, dead bees) and into another bucket where it is ready to be put into jars.
This is how our extraction went...
Rachel and I are very lucky to have strong colonies. We planned to take 16 frames off each hive. As we approached the bee yard, Rachel's hive appeared to be missing. As we drove closer, we realized her hive had been knocked over. All the boxes had separated and were scattered about the yard. There was obvious chaos as well inspected the hive. The bees were fighting to the death to prevent honey robbing. Because the hive was open, the honey became an easy target for the 30 hives in the bee yard. Many of Rachel's bees were dead and some of her honey had been taken.
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| This shows the robbed honey from one of Rachel's frames. The empty cells to the right of the frame have been robbed. The cells on the left are full of honey and still capped. |
After setting Rachel's hive back up, we removed 2 supers from her hive and 2 supers from my hive. As we walked over to the leaf blower, it began to rain and thunder. We should have taken that as a sign, but we didn't. Leaf blowing turned out to be an awful idea...the bees clung to the frames with all their might and if I was able to blow them out of the box, they quickly flew back in. I was stung pretty immediately causing a much needed time-out.
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| Notice the epi-pen in front of me. I'm allergic to everything...except bees! Better safe than sorry though. |
After talking out our next move, we decided to ditch the leaf blower and do it the old-fashioned way; remove each frame, smoke it, and brush the bees off. After 15 minutes, we had cleared all the bees from the 32 frames and were headed home. The extracting went seamlessly, and we were soon left with about 7 gallons of honey.
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| Rachel diligently cleaned each piece of equipment. |
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| Our extractor was bolted to a pallet to hold it in place. The honey ended up in the white 5-gallon bucket. |
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| Hot knife |
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| After using the hot knife to remove the caps, you use a scratcher to remove any remaining low-lying caps. |
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| This was the 2nd 5-gallon bucket. It is about half-full. |
