First Honey Harvest - July 11th 2009

First, I have to clear the bees out of the supers. I chose to use a fume book with Bee Quick sprayed on the inner lining. It is supposed to smell "less bad" compared to other types.

The bees immediately started making their "very unhappy" buzz, but did not coming flying out the front after me. After leaving it on top of the super for about 4 minutes, they were mostly out.

There were still a few clinging to the honey on the bottom, but a leaf blower cleared them out, leaving them slightly stunned in the grass. ;)

After about a half-hour, I had cleared everyone out of all 4 supers and headed over to the Parris' house for extracting.

Getting the supers off was the hard part. Now the fun begins, starting with the "cap scratching."
Here is a pristine frame of honey, nicely capped, just pulled from the super.

Scratch, scratch, scratch...

Then it goes into the extractor. Here's the before shot with lots of dripping honey.

And after the spin cycle...

I was lucky to not have a single blowout (where the centrifugal force rips the foundation from the frame). A few hours later, we open the flood gate and out pours the fruits of their labor.

Straining, and bottling was done the next day.

And the end result: 4.25 gallons nicely packaged.

The bees got to enjoy the strained wax cappings spread out on a cookie sheet. It was quite a scene!