Honey 2016

It was time to extract the honey this month.  Rather than a long-winded, witty narrative..I'm going to give a view of the process in pictures.

Deciding which frames to take from the hives.  You can't take too many or the bees will not have enough to eat through the winter.

To expose the honey the caps are cut off.  Rod tries not to destroy too much of the comb so that the bees can reuse what they had already built.

Look at all the honey!

One of these frames full is about a quart of honey.

Next the frames are loaded into the extractor.  This barrel has a very thick finish on the inside and is coned shaped at the bottom.  The cone is in the center so all the honey is on the outside.  There is an electric motor that slings the frames around and slings out the honey.

The honey flows out the bottom into a bucket.  There is a wire grate to catch any comb that is there.

5 1/4 gallons this year!

Now the honey is gravity fed through two filters into another bucket.

SLOWLY the honey is transferred to jars.  

The honey haul for this year, minus the gallon that Rod kept out to make mead!