We harvested honey a week later than usual. Typically, "honey harvest" is Labor Day weekend. But the weather has been so wet and cool that the flowers are still blooming. The golden rod had been blooming only 2 weeks when we harvested.
I started by putting "Bee Quick" on my fume board. Smoked the hive gently and placed it above the supers that I wanted to get off. The weather was around 80 degrees and so we had to wait about 5 minutes before most of the bees were out of the supers.
But some bees usually remain. So my wonderful husband gets the leaf blower out and "gently" coaxes them out of the frames. It's a very effective technique and usually does not harm the bees.
After the bees are essentially out, we quickly place a clean, unused black plastic bag around the super. This keeps the super warm and keeps the bees out of the supers. Caution must be taken when removing honey supers from a hive in the fall. The bees are very energetic about keeping their honey or finding "free" honey. If one does not cover the supers the bees may begin robbing. An that is not fun.
We got all the supers off the hives and drove them to the house. There were supers in the front, back and in the cargo area of the gator. It worked great having the gator. Easy to maneuver and get the supers in and out.
We then brought them down to the basement to our honey house set-up. Two deeps and seven medium supers full of golden and delicious honey.
My husband and our friend Jim (who came over for the harvest) took turns using the uncapping knife.
The extractor was filled (several times!) and we were ready for the honey to come pouring out. The extractor fits 20 frames and spins very quickly. And because the frames are not always equally filled with honey sometimes the extractor wobbles a bit. So my amazing and resourceful husband attached it to a pallet and then three adults stand on it (with the help of two young children). And then the honey comes pouring out!
After a day or two (or a week in this case) of settling to let the air bubbles come out) it was time for some honey bears.... Mama, Papa,and Baby bears.
We have three more containers yet to fill....
We put the supers back on the hives in hopes of getting just a few more frames filled. The golden rod and asters are still blooming and the temperatures are in the upper 70s.It was our best honey harvest ever!
Today's Journey Joy - yummy honey
