![\"IMAG0872\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/IMAG08721.jpg\")
<\/a>until about 6:30 pm to extract the honey from 36 frames with honey on both sides. \u00a0Pulling the supers went much more easily this year since I used a gentle chemical that bees don’t like to get the bees to leave the super. \u00a0I loaded them on a pallet and covered them with cloth covers Kate made yesterday.<\/p>\nThis was the first year we ran the extractor in the kitchen, rather than on the deck. \u00a0We wanted to reduce the number of bees coming to the extraction. \u00a0The chemical, the super covers and extracting inside all helped. \u00a0We had only a few bees and they were ones who had not vacated the supers before I removed them from the colony. \u00a0Success on that front.<\/p>\n
But. \u00a0We air condition our home as some of you know. \u00a0Honey at 90 degrees flows smoothly out of the supers and into the extraction tank. \u00a0At 65 degrees, not so much. \u00a0The first six frames took over a half an hour. \u00a0We would have been at this well into the night. \u00a0So.<\/p>\n
Kate stepped up her uncapping skills which helped us get to all the honey, fast. \u00a0We debated taking the extractor outside on the deck, but that would mean we couldn’t keep There we go. \u00a0We got our time for six frames down to around 10-12 minutes. \u00a0Much better. \u00a0I estimate that we have between 65 and 75 pounds of honey, our best year ever and one resulting from a package hived in April. \u00a0Extraordinary, especially considering the very cool spring.<\/p>\n Tomorrow is clean up and bottling, then storing the extracting equipment for next year.<\/p>\n Feels good to be done. (though. \u00a0there are still two supers on the colony because the nectar flow might not be quite over.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lughnasa \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Honey Moon We harvested four supers of honey under the honey moon. \u00a0Kate and I worked all day, until about 6:30 … Continue reading Bee Diary: Extraction 2013<\/span> <\/a>the honey gate open and let the honey flow directly into a bucket. \u00a0We thought about the garage, but before we made a decision, we decided to give it one more try with Kate’s new uncapping process and a second innovation, a hair dryer stuck into the extractor while it was working.<\/p>\n