honey harvest

I am glad to say our first year of extracting honey is behind us!  Monday night we took out the frames that we planned on extracting, leaving 2 full boxes for the bees to chow on over the winter.  The bees were very angry with us.  fortunately my full body bee suit did the job and I didn't get stung.  Rod had stingers all over his gloves, 6 of them made their way through the gloves. 

We set those frames in the garage, covered, to be extracted on Tuesday night.  By Tuesday, the bees got the memo that the frames were in the garage and by the time we started the process outside of the garage, thousands of bees were joining us.  It was such a rookie mistake.  I have first year beekeeper written all over me.  But Clay had fun running through the bees declaring he won't ever get stung, and somehow he didn't.  

We decided to do it at night, after the bees go home:

Cleaning out the extra

We did get 2.5 gallons of honey, which for a first year is pretty good.  we would have gotten more if our hive didn't swarm.  But I'm happy with that and I think that'll last us a year, or at least through the winter.  I hope the bees make it through the winter.  The one hive appears healthier then the other so we'll see what happens. 

Happy with our harvest.  Bees are so facsinating, there is much to learn.  I am grateful to have this experience.