Our first honey harvest

I took a mental health day from work today. Most of the morning was quiet and uneventful (and great!!) I decided to harvest part of the honey. What an experience. The bees were not very happy, they followed me around all day, looking for their honey. They really got crazy when we started extracting from the frames.

This is the extractor. I have been looking for one since last year, but they are so darn expensive. This July I talked with a guy at a festival and he offered this one to me at a decent price, so a few weeks later we took a 2 hour drive to go pick it up. I am so glad we did, it sure makes harvesting a lot easier!

This is what the frame starts out like. This is capped honey. You can cut the top off, or scratch it so the honey flows out. Three frames go into the extractor, then the handle is cranked, and centrifugal force pulls the honey out of the comb.

The honey flows out of the extractor and collects in a bucket. We got almost 20 pounds honey today. I don't know if we have enough to sell, but we have enough to share a bit with family and friends. What a cool experience, I am glad we did this. I wish Mom were here, she would love to share