A sticky business

Maidi getting the equipment ready

Maidi and I extracted honey today.
The first step was to get the comb from the old hive.  I brought an empty super and a board down to the apiary.  I took the top board off, gave the bees a bit of smoke and then selected four frames of capped honey.  I had to brush the bees off each one.  There was always one stubborn girl who would run from side to side avoiding the brush.  I put the cleared frames into the empty super and put the board over them to keep other bees off.  I then replaced the four frames with new ones.  I then did the same thing in the lower super, getting 8 frames in all.  The box was so heavy, it was difficult for me to carry it up to the deck.

Removing cappings

After we had cleaned out the extractor, we cut the caps off the comb with the electric carving knife.  At first it wasn't working too well, then I realized I was holding the knife upside down.  After I got the blades properly oriented, it worked quite efficiently.

Loading the frames

I loaded two frames into the extractor, attached the power drill and started it spinning.  It was way off balance and the frames wobbled out of the holder.  I got the rod more vertical and the wobble was tolerable.  The honey started coming off the comb in threads onto the sides of the barrel (plastic garbage can).  It was a tedious business.  Each comb had to be de-capped, and we would often miss part or even forget one side.  The extractor continuously needed to be adjusted for balance and we got coated with a fine mist of honey.  Talk about sticky!  What wasn't sticky?

Honey and wax in barrel

Eventually all the frames were emptied and we had a fair amount of honey and wax debris in the barrel.  I had purchased some paint strainers this morning, and we used those to filter the honey into a variety of jars and bowls.

Honey being filtered

I put the sticky frames into a super and left it on the table outside.  Bees would come and eat a bit of honey.  I'll put the stickies back into the hive or maybe onto the new hive.  I've emailed Jeremy and asked if there could be a problem giving the to the new hive. 
Altogether we got about 28 cups of honey.  Next step is to get some small, lidded jars and fill them.