Sweetness!

It was finally time to collect honey from the Rocky hive this week. With the smoker, wheelbarrow and a sheet, I went out early Thursday morning while the day was still cool enough to tolerate.

Unfortunately, the escape screen had not worked as well as expected and there were still quite a few bees in the honey super. I decided the best course of action was to remove one frame at a time, using the smoker and bee brush to gently move the bees off. When each frame was bee-free, I put it in the wheelbarrow and covered it with the sheet. Pretty soon, I had seven honey-filled frames (the eighth and final frame had built-out come but no honey). I hurried them into the garage and shut the door to keep the Rocky bees at bay. Bees will automatically try to retrieve the honey that you rob from their hives, and will follow it wherever it goes!


The two-can filtering system works great for a small beekeeping operation like mine. It's easy to use the cold knife to scrape the wax and honey into the top can. And then the honey runs down through the filters and into the bottom can, which has a gate for filling the jars. Here's a photo of just a small portion of the harvest.


Later I took the empty frames, inserted them back in their box and set it out on a table in the yard. The bees were immediately all over it, cleaning every vestige of honey left behind on those frames. Honeybees are such efficient creatures. Nothing goes to waste.