August 30, 2008 – Honey Extraction

Today was honey extraction day.

Martin, GJ, and Linda donned their beekeeper’s suits and robbed the honey.  Here Martin helps smoke out the bees before GJ takes off a super.

A beautiful frame full of honey.

The newest addition to the honey extraction process is an electric uncapping knife – it worked spendidly removing the wax tops from the frames.

Emma shows off an uncapped frame, ready for the extractor.

We use a manual extractor, just put in four frames and turn the hand crank, wait for it to stop spinning, flip the frames around and repeat the spin.

Martin’s job is to run the honey gate at the bottom of the extractor to filter the honey through a couple of filters.  It’s always a hot job as the room should be 85-95 degrees to allow the honey to flow more freely through the extraction process.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #86″

4 thoughts on “August 30, 2008 – Honey Extraction

  1. We’re are you sourcing your equipment from? I’m taking a beekeeping class now and planning to get a hive or two up and running in the spring. Around here equipment is VERY expensive and so I think I’ll be mail ordering – just wondered if you had a trustworthy source.

    Thanks!

  2. Hey there! That seems really fascinating – looking forward to my own honey harvest. I’m based in India, though, so I’m not entirely sure how much we would have in common as far as the apiary is concerned. This is the first page of your site I’ve read, and I’m already hooked. I’ll go through the site thoroughly and leave another comment.

    Thanks for taking the time to put all this up!

    Regards,
    Master’s Cottage Gardener

  3. I’m not sure how honey could be vegetarian or not – it all comes from plants through the bees!

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