The deed is done- golden nectar extracted

The rain didnt stop all this morning and heavy showers were forecasted for the afternoon

Do we do it or dont we?

Yes of course we did, we couldnt help ourselves it was so exciting!!

Mel and Gary went to check the hives and see how many supers we had, whilst I prepared the utility room for the extraction process. I had been warned it could be messy job.

If you have never extracted honey before then be warned it creates a wholly sticky mess everywhere, despite how careful and prepared you are!

I had all the work surfaces scrubbed clean, all the utensils and buckets sterilised and the extractor thouroughly cleaned, the floor was covered in cardboard and newspapers, plenty of cloths and hot water at the ready.

 All set to go!

The supers were brought in and stacked ready, the first frame was picked out ready to be uncapped to allow the honey to flow freely when placed in the extractor.

You need a steady hand and a jug of hot water to dip the knife in and a board over a container to place the frame on whilst you cut away the cappings. Tilt the fram forward so the cappings drop into the container as you cut them away. Normally this can be done in one sheet if the comb is evenly drawn out, if not it will take several goes to do it. Remove as much of the cappings as you can, but try not cut to far into the honeycomb. Have more than one container at the ready as we ended up needing three.

As the cappings are removed hand them to a helper to place them into the extractor, repaeat until the extractor is full.

Now slowly start it up and watch the honey start to spin out, hitting the sides and flowing down into a golden pool at the bottom.

Watch the bottom of the extractor as the honey slides down, dont let the honey pool in the bottom to much before opening the gate and filling your bucket.

 Dont forget to place the strainers on first though!

Next close the gate on the extractor and carry on with the rest of the frames until all done, meanwhile the bucket of collected honey now needs to go through a very fine mesh strainer to catch any missed or remaining tiny bits of pollen before being left in a settling tank to let all the bubbles rise to the top.

The extracting process is quite long depending on how much honey there is to extract but dont try and rush it or cut corners, instead give yourself plenty of time and have few cups of tea in between as you stop and admire the golden nectar flowing into the buckets.

We filled to buckets then ran out of containers to store it in so had to improvise and put it in saucepans, thank god for stockpans and preserve pans dont underestimate how much honey you may get and get caught out like us.

Next there were the cappings to deal with lots of honey in the bottom of the basins there too!! and the wax is to valuable to waste but thats another story.

The biggest job was the clean up after, but we managed in the end. Now it's time for a well earned glass of wine whilst I admire our very own honey

How much honey did we extract??

Would you like a jar?

Guess the amount correctly and I will send the person who guesses the nearest,

wins a jar of Melys Honey.

Getting Ready "H Day"

Well "H" day is fast approaching, hopefully weather permitting Saturday is Honey Day.

We are almost ready to extract the honey from the hives and it is so exciting!!

We have gone completely mad and bought ourselves a brand new Honey Extractor, cost = expensive but we thought, we are in for the long haul and we will have to buy one next year anyway so why not buy it now!! so we did.

The weather has not been terrifically good this last month so we made a conscious decision to leave the hives alone, thinking less disruption would equal a bigger honey yield. So we will see, we are hoping for around 100lbs of amber nectar out of 3 hives, fingers crossed.

All 2011 hives are to be left with their stores on in order for them to be strong colonies going into the winter, with the exception of Hive number 9 as this was a prime swarm and has a full super on.

All the Nuc boxes have now been transferred into hives with the exception again of one which is going to be wintered in a polystyrene Nuc box that has a feeder in it and 6 frames, this is a trial to see how they manage. All reports say the Nuc boxes are strong enough to do this so we are having a try.

Come back tomorrow for the "H" day outcome and hopefully I will have photos to show the process.
Why not have guess how much we will extract!!

Hive Inspection

This weekend we needed to do a full inspection of the hives to see how they were performing in relation to being queen right (hive with a laying queen) and were we were up to with the honey situation.

Our concerns were with firstly the queens!!

As my daughter was down for the weekend to celebrate her Dad's birthday and was keen to see inside a hive. She decided to suit up and join me, we decided it was best to inspect just two of the hives and leave the rest to the following day.

I explained when inspecting a hive, that you must stand behind the  hive and not in front so the foraging bees can continue working without obstruction.  Next I proudly showed her how to use the smoker, giving the entrance of the hive a few puffs of smoke to let the bees know we were coming. Then you can take of the hive roof, placing it upside down on the floor near to you but without being in your way, then take off the crown board.

You need a hive tool for the next bit to help take of the honey supers as these are nearly always glued down by the bees with propolis, at this stage the bees were flying all around her and she stayed perfectly calm and in control. I was very impressed!

I pointed out the honey combs not yet capped to her and the lovely frames that were ready to harvest, she felt the weight of the frames with and without honey on them, giving her an idea of how much honey was on a frame (2-3lb).

As we got down to the brood box (were the queen lays her eggs) we had to be very careful at this point in case the queen was on any of the frames. A few puffs of smoke help send the bees down into the box. Using the hive tool again, prize the nearest frame out carefully, this is the trickiest bit! as there isn't much room to move things.

By loosening the first one gently on one side of the frame and then the other, lift it gently from the hive this frame usually just contains stores (honey), put this to one side. Now, I explained you have a little more room to gently free the next frame by sliding it towards you. and when you have inspected the frame, place it back in the hive where you took the first frame out. Inspect each frame in turn replacing it as close the previous one, this working gap moves along with you as you inspect the hive. A few puffs of smoke now and again if you need to quieten the bees down but avoid overuse of smoke.

Last time we inspected these hives they had virgin queens in them and by now they should have been out on a mating flight and started to lay eggs. I checked to see if I could see any eggs but I am afraid all I saw was pollen and honey, bad, bad news! this was the same scenario in both hives. There was nothing more to do other than replace the supers and put the hive back together and go break the news to Mel. He was of course concerned at the news but also delighted that Cathryn had assisted in her first inspection and enjoyed the experience, relaying how calm she had been and how fascinating it all was.

Hive Inspection
Apart from checking for eggs as we had done on this occasion, when inspecting hives you must also note many other things and keep accurate records of what you have seen.

• Is the queen present and is she laying
• Is there brood at all stages
• What is the behaviour of the bees like
• Is the colony developing as well as expected
• Does the queen have enough space to lay more eggs
• Is there sufficient space for the honey to be stored
• Do they have enough stored food to last until the next inspection
• Are there any queen cells
• Are there any signs of disease

 I will let you know what happened next in my next update.................