Harvest Time!!
Towards the end of July as the temperatures are getting so hot that my bees are hanging outside to cool themselves and the hive off. We decided to harvest some honey. Last year was my first year keeping bees and I did not harvest to give them plenty of honey for the winter. This year I said I have invested a lot in these pets and want some return. Plus with the heavy rains we got in the spring and early summer the flow has been really good. So my wife and I went up and took out 6 full frames. You have to remember that any honey you take is stealing from the bees so I want to leave them with plenty as well. Also, each worker bee only produces about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in it's life time and it takes about 556 bees to make a pound of honey. From the 6 frames we were able to extract about 19 pounds of wonderful honey. I decided to buy my own two frame manual extractor so I didn't have to pay someone to extract for me. It actually worked very well.