My very own extractor!

September 2011

My extractor arrived in all its glory!  A beautiful stainless steel extractor for two frames at a time...no motor... just a geared hand crank that runs like butter.

Two frame extractor with bucket/strainer

I needed to see if there was any honey available so I could use this lovely piece of machinery.  Queen Elizabeth had 8 fully capped frames in the top box.  The third box had 10 fully capped frames for winter so I felt fine taking 8 frames to extract.  I had to move quickly as the wasps were attracted to the sweet smell of the honey.  The beeyard smells strong right now.  The nectar that the bees are collecting is mostly from golden rod.  

I used the brush to get the bees off the frames but they were less gentle this time.  I think the frenzy of getting ready for winter is upon them.  After I took the frames I got my gear off...have I mentioned how hot the gear is?  Then I went back to the hives to chase some of the wasps away.  While I was doing this,  a honey bee got caught in my hair.  I tried to shake it out but it panicked and ended up stinging me on the head.  My first bee sting!   I scraped my head right away to get the stinger out so it didn't continue to pump venom into me.  I'm sorry that the honey bee had to lose its life like that.  But now I know that I am not allergic to bee stings!  Silver lining...and I can finally say that I have been stung...and yes, it hurt.

Smoking the bees

Brushing the bees from the frame

I used some of our coolers to store the frames in...word of advice to any new beekeepers:  Do not use your coolers.  The propolis from the frames stuck to the plastic sides and though I was able to eventually scrape it off, it left stains.  

I brought the frames into the kitchen...Bill thought it might be a good idea to do the extraction outside but our experience with the wasps in the bee yard made us think twice about that idea.  A sticky kitchen is better than a battle with wasps over buckets of honey!  You might remember that when I worked with Roy, we used a heat gun to uncap the honey.  This time I did the uncapping with my capping scratcher.  The capping scratcher is like a comb with pointy ends.  

Uncapped frame...look at that honey

Taking off the wax caps with a capping scratcher

Extracting only 8 frames didn't take very long.    Once all the frames were empty I put them back into a super and gave them back to the bees to clean up.  They take the little bits of honey left in the cells and move them into other cells.  Once the wax is cleaned up I will store them in our shed for the winter.

Uncapped frame going into the extractor

Two frames in the extractor

Spinning the frames

Empty frame after spinning

My little honey operation has a name, Waxen City!  My daughter has designed a label for me.  It is a combination of urban and floral which perfectly describes our urban bees here in the middle of London, Ontario.

Label for my honey

Honey from Waxen City

I will go into the hives  after the autumn warms up again. I will finish extracting honey and then get them ready for the winter.  These last few days have been very cold and the bees are staying very close to home.  We have noticed that the workers are starting to boot the drones out of the hive so my next post will have to tell you that story.  It is gruesome!  Wait for it.  

By the way...you can click on any picture in this blog and it will fill your screen.  If you click on it again it will zoom in!