Honey Extraction - (May 18)

We have 2 Medium supers (9 frames per super) and an additional 5 medium frames from a 3rd super that we extracted today.  We got a total of 89 pounds of honey from 23 medium frames.  That's approx. 4 pounds of honey per frame.

We were only able to extract from my hive as Christin's hive is still not as populated and working in numbers as we would like since it got off to a late start due to the queen issues we faced in early spring. 


Here are some pictures from the extraction process.

The 2 Medium supers full of capped honey!!  The weight of the top super was 56 pounds and the bottom super weighed 60 pounds.

The 9 frame extractor with a 400 micron strainer over the 5 gallon bucket. We strained the honey to catch any bits of wax  We will only extract 6 frames at a time.

We used a heat gun to uncap (melt) the white wax that covers the honey.  As I work my way down the frame, you can see the honey is now exposed from the heat melting the thin layer of wax.  The typical method is to use a knife to cut the caps off causing a huge mess and about 5%-10% loss of honey.  There was no mess using this method.

6 frames placed in the extractor ready to spin for at least 8 minutes.  The honey will be forced out of the comb, hit the wall of the extractor and fall to the bottom where it pours out.

Christin spinning the frames.  We spun them for about 8 minutes and then reversed the rotation for a few  more minutes.

Pure honey pouring out of the extractor.

An empty frame after extracting.

The comb from one frame fell apart during the extraction so we got to enjoy chewing on some comb.

The finished product!!!