July 4, 2009 - 8:30am

Today was harvest day at the Bee yard. The harvest began at about 9 am this morning. It was about 85º at the bee yard and very little wind.

The Alpha hive was the only hive to produce surplus honey. The girls managed to fill two medium honey supers.

Today, Gene and my Dad joined in the honey harvest. My dad took pictures at the bee yard. Gene and I worked through the honey supers clearing bees from the frames and preparing them for extraction.

The two supers yielded 6 gallons of honey and about 6 cups of wax from the cappings.

Currently the honey bucket is in the house settling. Tomorrow I will being filling containers of honey.


Here are some photos of today.

The Harvest begins...








Gene uses a refractometer to check for water content. We were looking for 14% to 16% and it was right at 16%





















At the house the extraction process begins...