Beginners in July .. First Harvest

Well I hope as you read this you have a plan for your first harvest. It’s a lot of fun and a lot of work. I usually pull honey on or about July 15^th as very little new honey will be stored after this point until the fall wild flowers. I let the bees keep everything they make between now and winter and it usually works out about right.

The first step is to remove the supers and to do that you have to clear the bees out. I use Bee-Go and it works well. Tried using a lawn blower, it didn’t work at all. To use Bee-G make a wooden frame, 1 inch high the same size as a super and cover it with cardboard. You put this fume board on the hive cocked at a 45 degree angle initially to let some clean air in and not over dose the bee’s senses. After a couple minutes, straighten it. A small amount goes a long way and five minutes is all it takes. Don’t get Bee-Go on your cloths or hands, it just plain stinks forever. The first year I bought a commercial fume board and stored it over winter, it never quit stinking. With the cardboard top, you can punch it out and burn the cardboard.

Since it takes me most of Saturday to get the supers back to Lincoln, you will need to keep them covered or you will attract lots of new bees. I stopped one year with a load of supers in a parking lot for an hour, came back to my pickup covered with neighborhood bees. Who would have thought that many lived in the area of 32^nd and “O”? Keep the supers covered and get them unloaded into an enclosed dark place. Don’t plan on using your home kitchen! Honey drips everywhere in spite of your best effort. Bees find their way in and like finger painting, its fun but inherently a bit messy. We cover the entire floor with a disposable cloth, that helps but you will still track some honey away. For us a rented garage is nice since we can hose the whole thing down when we are done.

It takes me longer to setup my extractor and clean up the area then to extract. This is where you need to pre-think your task. You will need to uncap the frames and put them in the extractor. Between the two you will drip lots of honey. I bought an old two sided wash tub for soapy and clear water so it is always handy. For me the extracted honey goes into 5 gallon pails, better get plenty this week as they become scarce when you’re in deep need. Do you have a place to drain the cappings? Do you have enough of the fine filter cloth?

After a full day of extracting we will be done, tired and sore. Somehow thought when I carry those 60lb pails to the store room, they aren’t that heavy today as I smile and finish another year with my bees.