Nature is Genius

It's hive time!

Time to collect honey for the first time ever!

We smoked the bees to confuse their sense of smell.

We removed the top two boxes to bring them inside.

Here is the queen excluder. It keeps her from laying eggs in the boxes above this grate. She can't fit through the slots.

We took the frames out of the boxes in a warm, clean room (aka our laundry room).

Proud Papa!

A heated knife scraps the caps off the comb.

Really satisfying. And harder than it looks.

Alison and Brennan helped us.

The wax caps and extra honey fell down. The honey collected in the bottom of this basin.

But the real extraction happened here: The Extractor! (Notice the tomato can 'throttle.')

It spun really fast.

And honey came oozing out.

2.5 gallons! And it tastes so good.

Yay!