This was by far the quickest, cleanest and easiest honey extraction I have ever done. Normally it is Ian and I trying to balance extraction with child care and it takes forever (pee breaks, snack breaks, lunch breaks, nap breaks, timeouts, etc.) and is so messy! Plus we have to listen to the kids beg for tastes of honey repeatedly ("Can we taste it now? Now? Now?! NOW?!!") as they get crazier and crazier with each added spoonful of sugar.
This time I extracted while Ian and the two oldest boys were away camping. Plus, I arranged for reinforcements in advance in the form of Grandma Extraordinaire (to help with Ali), the wonderful Ross and his lovely son Brad, and power couple Jen and Mario. Mario informed me that he was "voluntold" that he was helping with extraction today (he prefers sausage making with Ian) but he was an awesome help and we were lucky to have him.
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| The tower of honey waiting to be extracted. |
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| A perfectly capped frame. |
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| Scratching the wax cappings off. |
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| Keeping the wax for later. |
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| Ready for the extractor. |
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| Waiting to spin. |
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| Liquid gold. |
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| Filling those jars. |
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| Waiting for the wax cappings to drain through a sieve. |
I had all the frames bee free and all the equipment set up for when my helpers arrived around 8:30 am. We assigned people to stations (uncapping, cappings scratching, loading the extractor, filling jars, and wiping/capping jars).
This was some seriously efficient honey extraction. We were done and cleaned up by 2:00 pm.
I had the floors washed, the empty frames replaced on the hives, and the cappings dripping dry, by 3:00 pm. Time for a celebratory beer.
By 3:30 pm Ali and I were ready for a nap, followed by dinner and bedtime.
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| Sweet potato and apple sauce for Ali. Taco salad for me. |
Five helpers, 5.5 hours, 185 lbs of honey and one very happy baby. What a seriously productive day.
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| My sweet potato faced baby. |
Thank you so much to everyone who helped me out today. You are amazing. #grateful
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