Last fall I did my first honey extraction ever as a demonstration at Bartram's Garden for Philadelphia's 2nd annual honey fest.  This year I decided to pick up my own extractor and get some of the spring honey from the bees.  The mild winter around here did good things for many insects, and bees are no exception.  Normally it is rare to get honey in your first year from a new package or split, but I was able to extract 36 frames of honey from 3 of my 4 hives, and there are at least 20 more frames that are full of honey but not capped that I will probably extract in the fall.  20 of those 36 frames came from Cheese Palace, a split I made from Boatmurdered that has been making honey like crazy.

Extracting equipment for today.  Cappings bin, several 5 gallon honey buckets, a Maxant 9 frame hand powered extractor, and other odds and ends.

Laura extracting honey while a very excited neighboor watches

Off go the cappings and into the bin for honey to drip off of them

Extractor loaded and ready to spin the first batch of frames!

Out comes the honey!  That dark strip in the middle is the last bits of honey from Rhinelanders which I ran through the extractor first.  Even though that apiary is less than a mile from the other one the honey came out quite different. Darker and sweeter with a different flavor.

If all goes well weather wise in the Philadelphia area we should have a fall flow and even more honey to extract in September.  If you are interested in any honey or other hive products please check out the shop or use our contact page!