Day 62- First honey

We decided it was time to 'tax' the bees. We took two frames, one with all capped honey and one with 90% capped honey and a little pollen. We took these from the stronger hive only.

I got my first bee sting on the tip of my finger, Ana had her first sting last visit when a bee was caught in the folds of her suit.

Since we have only two frames to process and we don't have an extractor, we used a simple 'scrape with a spatula' method. It was a hot afternoon in the shed and the honey was quite runny. Although this method uses very simple tools I did mange to wreck both

We collected the honey and wax in a cloth and hang it for around an hour for the honey to drain through.

Extracting honey

The two frames yielded approx 2.6 kg of honey. It should be a mixture of clover, manuka, kanuka and eucalyptus as well as other species.
I am very happy with the honey and it has a 'smokey' after taste.

First ever honey