Mike and Bev....ready to go to work on the hives. The proper attire is a must for this job. Thanks to these great suits we handled several hives (and hundreds of thousands of bees) with no stings!
Mike getting ready to "smoke" the bees. The smoke has a calming effect on them.
The first hive that we inspected was a very healthy hive containing at least 60,000 bees.
Opening the hive.
Inspecting the frames....looking for honey.
Brushing the bees back into the hive. 
The frames containing honey are removed from the hive .
A hot knife is used to remove the waxy covering over each cell of honey. This bees wax will be filtered to remove the remaining honey and then I will use the wax for pouring candles.
Nine frames full of honey are loaded into the centrifuge.
The honey is then put through a hand-cranked centrifuge to extract the honey from the frames.Jack spins it at a high speed for 5 minutes.
Honey...right out of the comb. This drains into a double filtering system to remove wax and bee parts. The end result is raw, organic, deliciously healthy honey...and it IS delicious!
Comments
Enjoy your sweet honey this Autumn in a relaxing cup of 'Lavender mint tea'.
hugz,
>^..^<