Honey harvest 2010

Today we began work at 6 a.m. and knocked off at 3 p.m. without stopping for lunch = 9 hours.

We took off all the honey supers, and removed three old frames from each brood box, and put in new plastic waxed frames. We put two varroa-zapping strips in each brood box. These must be removed in 42 days. We put the hives back together with the winter exit top rear, and the screen boards still installed. These will come out and the winter exit flipped and back to front in 42 days when we remove the strips.

We extracted and strained a bit more than 38 litres of honey (36 litres plus 2 quarts).

Our team was as follows:

1. Patrick, who came with Thomas yesterday afternoon and sterilized the RubberMaid boxes with Javex, and washed and dried them and put them in the sun, and fetched the extractor and the honey pail from storage upstairs, and installed them on the kitchen table, and laid out the bee suits in the barn and wiped down the tables in the barn and the house on which we'd work today, and we suited up and began to take off honey supers, pull frames and so on, when we were joined by

2. Terry, who suited up and joined us at the hives, and I retired to smoker-duty, and we pulled the remaining honey supers, and opened the hives, pulled the old brood frames and substituted three new ones in each brood box, and put in the varroa-zapping strips, two to a hive, and put the hives back together for 42 days and later supervised honey bucket and its two strainers, one coarse and the other fine and

3. Sherry and Jacob, who ran errands for us, and took the RubberMaid boxes containing the full frames of honey, from which the bees had been brushed off, to the picnic table near the house and afterwards in the kitchen Sherry uncapped frames while Jacob manned the extractor with Patrick, and

4. the YBeek and the EYBeek, who helped with the frames, and settled down to supervise Thomas with the Thomas railway, and later after Thomas had left, helped filling jars, wiping jars, putting tops on jars, labeling jars, wiping, washing, and generally filling in and doing whatever needed to be done and

5. Mary-Lynne, who heated honey from the extractor so the wax is easier to remove, worked with four strainers, and continually refilled the strainer in the top of the honey bucket (and organized that crucial segment of work) while Terry stirred the top container in the honey bucket and

6. I organized the jars and filled them (the YBeek filled some) and the EYBeek, and Daniel (our neighbour), and Jacob all helped wipe the jars and put them in boxes.

We set aside the half litre for the YBeek to exhibit at Ancaster Fair. And, a litre for Tammy Quinn, who helped exchange drone-comb in the summer. And, a litre went to the next-doors, who live next to the hives.

And, now it is time for me to SIT DOWN!