July 31st, our family, minus Mom who was visiting her mother in Florida, geared up to do our first honey extracting since our move to VA in 2001.
Dad and Becky started by inspecting the hives and removing the supers that had the most honey. The rest of the girls got the sunroom all ready for extraction. First, we removed the rug, plants, and a plastic table, and then we cleaned the tile floor. Then we had to search for all Dad’s honey extracting supplies. They were stored in various places, including the attic, boxroom and workroom. We had to spray out the honey extractor, and also filters, screens and tubs. Dad also had to attach the motor to the honey extractor, and stabilize that whole contraption. Then Tim and Jon brought in the supers with the honey in them, and after cutting the caps off the honey, we put the frames through the extractor, four at a time. It was neat to watch the sides and bottom of the honey extractor fill up with all that delicious honey. Dad says the honey is mostly Black Locust. After the honey was all extracted, we emptied the honey from extractor into a tub, and filled gallon jars with it. We were able to make a few jars of cut comb, and in all we got about 35 pounds of honey.
"My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is
sweet to thy taste: So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul:
when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy
expectation shall not be cut off." Proverbs 24:13-14