The culmination of nearly 12 months of bee keeping came to fruition today when I began to harvest my first honey. When extracting the honey I keep reminding myself that one bee produces one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in it's lifetime. Every few drops is the equivalent of a bees life work. The longer I keep bees the more fascinated I become.

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Uncapping-honeyjun20.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-6318" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Uncapping-honeyjun20-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a>The first task in the process is to uncap the honey. There is a thin layer of wax over each cell of honey to protect it because the bees are storing this not only to feed the new bees but also to get the bees that follow through the winter. It is an investment in the survival of their colony.

Here I'm using a honey fork to remove the cappings. There are lots of different methods - some people use a hot blower and others cut it off with a sharp knife. I'm sure whatever method used it is a sticky job.

I had 6 frames and I had to uncap each side.

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/wax-from-uncappingjun20.jpg"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-6314" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/wax-from-uncappingjun20-150x200.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="200" /></a>After uncapping them all I had a bucket with a mixture of honey and wax.

At the moment I don't know how or if it can be separated and if so what I would do with it afterwards. Put it back into the hive for the bees to reuse?

I'm sure there is an answer and it will be another lesson to learn.

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After spinning two frames a time <a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/first-flow-of-honeyjun20.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-6317" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/first-flow-of-honeyjun20-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a>