Each hive has produced one super (ten frames) of surplus honey this year, and I've been waiting for the right time to take them off the hives. Last weekend was fairly dry, weather-wise, so I figured it was probably my best chance to get harvest done.
This year, I needed to be extra-careful with hygiene arrangements because of COVID-19 so as well the the usual tasks of thoroughly cleaning down the utility room and laundering the aprons and hats, we also wore clean masks throughout to minimise any transmission risk. I'm also going to quarantine the sealed jars for 14 days, just to be sure that neither of us were infected when we did the extraction.
Mrs Beekeeper was on hand to uncap the combs, while I worked the extractor. Here's a couple of action shots of us hard at work:
The final haul is 7 jars from Athene's hive and 9 jars from Ottoline's bees. Not my best year ever, but at least it will be enough for a few stocking fillers at Christmas. And it's always satisfying to have a little reward at the end of the season.
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