Last night we harvested our honey for the first time - 17.5 pounds of the stuff. We haven't yet bought a fancy motorized extractor, so we had to use the crush-and-strain method. First, we had to remove the frames from the super. This was tricky, as the bees glued the frames firmly into place, leaving brown goo (propolis) everywhere. Then, we had to cut the honey out of the frames and mash it with a potato masher. Russ purchased a special food-grade bucket and appropriate strainers. Once the honey and comb were sufficiently mashed, the mixture went into the strainer. One day later, we were ready to complete the process and filled 17.5 one-pound jars. It was very exciting to actually fill the jars and see how much honey we produced. The kitchen was covered in sticky honey and propolis, but it was worth it.
