After allowing the honey several days to dry out (with the help of a portable electric heater), Dad decided it was time to begin the extraction process. Neither extraction nor bottling require a bee-tight jumpsuit, so the whole family is able to help out–not just Katelyn. Justin and Audra even came over and lent a hand (well, four hands, actually) with extracting. With frequent doses of delicious, sticky honey-comb to keep our spirits up, we were able to extract every last bit of honey in one evening.

Katelyn lifts a honey-laden frame from a super.

Dad uses an electrically heated knife to “uncap” the honey, removing the outer layer of wax which seals in the honey.

Erica uses a tool someone dubbed the “scritchy-scratcher” (it’s really and truly an official honey extraction gadget!) to uncap any cells the hot knife missed.

 
Loading the uncapped frames into the extractor

John, the official extractor operator in Justin’s absence.

Justin inspects a frame to see if it’s ready to be turned over and spun again, making sure the honey is removed from both sides of the frame.

Here comes the honey! After being spun out of the cells, the honey drips down the sides of the extractor and runs out through a spout at the bottom–right into filter number one!

Dad and Erica pour the semi-filtered honey into filter number two–a fine mesh bag, which strains out any last little bits of wax.

Four days later… It’s time to bottle the honey! Dad pours the filtered honey into a bucket fitted with a special bottling spout.

Just raise the handle, and out comes liquid gold!

Keep ‘em coming, John!

Erica writes (and writes and writes) labels for the newly-bottled honey.

Katelyn was the official “lid screwer-onner”. 

The final task: affixing the labels (well, okay, we still need to clean up…)

 
In all, we harvested 267 pounds of honey this year–33.5 pounds more than last year! And this in a notably poor year for honey in our area! Dad is understandably proud of his hives, which produced so well, despite the terribly dry conditions this summer. The glory goes to the Lord, who created this tiny marvel, the honey-bee.

For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited),
“I am the LORD, and there is none else.

 Isaiah 45:18