I pulled 8 full frames of honey off the hive today. The bee escape worked great, and there were only a handful of girls left in the super that were easily removed. I still don’t have an extractor so I harvested the honey using the crush and strain method. One of these days I would like to get a small extractor, but right now this method isn’t too time consuming plus I like the added benefit of having beeswax for projects.
Overall, I pulled off just shy of 25 pounds of honey which was very dark compared to last year’s fall harvest which in turn was darker than the initial 2010 spring harvest. I think I’m going to break down and send a sample off for pollen analysis because I’m very curious about the pollen counts. Here is a side by side shot of last year’s fall honey on the left and the recent harvest on the right.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post where I reveal the not so sweet side of honey harvesting.
Urban Beekeeping in Austin, Texas 
Caught up! I started reading your blog last week. I wanted to start this year but didn’t realize that I should have ordered my bees in november. That’s alright though because it lets me get better prepared for starting in 2012. Keep up the good work!
Love your blog, still catching up. 25lbs! Amazing.
I read that and think about the 5 gal of pear mead I just racked off this morning. 11 lbs of honey for that batch… There is some new bee math I’ll need to work out.