Honey Is Flowing!! Extracting 2023 Honey Harvest

well hey there everyone it's Barry's best honey I'm Mike and I do bees welcome to Southeast Louisiana [Music] well folks it is the 3rd of July yesterday we went through and stripped all the supers here have yet to go into town to strip supers but I will probably be doing that tomorrow it is time to start extracting honey uh I was gonna dry down everything but I checked a frame yesterday under one of the fans and it was totally uncapped with this except maybe that much capping on it and it was 15 and a half percent folks so I'm gonna go in the honey shed because being it's 95 degrees out here in Southeast Louisiana this is a great day to be inside in the air condition working on honey extraction so we're gonna go inside and I'm gonna show you what's going on it's very noisy let's go look at my drying action my drying operation what we have going we're at 35 percent humidity in the room we got fans going on everything I did go buy one more fan I had a couple more that I could put on so this is all we do is we run fans through the boxes so my goal today is to take this top layer of boxes off so I can drop fans further down so if I can do this top layer of boxes okay I can drop some fans down I got room for another stack that I'm gonna bring in from in town but those are mostly all cap and and uh loaded so those shouldn't be an issue and we got our trusty finally bought refractometer that I'll use to randomly check some frames before I put my honey all in one tank I checked that box back there uh and I'm telling you it was slow humidity and it was all uncapped but a lot of them are coming out of the hives with very low humidity in other words the bees have already dried it down quite a bit we are a very very humid region so that's sometimes a problem but what I'm gonna do right now some of this noise out so at this point all I have I have all the fans off I have my AC unit going on dry sitting that thing does really good the dry setting kind of just tries to maintain the temperature and pull the moisture out of the air but that's a good that's a good dry air that's blowing through these column uh these colonies these uh boxes um one thing about the flow and I kind of made a note in my video as we were stripping supers is you know someone asked well why don't you leave it on there longer for them to cap the honey that in the cells this is what I may mention in the video of stripping the supers the honey and the cells is not all the way full in all of the cells and the frames aren't full and a lot of times they won't cap those they'll dry them and they'll be a hazy look to those those cells you'll see the honey is kind of hazy looking it's because it's already dried down and they won't cap it because the cells aren't full when I when I leave that on if I just leave it there it's just not going to get capped it's going to stay there open and they'll consume that so I went ahead and pulled a lot of that off and that's what where I say hey the bees have done some of the work for me sales aren't all the way full and then capped over so that's why I'm not going to just sit and leave it hoping they'll cap it because I've done that before and left honey all the way through into July it's not capped now a lot of people leave their honey on like Mr Ed for example his that aren't cap he's gonna leave them on the rest of Summer he'll wait to October what will happen is bees will eat some they'll load some as we come out of the dirt we'll get more nectar they'll fill some you know it'll fluctuate and then what he does is he likes to pull the rest of his stuff in October November so if I left until November I probably could get some more capped but I need to get out what I need to get out so leaving it on there is not going to get a capped in the next two or three weeks at this point because there's nothing coming in now if there was still some flow coming in or another flow to come that would be different but we don't they're done it's finished so I pull it all off so I'm gonna get busy on extracting the plan is just to show you some extraction here and there show you my equipment so you know I'm working with the hilco 18 frame extractor and uh I've got a maxim on capping tank and I got plenty of five gallon buckets with strainers but I'll show you my process like I have in the past I use a cold bread knife straight not angled and works really well for me tried to Hot Knife doesn't work well for me I don't care for it myself um I like the cold knife that's the plan is just to go through and show you what I do we're not going to do 3 000 pounds like we did last year that's a fact that is a fact but what we do we'll be grateful for and I'm just going to get busy and go after these frames and start getting some work done because it's a beautiful day to be inside so folks I have begun uncapping I have not begun extracting it so take a look at what we're seeing this honey is darker and uh I'm running through some really uh very nicely capped boxes right now so of course we're draining in here we just started literally I just started doing this we got stuff draining good good drain wow I love it to look at that how pretty it is [Music] so there you go beautiful dripping a comb honey oh wait that's Dave's Channel y'all don't forget to check out Dave's Channel certified Queen breeder now next year gonna be selling Queens maybe queens and queen cells uh down in Mayo Florida dripping comb honey anyway I'll talk more about him as we go through the year great guy always takes care of me in uh on my YouTube and uh just want to make a mention of them and give him a shout out but we'll be shouting out a lot more about him but anyway that's what reminds me of when I see that it reminds me of his channel so anyway nicely cap boxes I'll show you my style of uncapping I do not use a hot knife I actually tried one of the Pierce uncapping knives and uh I was on the phone with the fella and I told him I would challenge him to an uncapping I told him I think I could beat him you know he's got good practice he's been doing that for years and years and years but I don't know I'm just goofing who knows he'll probably smoke me this is how we how we act off anyway nice nice frame nice frames I just checked some more honey on my refractometer on a couple uncapped because this is a different stack 15 even so it's almost getting too dry so I got the fans cut down for now keep the humidity out of the air so the honey in the tank doesn't take on any moisture we'll be fine but uh yeah very very dry stuff I'd be curious to see what the cap honey tests out too let's do that real quick that'd be something to check let's check that hmm yeah 15 percent 14 I said 15. see 14. that's very dry almost too dry so I'm Gonna Leave the fans off for a little bit anyway so I wonder what this is It's boy it's thick guess I need to taste it and see what we got going on here I'm going to get busy doing this I got more frames to do I'm going to bring it all back after I load this extractor and uh we'll watch the first bit of 2023 honey come out of here at Barry's best honey let's do some of my capping I'll show you how I chop up my caps later and we'll uh whoa cutting some wood a little bread knife does a job but it's also can do some damage to my friends but I'll bring y'all back let's let's do some uncapping and we'll get you doing some extracting so this this thing really runs nice and smooth but it like any anything that's gonna spin centrifugal you got to balance it somewhat you know I heard somebody say something about these nylon reels but John said these have been used in Europe for years and he surmises as well that the flex of them does help this thing balance itself better so anyway I'll take three light frames that are very light I'll put them right by these reinforcing arms right here on the same side each way and then I'll load the heavy normal ones all in with them in between so that should give us some kind of balance and you know in the end you take your time and you spin it up slow to begin with don't go crazy and it works out usually so that's my hope it worked for me last year I loved my 18 frame and yes I am speaking good about this extractor I love it [Music] thank you all righty I got her loaded there's the first honey that is it I had the camera off when the first drop came out I didn't get to show you loading the rest of the frames either anyway I got her nice and slow beautiful honey a little darker than what we're used to tastes different for sure reminds me of the Blackberry honey but I mean just the Blackberry was so long ago but I'm sure they moved it around I got it going really slow right now because you know it's unbalanced you hear that I know nothing when this thing does get to wobbling if you're not careful it goes fast I don't have mine bolted down the rubber stops seem to do just fine because it balances so well but uh I did get it going wonky one time and it's like one jump and that's it it's coming across the room you you boom hit the emergency stop this is a reversible extractor I can go the other way too it's a three-phase 110 motor which is very unusual or 120 I guess speed it up a little bit don't want to go crazy we're dropping some good honey right now oh yeah I'm excited about that now I know every box is not going to be like that but I'm going to get busy cutting frames as you can see we've just started a lot of box to go through see which ones are empty which ones are full or not empty but you know partial and work through it so I got this one glistening a lot it looks very very watery but there's nothing coming out I want to check it again I said I'd randomly check some of these and that's what I'm going to do just randomly check I don't want to take any chances folks of any kind of moisture in this because this honey is going to sit for a while and I don't want it any problems with fermentation so let's take a look this is an uncapped frame I told you I do random test let's get you focused in there I don't know if you can see that or not there it is that's 16 on an uncapped frame that's dry stuff and it's thick so I think we're going to be safe with all this stuff I don't know if it's my drying or whether it's coming out of the hives like I said I had one at 17 and a half to 18. this drive for 24 hours so I think we're sitting pretty good still had it folks really haven't done a lot more um it's going to take a while to do this because I run across empty frames or frames I just want to take for example so I got some frames like this all right one side is full the other side is empty so these are lighter I have to balance them out I have to pick through and load the extractor um and you get these they're kind of medium you know I checked all this honey I keep checking it and I'm telling you this is dry it's about 15 to 16 I mean 14 to 16 in between there every time it's very very dry it's very thick um it's not that cool my honey house is actually sitting up around 75 degrees Fahrenheit so I'm not real cold in here it's just some seriously thick stuff and it's very dark for it's the darkest I've seen this time of year for our our summer Harvest our spring into summer Harvest I've never seen it so dark I'll show you a bucket of it and of course I got to chop those up pretty soon but we're filling up this it's it's um usually you can see all the way to the bottom then this bucket is beautiful I mean and it doesn't it's not strong at all it's very very mild it's got a fruity flavor um some were describing it as a caramel buttery type of flavor not super sweet and that's what I'm seeing too I mean uh I am running across a couple that you're definitely Tallow you could tell when you cut them they run out pretty well but even the towel is checking in it I checked some just to see some of the lighter stuff that was coming and it was checking in at 16 17. so my drawing has definitely helped but at the same time this stuff is just thick but we got some frames in here I mean we got some p-h-a-t as I say that are nice but you know only on one side they're just not full this year but I'll take all those I can get I'm good with that uh it's and you can tell it's darker it's got that wet look to it I mean those cells are full but it's just some darker darker honey uh I'm running across a few light frames I'm sure I will as we go but it's uh it's it's a different year for sure everything is different this year so that's what's cool is how they surprise you and everything but I'm just excited we're seeing honey I'm very excited we're seeing honey I mean I've got some honey left honey over there those buckets right over there that's that's all honey that's left but honey sells fast folks I'm feeling that thing I'm feeling that thing every 10 days so it sells fast it is an old wax Foundation that's what this is this is Old Wire wax I still have a few of these from probably I guess eight years ago now is when I was using those and uh of course it's had everything in it from brood to Honey to all right wax moths at one time nice nice frame of honey [Music] oh it's thick thick thick thick it's so thick nice honey dude you don't have many so I gotta show off the few that I got this year normally normally I see them and then I just get used to seeing them now I'm not seeing them so every time I do see them I'm happy to see them fat frame gotta love it gotta love it nine frame boxes I wish they were all like this but you know what I'm happy for this one look at that thing look at that look at that oh man that's pretty look at that talk about some honey on that just makes you want to pick up that slab and eat it but you know you'd be sick as a dog if you did wow wow wow wow love it a lot of Honey on the sides that he'll coat 18 frame Ultra Max I love this extractor so quiet look how beautiful that is that never gets old folks it never gets old so as in the past I will show you what I do with my wax but let me show you exactly how I process this stuff to a little drain now you guys have been with me for a while have seen me do this this is what I do to it and anytime you have wax built up like this my suggestion is try this now again not a how-to video y'all know that with me I'm not telling you how to but we'll tell you this this has worked for me what I do is I just chop it all up I pulverize it and then you leave this for about a day or two and it will drain a gallon of honey out of here you will be surprised how much honey comes out of these cappings and I used to get those Phat frames and fat frames I would sweat it man I would try to cut just a layer of wax off and oh my goodness it's too much I'm cutting off I learned uh just cut it down the frame it makes it easy to cut faster to faster to take off the caps and when you do this to it chop this stuff up and pulverize it it will drain ninety percent of the wax uh honey out of this wax so you don't have to worry about it you're not losing that much if any at all I mean you're losing some obviously but not that much if you have a wax spinner you really are going to use any but they're so expensive and from my operation this works just fine so that's what I do folks right there let's go crisscross now it's getting pretty I just cut it up in eight hours the top will be dry in 24 hours it'll almost be drained it's not only gets the wax draining it brings the Heap of wax down where you got more room to load it and I can do plenty more frames I've actually only been through a couple runs on the extractor but I'm taking my time there you go and that's what I do folks that's how I do well folks it is the next day it's July 4th this is what I extracted uh last night this stack right here and this stack right here is what I extracted now I told you about pulverizing my wax tappings and I haven't even opened this yet I'm gonna open it here in a second and I drained this take down to where there was just a small puddle a small puddle in the very in that V area it was about that much honey left now there was some running down and I pulverized this it had already drained for about an hour and let's see what we got from pulverizing how much actually drains out of these wax cabins wow look at this so just by pulverizing them this is it's it's already you can see I mean it's sticky don't get me wrong another couple days would do a good it is it's definitely thick still in there we still got plenty coming out but if you look down here this there was this much honey left right there just only by that much now look at that that's the top of the honey gate that's how much drains out when you pulverize it and just let it sit it does phenomenal but you know I got some boxes that again we're partial here and then we start filling up right here and then we go partial then we go almost empty and so that's what we're seeing with most of the boxes now this is going to get interesting I got a pretty good mix and match heavy a couple light Jeeps a couple heavy deeps light and and heavy mixed up and one with nothing on one side mediums uh I'm gonna see what this hillcoat can do I've done this before but I've been able to do it with even amounts of frames I got like five beeps and I'm gonna see what this thing does it's already wopping it's barely even moving but I think that nylon um drum insert the rack really helps Flex uh when it flexes it really helps to balance well I'm it's not doing too bad I mean I don't expect any extractor to handle this kind of load very smoothly but we'll go slow and easy and I say that meaning there without being bolted down it's handled it pretty well leave it like that for now and I got to get ready to switch a bucket it's doing good it's spinning straight and we're at half speed thing handles the load really well absolutely full are extracted today I think there's 14 left in there and about eight to ten from the other yard maybe a little bit more but uh the bees are showing up I let them clean them out right here and then I turn around and uh I'm winded I will turn around and just leave them here uh it's a long day of extracting but I still got more to do uh the boxes aren't yielding what they normally would but they're yielding plenty so I'm excited uh right now we have over 50 gallons that's that's exciting uh I mean with what we got last year adding that on there that's gonna do us just fine um you know it's not a bumper crop by any means but it's a great harvest considering what we saw Well the box has been out here about an hour but they've definitely found the wet supers this is always the coolest part of harvest right oh look at the bees yeah the flow's over No Doubt well that's it folks I'm gonna go ahead and do a closing really quick over top of this video where we were stripping supers uh last week but anyway um man I gotta say it is it was spectacular I am so thrilled with this extraction and this Harvest I ended up with uh 26 buckets basically 1500 pounds of honey now that's 50 off last year about what I predicted I said 60 to 75 but 50 but still I was hoping to just get 55 60 gallons we got 130 gallons I I am just absolutely thrilled the bees performed way more than we ever give them credit for sometimes and wow so I'm very happy with that the bees are all doing great harvest is over I got everything in the buckets I'm washing it down so thrilled so thrilled for this Harvest man only by God's grace and God's favor did we see a harvest like that so I want to thank you guys for watching I want to thank you for all your support as always I appreciate it so much I hope you enjoyed this video I know could get a little mundane just uncapping and spinning but this is harvesting and this is what we do this time of year all right guys well it's very special honey I'm Mike and I do bees y'all have a wonderful week and may God bless you we'll see y'all later [Music]

Channel: Mike Barry

Views: 4,618

Keywords: beekeeping, bee hives, queen bee, queen, swarm, comb, honeycomb, brood, honeybees, honey, hive stand, bee suit, veil, hive, hives, hive tool, smoker, pheromone, hive beetle, varroa, mite

Id: qM8PaKxLkcE

Length: 27min 4sec (1624 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 15 2023