Well, it has been an unexpectedly long season. I like doing my harvest all at once because of the amount of repeated work (and subsequent clean up). This year the ladies just kept making honey at such a rate, that it was really hard to choose a cut-off point, but it finally came here in late July.
Because of the vigor of the a couple of the hives and out of my own curiosity to see it work, I am using an “escape board”. This is basically a horizontal dividing board with a large hole on top and a small screened maze on the bottom. It is placed between the main portion of the hive and the supers (boxes) you want bee-free for harvest. In theory, the bees can easily move down but cannot navigate back up. After about 12-24 hours, you can remove the upper supers without the need for deterrents or drama.
By popular demand, I’m going to bottle some of my harvest with raw comb in it this year. Estimating from past harvests, I doubt I’ll have enough good clean comb to do this with every bottle, but I’ll do as many as I can and let folks choose which they prefer.
I have three hives on my home property. These hobby hives produce around 40-60 pounds each, so while not a world’s record by any stretch, a bit of work for one guy with basic equipment. I have four foster hives I care for a semi-retired colleague a few miles away across town but these are older, less productive and I consider anything harvested from them a bonus.