Today, we harvested 195 pounds of honey from our hives. It is quite a bit less than the 250 pounds we had hoped. Looking back, it seems that we overestimated how full some of the supers were, and at the time we harvested, I decided to leave more honey on the hives than I initially planned. In sum, we pulled 60 medium frames of honey and one shallow super with Ross Round comb honey frames.
We had lots of help with both the harvesting and extracting. After more than 6 hours of spinning our frames out using our 3-frame flat extractor, the group collectively concluded that we should be in the market for a 9-frame radial extractor for next year. Our volunteers made good use of the idle time catching up and telling stories, including one about the fabled belt fed chain un-capper and the time that a beekeeper, was held fast by stickiness to the floor of his honey shed for a week, surviving on the copious amounts of honey which coated every surface.
Thanks to all 10 volunteers that helped with the harvest. Many hands make light work, and good times together!