3 gallons

I pulled two supers last Saturday, one from each of my hives. I left them in the Volvo wagon, partly because there they wouldn't attract other bees who would start robbing honey and partly because I was lazy or busy (I can't remember). I had intended to spin them out last Saturday, but Doug hadn't finished spinning his own out and, toward the end, he started getting stung quite a bit because he couldn't keep the bees out of his garage. We knew it was time to quit. I picked up the extractor on Monday, but didn't get to any spinning. By Wednesday, Red came by to mow the lawn and noticed that something was leaking in the back of the Volvo. So, I clearly left the hives there too long.

I pulled the supers into the garage and made sure I kept the doors closed. I put tin foil under the supers to gather any honey that leaked out (and there was a bunch leaking). Thursday I had a church meeting that went until late. I think I got home at 11:15. So, my major work started on Friday morning, when I spun out the frames.

I ended up with three gallons of honey out of a small and medium super. The small super actually provided more because there were no brood frames. I should have check frames before I pulled the super. Actually, I did check on the top super, but the comb had not been capped, so I went one below and didn't check on that one. Next year, if I can remember, I need to check all the supers I pull, frame by frame to see if there is any brood. i should pull those that have any brood and put them together into one super.

I gave three quarts to Clarence, my arrangement with him is to give him a quarter of the hone for keeping the hives on his land. I've bottled the rest and let the bees and yellow jackets clean off everything that is left on the surfaces of whatever I used to extract. This year's honey is quite a bit darker than my previous batch. I'm not sure why. It tastes just as good.