First Harvest Nerves

personally I would now remove the slider and wash it with water. Otherwise ants might be attracted. I would also use a hose and wash the honey on the ground away.

did you harvest all 6 frames in one go? Did you harvest in increments?

I strongly recommend you get a bucket with hoses- and that you only harvest in increments. I also recommend only harvesting two frames a day if possible.

you can see my set up for harvesting here:

the one change I have made now is I have a lid for the bucket with holes in it. The reason we use a bucket with tubes is you can walk away and leave the frames draining without worrying about bees coming around the back and drowning in honey or causing bother. Bees working together can luck up honey surprisingly fast- however if you did all six frames at once in one go- they could be overwhelmed. Even so: we have never seen any lasting damage done to a colony after a harvest. So I wouldn’t be too worried if I was you.

When we say ‘harvest in increments’ we mean putting the key in only 25% of the way- turning it- waiting for 20 minutes- then putting it in 50% turning, waiting, etc- until you have done the entire frame. By doing this you will minimize the chance of honey spilling- and what does spill can be licked up by the bees before it causes much of a problem.

1 Like