In September, we celebrated a huge milestone around here-- our first honey harvest.Our ladies did such a great job producing honey this year that we decided we could take some without harming their winter honey stores.
This was quite a learning process for us. First, we had to figure out how to get the honey out of the hive. According to google, a number of methods exist. There's the chemical approach, where one applies a bee repellant to the hive. Blech. Totally not appealing to me, as this defeats the purpose of natural/ organic beekeeping. Alternately, we could buy an expensive bee blower and blow the bees out. This was also not appealing, for cost reasons and because it seems unpleasant for the bees. Some people also just brush bees off each frame, but in general, I'm not a big fan of the bee brush because it aggravates my bees and I'm more likely to get stung.
The method we settled upon employs a device called a "bee escape," which is basically a bee maze in which bees can crawl down, out of the top box, but not back up. This method works because bees navigate with a set of specific rules. When they reach a wall or corner, they always travel to the right and follow the wall until they reach a corner. They never turn left. So, as long as you build a maze with right-leading exits, the idea is that the bees won't leave. I found some plans online then recruited my favorite carpenter to help me build the bee escape.
