❸ First harvest of 2023! From pulling the frames to extracting the honey! More than I expected!

[@anasingle88]

The peacefulness of your farm is so refreshing

[@BrianCooper901]

Thank you and thanks for taking the time to comment.

[@GrowCookPreserveWithKellyDawn]

The first harvest is so exhilarating!

[@BrianCooper901]

I agree! Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment.

[@wendygodin2716]

I am a first year beekeeper (one hive) with a mentor. She told me I probably would not get any honey until fall. However, I have harvested 3 times so far this year and will harvest again Sept 3rd. Then I wont touch it again until late October. My girls have been busy. But my mentor (who has been doing this for years) said that this year has been amazing for honey production.

[@BrianCooper901]

I'm glad you had such a great first year! Our girls did really well this year as well. I'm working on editing our second harvest and it was big! Our last harvest will be this weekend. I've found a lot varies between even folks in our bee club so you may be in a really special location that's good for your bees! Thanks for sharing your experience!

[@mandydavidson6694]

I love your videos, the harmony between the beeman and the bees, is a joy to watch. Thank you for posting the honey harvest.

[@BrianCooper901]

Thanks for the kind words and taking the time comment!

[@nohamalife]

Great video. Thank you for sharing your harvest process. I learnt some tips. Your ladies did very well.

[@BrianCooper901]

I'm glad you were able to pick up some tips from our process! Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment I appreciate it!

[@Hassan.is.not.too.crazy01]

This is the most caped honey I ever seen 😮

[@BrianCooper901]

We entered that frame in our local honey contest last year and won first place! Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!

[@MikeBarryBees]

Great harvest!! Video was very well narrated and captioned too. Such beautiful frames. You have a great system from the pulling of the frames to honey in the bucket. Thanks for sharing!!

[@BrianCooper901]

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to watch Mike! I really enjoy your videos and have been a subscriber of your channel for a very long time. Thanks for sharing all your bee adventures, and thanks for the compliments on the video.

[@spider2914]

Wow great looking honey frames!

[@BrianCooper901]

The bees did a great job on getting everything capped! Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@realworldagenda6206]

Congratulations! Great job, good result! Thanks for posting your videos.

[@BrianCooper901]

Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@EndingSimple]

I'm a newbie learner, but I've seen enough honey extractions on youtube to tell that those were some beautiful frames you harvested. You manner of getting the frames out and the bees off was done very neatly and methodically. And I see your honey extraction setup is equally neat, clean, and methodical. Almost like watching a Japanese Tea ceremony. Nothing slam bang about your operation, sir.

[@BrianCooper901]

Thanks for your kind comments! We do take time to be sure we are neat and clean so our customers can enjoy our honey as pure as it can be. Thanks for watching!

[@AndrewAHayes]

I used fume boards for the first time this year, it saved me so much time! I was worried it might affect the taste of the honey , it didn't though!

[@BrianCooper901]

I used a fume board for the first time this year too and it saved a TON of time! I'm glad I bought one after this harvest in 2023. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[@dcsblessedbees]

Nice honey frames.😁

[@BrianCooper901]

Thanks DC! I probably should have set one aside for our clubs honey show.

[@caven930]

Using a super inside your tote, thats genius! Why didn't I think of that.

[@BrianCooper901]

It seemed to work out well! Thanks for watching!

[@heavymechanic2]

I use two (2) double screen boards in a gorilla cart and stack 2-3 supers with a ratchet strap. Once you blow out the supers, the bees cannot get back in. I run ten frame equipment and some get heavy; I pull the whole box and give them back any unfinished comb.

[@nikolavesovic8168]

Little advice: Always shake the bees into the hive and spray the brush with a water. You will see the difference really fast. Well done by the way!

[@BrianCooper901]

I'll give that a try, thanks!

[@andrewstancil1723]

So I have a few questions for you… How many hives do you have? How many years have you been keeping bees? How many frames did you end up harvesting? Great job on the video and the honey looks awesome! I hope to start keeping bees next year!

[@BrianCooper901]

I aim to have 6 hives but got up to 21 colonies of varying sizes this year. I attempt to manage swarming and split but I had a lot of my hives swarm but was able to catch most of them. I then sell them as nucs to beginners or folks that want them locally. I have 8 hives that are in 8 frame equipment right now and I also still have 3 nucs that are 10 frames or more that I'm hoping to sell this year or overwinter and sell next year. This is my third year beekeeping. I did a lot of research before I actually ended up getting bees too. From this honey pull we harvested about 44 frames and that was 15 gallons of honey. I pulled a second time this past weekend and we got another 140 frames (44 gallons.) That's a little over 700lbs of honey. I think this was a really good year and I don't know if our location is really good or if I can expect to harvest anything close to that again but our bees made a lot of comb so I would expect next years harvest to be more if the weather is right. Good luck when you start next year! It's a very fun adventure.

[@andrewstancil1723]

@@BrianCooper901 thank you for all the information it gives me an idea of what to look forward too. Good luck with the rest of the season!

[@BrianCooper901]

@@andrewstancil1723 Any time! I'm always happy to help.

[@GrandpaKevyn]

Good job I love how organized you have it set up. The way you have your hives and the area to shake them. Then the honey extraction. . I didn't think you would've gotten stung, but then saw your hand... it's all part of the, I call collecting rent process. We provide them a good home and they pay rent with honey. Where did you get that yellow frame holder for the top of the bucket?

[@BrianCooper901]

My wrist sting was from the roof top bees not my bees actually. One of my girls did get me though I think I may have pinched her. The yellow thing that goes on the 5 gallon bucket I purchased from Amazon if you search for uncapper bucket it'll point you to one just like mine. They are usually just under $20. I did recently purchase a Pierco uncapping tank and it works for my setup, but I think the hive butler one may be even better since it has even more space for cappings before your frames get in the way. I'm pulling more honey today and I'll work on getting a video out with it. Thanks for watching!

[@TheBguenth]

Hi Brian, great video! I plan to harvest tomorrow and have a few questions. What are you shaking the bees in to? How do you keep your extractor from wobbling? Our extractor is electric but my husband has to hold it down and go slower. Thx!

[@BrianCooper901]

I hope I'm responding in time! I shake the bees back into the top of the hive if possible. The extractor needs to be balanced with equal weight frames for them to not wobble or you just may want to run it slower at first then flip it, run it slow and then when there is less honey you can put it on a higher setting. Good luck!

[@timothyodonnell8591]

Great video and congratulations on the honey harvest! I really like the text you add to your videos. They are short and to the point but add useful additional information / context. Does it help to harvest honey in bare feet? 😉

[@BrianCooper901]

Thanks! I do try to add the text whenever I feel I need to clarify anything or didn't say it in the video. I'm glad to hear it helps. Shiny extractor shows my secrets! It lets me know if I have honey on my feet so I don't track it into the rest of the house. Thanks for watching (so closely!) and commenting!

[@gallowaylights]

00:13:46 UFO took you away! 😅 they did something to your fingers!!!!

[@BrianCooper901]

Oh wow that was quite a glitch. The original video wasn't like that the upload must have had an issue.

[@gallowaylights]

It's challenging, but you can do some modification in youtube studio. But it's easier to upload a new one!

[@BrianCooper901]

@@gallowaylights I did what I could! Thanks for letting me know it had a glitch.

[@OnKnox]

sting was knarly lol

[@BrianCooper901]

I seem to swell up more when stung in any spot other than my fingers. Thanks for commenting!

[@TheWonderfield]

Thanks for this video! It was really fun to see your process. Where did you get that yellow plastic that held your frames on the bucket as you uncapped?

[@BrianCooper901]

That's an uncapper, I got it from Amazon. If you go to Amazon and search for "bucket uncapper" several options will come up. They are ~$15-20 USD.

[@TheWonderfield]

@@BrianCooper901 Thanks! Just added it to my bee shopping list for next year.

[@rtxhoneybees]

Swarming and honey production appear to be related. Last year at the farm, I caught 2 swarms and collected 35 pounds of honey in the Spring. This year, 18 swarms and 180 lbs so far. I'm going to pull the rest of my supers on Sunday. I'm hoping for another 200 lbs. Looks like you have a lot more to go as well.

[@rtxhoneybees]

Oh and congratulations on reaching 500 subs!!!

[@BrianCooper901]

I'm not sure if I'd rather have the less swarms or less honey. Looks like I'll be doing a cutout tomorrow so may not pull honey until Sunday as well! We will have to compare notes! The scales are showing the weight is dropping slightly but I'll leave anything uncapped on the hive for them to eat if they need it until Labor day.

[@BrianCooper901]

@@rtxhoneybees Thanks! You definitely boosted that growth, I appreciate it. I think the roof top hive video was enjoyed by several folks.

[@bradleysmith1487]

Your extractor looks like a vevor 4/8 if it is you should be able to get 8 medium frames in it and spin radially

[@BrianCooper901]

I actually have a Vingli 4 frame extractor. Maybe next year I can try out one of the new Vevors The 8 frame would be awesome since I use 8 frame equipment. I could do a box at a time. Thanks for commenting.

[@bradleysmith1487]

I started out with a 2 frame hand crank . The radial makes my job easier@@BrianCooper901

[@BrianCooper901]

I could definitely see how the radial would make things go faster!

[@IAmJudy1111]

Thank you for sharing this video. its my first year and my first time watching the harvest. curious - how do you know the weights? do you have scales under each of them? do you pick them up to weight them?

[@BrianCooper901]

We do have hive scales. For measuring your overall harvest you can also weigh the buckets for honey totals at the end.

[@IAmJudy1111]

@@BrianCooper901 thanks! I didn't know hive scales were a thing. Researching online now, so many options. What do you use?

[@BrianCooper901]

@@IAmJudy1111 We use Broodminder scales. The prices seem to have gone up quite a bit but they are a very useful tool.

[@lindalee9946]

Anyone know what size totes he is using?

[@BrianCooper901]

These are 27 Gallon totes 8 Frame equipment fits in them. A deep will fit two. 2 Mediums are about 1" too tall to close the lid but I sometimes do that when I'm loading the wet supers back out to the hives.

[@lindalee9946]

@@BrianCooper901 thank you I watched the video again and paid more attention and saw it when you had it written on the screen thank you for answering me anyways!

[@BrianCooper901]

@@lindalee9946 I learned by accident today that you can put two medium supers in it and put the lid upside down and the lid will rest on top and keep the bees out. I guess they are made to have the lids put on upside down but it won't latch down. There are holes around the rim to zip tie them though so maybe a hinge could be made out of zip ties. Thanks for watching!

[@lindalee187]

Great idea