The hive in it's bear-resistant enclosure.
That is electric fence and the hive is
strapped to a pile of concrete blocks.
Notice that the sheet metal lid is buckled.
Bear did that.
Busy bees.
The first thing is to get dressed and fire up the smoker. Bees are distracted by smoke and (it is thought) imagine the hive is in danger from fire so they move deeper into the hive when they sense smoke. This leaves the Keepers free to plunder some honey.
Ready to Rock!
With the top off this is what a Super looks like.
A little smoke to encourage the bees
to leave the honey combs and go down
lower in the hive.
Removing a comb. It is loaded
with honey. The bees cap each cell
with wax.
Notice the honey dripping from the bottom of this comb.
Next the honey needs to be somehow removed from the comb
without harming the comb (once empty it will be returned to the hive so the bees will fill it with more honey). To this end a machine called an Extractor is employed.
Combs ready to be extracted.
First the beeswax caps must be removed from the comb.
Then the combs are inserted in the Extractor.
Then the extractor is operated by turning a hand-crank.
And there you have it.
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