Honey Harvest, part I

Hooray! Droogie 1 was kind enough to make us some honey! Yesterday I removed 6 frames from the hive. I removed the bees from the frames by shaking and then brushing them off with a bee brush. I've read that this process of removing bees can be a little intimidating for the novice beekeeper, and it was! I would have tried using my one way bee doors (Porter bee escapes) but I lent them to a colleague who hasn't returned them. In the video below, you can see my process of shaking the bees off of the frames and then brushing them. I was really surprised by how the bees then gathered around the entrance of the hive. Maybe they were waiting in line to go in?

Most of the bees were kind enough to stay behind with the hive, but a few stayed on the box that I put in the trunk, and a couple explorer bees found a way into the car through the rear speakers. This meant that I drove the hour home with the windows wide open, hoping that the wind would keep them stuck in the rear window. They were kind enough not to sting me while I was driving too fast down the interstate.