Neils

Really pleased for you Nellie, always a satisfying landmark. I also puzzle about those who say their kitchen ends up very sticky. Even with kids spinning the thing, we were never that messy. This year's harvest (so far) was just scraped off the one frame and through a sieve!

Well done Neil.
Be careful you don't turn into one of those honey show nerds who covets the annual prize for best jar of medium coloured honey.
I am also hopeful of getting some honey this year after three very poor seasons.
I have about 30 lbs jarred which I extracted about 3 weeks ago and there are quite a few, maybe 10, mostly full supers.
The problem is that with big colonies if it rains for a couple of weeks, they eat it all.

This year's harvest (so far) was just scraped off the one frame and through a sieve!

You going to do the 4 Yorkshiremen sketch Gav!

Trust me, no danger of turning into a show nerd, I've been to a couple now and while we did put a jar in last year, we came 4th out of 4 Discovering we had the "wrong" type of jar last year was entertaining. I've got a local brewer wanting some of it in exchange for 2 casks of beer! That's a much more enticing prize in my book.

And there we are A little bubbly still for a show entry methinks.

Those air bubbles would have all the old boys tut tutting but you won't notice the bubbles on a piece of toast.

Now it's had a few days to settle it's clear that I haven't filtered it enough.. And now I've filtered it again it's also clear that I didn't use a fine enough filter this time around either

Doing a little more reading up I think I needed to let it settle for much longer than 16 hours or so. After a few days all those had risen to the top. It's all back in the settling tank now with me slightly dispairing that I'm going to have to try and transfer it out into something else so it can be filtered again

Och, just eat it as it is, and if you have guests tell them the truth: this is natural raw honey extracted along with the nutritious pollen stored in the same combs as the honey.

Next time you can look out for pollen-filled cells and lay these frames aside for special treatment, such as scraping off the harvest but leaving the pollen in situ.

I can still (barely) remember using the extractor!

Well done!

The first honey is the best me thinks. The problem is that you'll probably finish up giving most away - those Great Aunts love it! I am not to obsessed about filtering as long as there are no legs in there I'm happy!

On a related note, I have one customer who buys (my) local honey because she thinks it helps with allergies. If it's the pollen grains that she ingests that help the allergy problem, which I assume it must be, then the more bits the better.