Cynthia: Today, we are harvesting honey.

Actually, it's a super long process, so we're only gonna do part of it today, because it's hot and sweaty.

(lively music) I have a special treat today where I am bringing in the hottest beekeeper in town, my husband, Thomas.

Thom: I also happen to be the biggest fan (Cynthia chuckling) of Modern Gardener.

I've watched every video, liked every one, commented on all of them.

She's my favorite host ever.

- As he should.

Before we get into all of our beekeeping, and all of our exciting moments, I just want to ask that you be sweet, and hit that Subscribe button, and hit that notification button, because there's so many awesome videos, and I'd love to show you all the things about gardening here in Utah, not only in my garden, but in other people to gardens, as well, but right now, I wanna talk about the tools that we're gonna be using today to pull honey.

- There are a couple tools that we're gonna use, so the first thing, actually, the most important thing that any beekeeper needs is their hive tool.

Used all the time, pop that hive open, pull frames out, it's used all the time, so this is the the first tool that we use, but today, specifically, there is something (board knocking) we call a fume board.

This is a homemade one, it's just the hive top, and I put a a rag here on the bottom, stapled it on.

There are a couple different ways to get the bees off of the frames, but there are thousands and thousands of bees on the frames, so how do you get them off so you can get the honey extracted?

The way I like to do it, and I think is most gentle on the bees, is using a fume board, and basically, what it is, (board knocking) is this cloth material here, and this spray.

It's like, I won't spray it on you, it- - It smells like almond, I actually like it.

- It's an almond spray.

- It's like almond extract.

- It's... (bottle spritzing) (Tom blowing) The bees don't like it, so you spray it on cloth here, and then remove the cover that's currently on the hive, set this on there for a few minutes.

The bees don't like it, and they go down into the hive more and out of the honey supers.

So after a few minutes of them smelling it, they'll leave those honey supers, and then we can go ahead and take this off, pull out the box, and pull out the frames.

There will be a few lingering bees that we'll probably have to shake off, but for the most part, this gets 'em out of those boxes.

- And the reason why (board knocking) you're doing this, also, is because when we're taking the honey, and this time of year, bees are...

They're not the friendliest during this time, so we kind of wanna be as gentle as possible, and sneak in to get the honey.

Then we also have... - Smoker.

(smoker tapping) - Smoker.

- Everyone's favorite tool.

(board thumping) I actually don't use it all that much, but I have pine needles in here that we will light, (Cynthia chuckling) and start puffing (smoker rattling) smoke there, and what you do is you puff a little bit of smoke into the hive, and the bees, for whatever reason, they smell that smoke, and they go in and gorge on honey, and when they eat, just like Thanksgiving dinner, after you eat, you're stuffed, and you just wanna lay down and take a nap.

It kind of calms them down.

They hurry and gorge on honey, and then they're not as active, and maybe not as aggressive.

So that's why you smoke the hive a little bit just to help calm things down so they're not so buzzy and as agitated.

(smoker clinking) - So how much honey so that we don't kill the hive should we leave so that they have something to snack on during winter?

- Usually, you wanna leave about eight to 10 full frames of honey, and these are deep frames, - Per hive?

- Per hive.

- Okay - For the winter.

You also add some supplemental feeding on top of that to make sure they have enough emergency storage, and then whatever you have on top of that, that's ours to keep.

So the things in the...

The honey and the honey supers, that is typically what we have for ourselves, but if the hive itself doesn't have much honey down below when we extract, usually we will keep a couple of these frames as emergency storage, and put them in the hive if we need to before winter to make sure they have enough for the winter.

- I am sweating right now, and turning into a giant, red tomato, so I think it's time for us.

(tools thumping) - Is it time to morph?

- It's time to morph.

Just kidding.

(Tom imitating robot) (Cynthia roaring) (lively music) I'm right- (gloves whacking) - Pretty awesome.

(hands slapping) (suits rustling) Let me practice opening, I haven't done anything to the hive yet.

(tool clinking) Let's just see what we've got here.

Okay, we can take off the top.

Let's see here, this is the top honey box.

I'll just pull up this frame here, see what that looks like.

All the bees, there aren't too many bees up here.

All the bees are down below, so we'll see how many bees are on this and what the honey looks like.

Looks like it's pretty empty.

- Oh, that's a sad day.

- So here's a honey super here, this top box, and then the box down below is also a honey super.

It's a deep honey super, so I'm hoping there's more honey down there.

(upbeat music) Just a little bit of smoke in there.

They get buzzy.

(wood cracking) So let's take this box off.

You can see this gooey stuff on top here, on the corners, they use something called propolis, and it's really sticky.

It's kinda like super glue.

It helps seal the cracks, because it gets really sticky and gooey.

Okay, so these are larger frames than that last box.

- [Cynthia] Uh-oh.

- This side is basically completely full.

Some of the honey's not capped yet, but we can still extract.

Did you know that honey (Cynthia chuckling) never spoils?

(Cynthia gasping) They have found honey from ancient Egypt, I don't know how long ago, but recently, it is still good.

Okay, so I'm gonna get this almond spray - Mm-hmm.

- That the bees hate.

I'm gonna spray it on the board here, around the edges, and then some in the middle here, and then I'm gonna put it on top, and listen to that hum (bees humming) (Cynthia chuckling) They're really buzzing in there now, 'cause they don't like that smell.

So they're buzzing like crazy right now.

They're all going down.

It takes just a few minutes.

There will still some bees, still be some bees left in the box, but most of 'em will go down, making it easier for us to pull the honey frames out.

All right, so I'm gonna crack this open, pull out a frame.

Leftover bees, I'll shake 'em off really quick, if there are any, which there probably will, hand you the frame, you put it in a tote, close the lid up.

- Okay.

(lively music) - Still gonna kind of keep this on there.

Okay, this one's heavier, definitely has more honey.

Oh yeah.

- That's a good hive, that's a good one.

- Okay, I'm gonna shake that off, and I'm gonna do a little test, see if any liquid comes out.

Nope, that looks good.

This side?

Nothing, so we're good to extract.

(tool clinking) (tote thumping) These boxes hold 10 frames, but the honey boxes, I like to do nine frames.

Gives them a little bit more space to draw out the comb a little bit wider so it's easier to cut off the wax cappings.

Again, that one's nice.

Yeah, that one's good to go.

(tote thumping) I love this almond spray.

Usually, this would be covered with bees, thousands of bees, but thanks to our spray, it's not.

And the bees flying around, (plane rumbling) you can tell they're not hitting you in the face, they're not... - Yeah.

- They're not aggressive.

- They're not being aggressive, they're just kinda swirling.

- They're confused, wondering kind of what's going on.

- When they're aggressive, they start hitting your veil, or they start coming at you, and that's the time to say, we're gonna leave, we'll leave you be.

Ha.

- Ha.

(tote thumping) - And I keep covering this so that I don't have any stragglers spying the honey.

- And that one has dark cappings, if you notice that.

It's really dark, and that's just because the honey is touching the wax.

The white cappings, they're nice and bright.

It's because there's a little air pocket (tote thumping) between the honey and the wax capping.

And did you know that honey is different colors based on the pollens and nectars that the bees bring in?

- Gee whiz, thanks, Tom.

- The more you know.

(Cynthia chuckling) (Tom imitating shooting star) Okay, that's it.

- Okay, now, we gotta do this (tote thumping) how many more times?

- A lot.

Four hives, two boxes each, nine to 10 frames each, do the math.

I'm a beekeeper, not a mathematician.

- Ha.

(Tom chuckling) - In this video, you see Tom and me pulling frames, but make sure to click that next video to watch the extraction process.

(bright music)