I guess this should come under this message string... With the nice weather we were having, I extracted this weekend and found it a joy. I took three supers off one of my five hives without a sting. My hives are in our pasture behind the barn. I take the supers off with bees in them and move them about 20 feet to a spot where I set up an old (screened inlet) squirrel cage blower fan aimed at the stack. I moved the frames individually to another super beside the stack, first shaking off most of the bees, then passing each frame in front of the blower, then blowing (by mouth) any few residual bees off. It was great! The "wind" seemed to disorient the bees, and nobody was mad! I took the supers to the picnic table in our back yard, where my daughter then opened the combs with a scratching fork, and I spun them in my two frame extractor on our back steps. Ended up with seven gallons from three supers. I did start to get fun near the end. A couple wondering field bees discovered us and went home and alerted the forces... I left the extracted supers out on an inverted cover for them to recycle the honey and clean up. Talk about a bunch of happy bees! ("FREE FOOD!!!") I put the honey in square five gallon plastic "jugs" and took it inside. After letting it settle a bit, I poured it through my high-tech filtration system, (a new pair of ladies panty hose with one leg inside the other!) into a plastic five gallon bucket with a honey gate valve on the side at the bottom. I will bottle directly from there after I let the bubbles settle a day or two. It was one of those days that makes it all worth it. I hope you guys feel even half as satisfied this year. Have fun! Gerry Visel [log in to unmask] (815) 226-6620 (815) 394-5438 or -2827 (fax)