# Amount of capped honey before you decide to harvest?



## barberberryfarm (Feb 16, 2013)

For me, and this is my first year, I waited until the middle of July to make my first pull and plan on pulling again in October. Next year I'll pull in June because I'll be able to put pulled frames in my supers in the spring rather than all foundation to make it easier on the ladies. I have 4 eight-frame hives. However, when I do pull honey I always plan to leave my brood chambers, one deep and two mediums, intact. Anything above that I remove. On my first pull I got 80+ frames (approx 240 lbs), so it was definitely worth the cleanup effort afterwords. We'll see how it goes for the fall pull. But I also live in the deep south and plan on planting a bunch of winter honeysuckle to keep my ladies happy in the winter so hopefully I won't need larger brood chambers. But then again I haven't made it through my first winter, so time will tell.


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## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

I like to pull about a dozen. Yesterday I processed 18 for about 400 pounds. Much more than a dozen becomes a chore, and it takes up too much of my day. Towards the end of the season as I take off the empties it goes a little faster as there are fewer to uncap. If you are able to process several times in a season you are able to get by without owning as many supers.


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## gmcharlie (May 9, 2009)

gota like adrians plan... Doing it myself this year. a few every weekend... 3-400 lbs on a saturday works about right. no need to clean all the stuff up if your going to go again the following weekend.....put the covers in place and leave...


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## Sweebee (Aug 10, 2013)

Thank you for the replies. Gmcharlie, that's an interesting idea to do a little every weekend and not have to clean up the extractor.


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