Blackberry Extraction- Kelly's Hives- Tips- My Ole Truck

I am extracting honey from the blackberry flow. My main intent is to get the supers off, so I can treat for mites. Which I have done on 8 hives at home- but not at 12 others in other locations.  The instructions say to treat all hives at once- and I found this to be true last year- if one hive is bad- treat them all.

But it got too hot, so I pulled supers, but did not treat. And yesterday and today, I extracted and my friend Jim's bee house. And I think I have a pretty good system worked out- each time, there is an improvement, and this time, it was a massive improvement. Here is what I do, which I didn't use to do:

• I use a butane torch to melt the wax. We used to use a hot knife (painful, messy, inefficient), and then a heat gun (great), and then, after telling a friend how great a heat gun was, he used a butane torch instead (OMG), and he owns the hardware store here, so I figured it was tool overkill- but its not. It's awesome. No flavor. no overheating. I hold a comb in one hand and the torch in the other and it goes fast, and no problem. I am sold.
• I used big stainless baking sheets- Jim had them- and laid out 10 frames at a tine, then flipped them, 3 per sheet- all mess contained. Amazing, Speed increase if you can do one task enmasse.
• And the big thing- a life changer- is that instead of filtering everything as I went along- I said, screw it, and let it all flow through into buckets without filtering. This made it REALLY fast.
• Then, when done, I took all the 5 gallon buckets and poured them back into the extractor, and let it sit overnight. Jim's extractor has one of those tape on heaters on it- which is awesome. Next day, the honey is warm, all the solids are on a skin at the top- I scrape them off with a comb (in this case, 2 feet deep of honey- all clear), and then, let it flow through the spigot.
• Through a double filter, as normal. But it goes through almost like water- instead of hours- its takes minutes, and zero solids on the screen, until the very end. Clean, clear, warm, honey. Super quick, though you have to wait a day.

Below- recent images, with comments...

After extracting - hives mostly are 3 high- and all are strong. The right hive has been combined, and the second from the right is a new Russian hive. The two center hives are my very oldest hives- oldest queens- and one of them might be 4 years old. Of course, she needs replacing- but I just pulled 3 full supers from this hive- and 2 earlier- so it still is amazing, and I  hesitate to muck with the old queen. Maybe she was superceded? Behind is an old truck with an swarm hive in some old boxes that Kelly, a young woman beekeeper, left here, and I moved (see below).

Small fly with weird colored wings that was on a top board, and didn't want to leave.

My truck, since 1987, of which, I am a bad Owner, for such a great truck. She's blowing blue smoke  more now, but I feel pleasure when driving her, and I am painting her Home Depot Blue, spray can by spray can. She is loaded here with the supers from Denny Redman;s, where I keep bees- plus those from my house. About 28 supers, from  12 or 13 hives- not all full- but mostly so. Also- orange straps. A satisfying, inexpensive device for cranking things down tight, in a way that never occurred to rope. I will never go back.

Here is an abandoned hive, with a new swarm in it . I think the swarm came from a hive from Denny's hive- but I don't know. Jim and I tried to clean it out- it was packed with comb without frames, so we cut out what we could and are trying to rehabilitate. I have removed the worst of it- and these remain- and I hope to treat for mites and get these deserving bees on new, clean, foundation. Credit to Kelly, I assume, for the attractive art. What PNW bee would not be attracted by a pair of palm trees?

And- what bee, or beekeeper, would't love a protective cat, thinking of a mouse- evil to hives- on its side. To dissuade, I guess, mice. Though in fact, this cat appears well dressed, pinstripes, a pocket protector maybe, and a nice white collar...and not dreaming a mouse, but somehow announcing it.  So maybe not such a great protector. Maybe, in fact, a teacher, of, well... mice. Bad cat.