Harvesting honey

Last weekend we decided it was time to harvest some honey. We donned our bee outfits (headgear and lots of light colored clothing), lit up the smoker and went to work. The top box was mighty heavy when we finally got it unstuck using the hive tool. The smoke confused the bees and also seemed to tick them off, but we finally managed to get the box disconnected and put the hive back together. We have a Warre hive and do not have frames within supers, so getting all the bees out was a bit tricky. Once we had the box off, we cut the comb from the box and dropped it into a 5-gallon bucket, brushing away as many bees as possible in the process. Then we used the crush and stain method to harvest the honey. Finally, we melted down the wax, which we plan to give to Stem Soaps, which just opened a store front right around the corner! Here are a few pictures of the process. Approximate haul is 8 quarts.