Today, I found this bee hive with my chainsaw.

Well written instructions start 2 paragraphs below. I'm hoping you get 2 gallons. It's common to pull 2 or 3 quarts from a cavity that small.

The beetles are going nuts right now, running around laying eggs in the comb. If you don't get out there early, the honey will likely be robbed out by 10 p.m. to noon by nearby bees.

The honey will have a kind of pitch/pine/tar-like taste to it. A lot of people like it. I suspect they've never tasted a honey with a different flavor and appreciate it for that reason. I don't care for that taste at all.

Pull the comb. Have something to cover the container with, so it doesn't fill with bees. Get the majority of honey quickly and go to your workspace.

Get an empty bowl and a long knife. If you want to clear bees from it, a fork and coffee cup with a little honey are useful. Fork the bee, stick it in honey, then drop it in the honey. It likely won't escape the cup while you are working.

The comb is double sided. A rind (foundation) in the middle and comb with caps on it. Take the knife and cut the cap layer off the comb. Turn it over, do the same. Then cut the comb off the rind/foundation. Scrape honey off the foundation. Cut the foundation off of the comb below it. Scrape honey from that side of foundation. Put all foundationless honeycomb into a big bowl.

Drain the honeycomb bowl into a pitcher or something you can pour later. Mash up the honey comb with a potato masher or something. Drain honey from it. Mash again. Drain honey from it. There is your honey from pass 1. Jar it.

Pass 2 is mashing it and tearing it up, freeing any honey trapped in wax. Drain(collect) honey. Stick your hand in it and start squeezing that wax into balls. Drain honey. Keep pass 2 honey separate from pass 1 honey. Pass 2 honey should have more hive material in it (like beeswax). Not as clean as Pass 1 honey, but perhaps more nutritious, and more pollen. I eat that Pass 2 honey first, as I expect pass 1 honey to last/keep longer.

Don't burn your house down if you try to do anything with the wax. Very common to do.

You can filter honey with a cheese cloth or something. Easy to google other ways too.

Dude. The mess. And don't let water mix with your honey. But the mess.... Honey everywhere, from now on, unless you are careful to keep the honey contained and keep your honey covered self contained in the work area.

I usually keep a wet towel and 2 dry towels handy to help me keep myself and spills clean.

Be careful with going out in nature, getting something and turning it into food and sharing that food without disclosing it's source. It would be unethical, at the least. You didn't manage that honey source to keep it clean for human ingestion. You don't know for sure, so don't present it like normal stuff. Normal stuff is managed (think FDA).

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