A couple of "outside" people came to visit. Mary Wardell from the Mining Journal and Rich Wieske of Green Toe Farms from Royal Oak. Mary came well prepared with lots of questions about the bees and showed a real interest in what we were doing. Rich has a commercial honey operation (Green Toe Gardens) in the Detroit area and is interested in all things bee related. He pitched right in to help us make it a successful day. He may be reached at [email protected] .
Over the course of the day, 60+ people came to extract their honey or watch the process. The six frame extractor quit working early - thank goodness for the old reliable 2 framer. Michelle went to get her 4 framer which really helped with the load.
The day started with Sue Taylor and David & Sue Payant at noon and ended with the Lexmond group at 9:00 P.M. Many interesting stories about this summer's beekeeping and hopes for next year.
Overall the harvest was below average but a bit better than last year. The Payants win the "most from one hive" prize--4 supers with approximately 100 lbs. of honey. The hive right next to that one had none. that is the experience of many this summer.
Many thanks to all of the people that helped make this a great extraction day in the North Country!!