Mid-June Honey Pull – Wet Spring, Angry Bees

First honey harvest of 2025. Not much to brag about — wet spring slowed things down — but enough to justify firing up the extractor.

Bees were angry. Suits weren’t optional. Smoke helped — except on Hive 2, which made me question why I even bothered lighting the smoker. That’s a special kind of hate, the kind only bees feel when you’re stealing their spring savings.

We’ll probably do it again in late July if the second flow shapes up.

We ran it as a three-man crew. I pulled full supers off the hives and loaded them onto the side-by-side. My dad and J followed behind with the blower, knocking bees off pulled hardware — frames, boxes, bee escapes — anything coming off the hives. Dad said it’s incredible having a third set of hands — which is high praise for anyone, to say nothing of the fact that it was about a four-year-old.

It is cute seeing a kid in a bee suit — especially when it’s your kid. Or in little Carhartt coveralls, looking like they belong in the work. We all pretend at first. But at some point, pretending turns into actually doing the thing.

I think all any of us can really hope for is to be useful. Add value. Put in more than you take out.

I hope my kids feel that — because they sure do.