Honey extraction night recap — Marge brought the centrifuge

Saturday's extraction night at Marge's garage went late. We extracted six members' supers, ran the centrifuge until Marge politely asked if we could finish before midnight, and walked away with roughly 140 pounds of finished honey across the group.

What worked

• Marge's centrifuge. The 9-frame radial paid for itself again. Solo extraction with a 2-frame hand crank is character-building exactly once.
• Pre-uncapping the frames. Three of us at the uncapping tank kept the extractor fed for hours without stopping.
• The strainer-then-settle approach. Run through the double-mesh strainer, then sit in 5-gallon buckets for 48 hours so the air bubbles rise out before bottling. Looks like glass.

What didn't work

Bart stuck around to "help." One uncapping fork got mysteriously bent and one super was found mysteriously empty in the morning. Decline gently if he offers next year.

Marge's centrifuge will be available at the next group extraction. Sign up at the meeting; first-come for time slots.