The traditional approach

– Protect yourself from stings

– Fire up a smoker to sedate the bees

– Crack the hive open

– Lift heavy boxes

– Pull out the frames, try not to squash bees

– Brush the bees off the combs or use a leaf blower

– Transport the frames to a processing shed

– Cut the wax capping off each frame with a heated knife or automatic uncapping machine

– Put them in an extractor to spin out the honey

– Filter out all the wax and dead bees

– Clean up

– Place frames back in the hive