I had asked the school if I could borrow an extractor, so we came away with a machine, which can spin 4 demi-frames.
Yesterday evening I put the "chasse-abeille", one-way bee exit, between the body of the hive and the top boxes. Then, this morning, I moved the top boxes off the hive, removed the "chasse- abeille" and put the queen grill back in place, and then replaced one of the top boxes, shuffling the frames to remove the 4 which were full of sealed honey. The "chasse-abeille" had certainly reduced the number of bees in the top boxes - I just had to brush a few bees off the frames I was taking out.
We brought the frames into the kitchen, where we'd set up the extractor - first job was to cut through the capped honeycomb, then place the 4 frames in the extractor. As soon as we started turning the handle to rotate the frames, honey started flowing out. We also sieved all the cut off bits, and the debris from the tray, to collect every drop we could.
Finally tally : 6.4 kg ! From 4 half frames!
And, although I say it myself, it's delicious !
Feels like your tastebuds are singing !
Whether that is because I know the effort the bees have put in to create it, or because it's from nearby flowers, who knows !
Propped the frames near the hive for the bees to lick clean, and the honey is now in the maturator - the big bucket with a tap on the bottom - for decanting into pots later.
Very happy !