The first thing you need to do when you extract honey is to take the frames of capped honey away from the bees.  It is best to do this on a sunny day and in the morning when the bees are busy. Come up to the hive quietly and calmly.  Use plenty of cool smoke.

Take an empty box with you to put the frames of honey into when you carry them away.  Put a piece of timber or Masonite under the box so that the honey frames will not get dirty from the grass and mud on the ground. The timber or Masonite will also catch any honey that falls out of the frames. Take another piece of timber, Masonite or a piece of calico to cover the box.  This way the bees will not get onto the frames you are taking while you are working with the hive.

Take the frames out of the hive one at a time and inspect them.  Make sure ¾ of the honey is sealed with wax.  Make sure there is no brood on the frame.  Remember, if you take worker brood from your hive, you are taking away your future honey makers. 

Look at the bees on the frame. Make sure you do not have the queen. If you do see the queen, very gently brush her back into the hive between frames. Then carefully and gently brush the bees back into the hive using a bee brush or soft flowers or grass.

Put the honey frame (without any bees) into the empty box. Cover it with the Masonite or calico. If you leave the honey frame out in the open, bees may begin to rob or steal honey from the frame. Bees become cross when they start to rob honey.

Look at the next frame in the hive and repeat the above steps. Do this until you have inspected all of the frames. Take all the ones that are ready to extract. Make a note in your Bee Record Book of how many frames of honey you took from each hive.

You will now have space in the box that you took the honey frames from. If you have some empty frames, put them in the box now. If not, return the empty honey frames as soon as you have extracted them. If you leave the bees with empty space for more than a few days they will start to fill it with wax comb. This will become a mess. It will be hard to return the frames because it will be full of new comb already.

Put the lid back on your hive. Take the box of honey frames away to extract. A box full of honey is very heavy. A wheelbarrow is a good thing to use if you have a lot of honey boxes to move.