Okay .. I'm now going to push this discussion even further..
Do you extract all the frames/supers from one hive, putting the wets back on that hive, ensuring that no honey residue contaminates the outside of the box, clean everything and then start of the next box? ...
... do you take off all the supers you want to extract in a box, manually uncap, getting honey residue on your hands which you transfer to the next frame, or by spinning frames from more than one box spread the residue across frames, put the frames back in supers, transfering the residue to the supers as you handle them, and then put those supers back on the hive you removed them from .. or possibly another hive in the same apiary.
Ever noticed bees cleaning the outside of the supers after you've put them back on the hives? They're not all from the hive the super was put on..
As to late at night /early morning those time are very season and temperature dependent..
I've had to wait till after 9:30 in the evening when it's nearly dark to shut-up and move Nucs because the bees have been flying until then.. not a very good time to be trying to wash an extractor.. and putting the floodlit on in the garden doesn't help it just attracts the bees from the hives ...
I know the condition of my bees. Honey should never be extracted from diseased colonies.
There are, according to Beebase, over 50 registered apiaries within bee-flight of my main apiary, more than 60 within reach of the other one. I do not wish to attract any of these bees into my apiary by encouraging a feeding frenzy that could lead to robbing of my colonies.
I extract from one apiary at a time and, generally, one colony at a time.
I wash my hands
a lot whilst extracting, the outside of any boxes does not get covered in honey because, well, it doesn't - why should it?
I extract indoors and I clean my extractor indoors.
The wet frames are left to drain indoors and are then stored in a bee-proof stack until I replace them, which is
always done in the evening during the active season, but the stack may stay untouched until the following year and the supers are needed again. I have never seen bees trying to access the stack of empty supers, there is never honey on the outside of the boxes.
There is a line regarding biosecurity.. but it's a case of where you draw it .. hence my examples ...
... The potential issue then is the spread of AFB or EFB spores (given that we're ignoring any transfer of pathogen via varroa transfer between bees) in extracted honey residue by virtue of the fact that that residue is available to a "wild" population which may include your own bees.
If you know your apiary is clean of disease they why would you attract bees from all colonies within flying distance by open feeding?
If you were really paranoid about bio security then you would have to extract hive by hive and clean everything between hives and that includes ensuring that no residue is transferred to the outside of the supers.
Not paranoia, and quite a lot of beekeepers do do this. They label each box and each frame to make sure it goes back onto the original hive.
Frankly, it looks as if you're trying to justify the unjustifiable by throwing in all sorts of things you think are ridiculous.
Are there any other things to do with honey extraction that you think are okay? What level of biosecurity and food hygiene do you think is necessary when preparing foodstuffs?