Extracting & Handling Honey
At this point your bees and the hives must be doing well because this signifies the whole exercise of beekeeping which is the harvesting of the precious commodity. Usually honey is ready for harvesting when the comb is capped or ripe and this is the best time to prepare your honey bee extractors. All the hard work, the stings, financial & time investments boil down to this moment and they’re worth it when the honey start to flow.
How honey bees ripen the nectar is through the removal of moisture. They do this by distributing current off air through fanning their wings; this brings in dry air and expels moist warm air. The water content must be reduced to less that 20% to about 18% and that when the cells are sealed with wax capping, it’s like putting a lid on a jar to prevent the honey from drawing any more moisture.
When most of the cells are capped clear the bees off the super, remove it and prepare it for extraction, just ensure that the majority of cells have been sealed. This will prevent high moisture build up, as too much moisture causes the honey to ferment lowering the quality of your honey. Cut the capping off with a knife to expose the honey for extraction.
Keep in mind that bees are not going to hand over their honey on a silver platter, you must first remove them off the supers. There are various ways of doing that but the most common is the leaf blower or a fume product like the Fischer’s Bee quick and a bee escape or feather. Many beekeepers use leaf blowers to fan the bees from the frames and I’ve notice that the bees seem to detect the vibrations caused by the engine on the leaf blower and this gets them agitated.
Some use a fume product which is a chemical that emits an odour that bees don’t like. You pour it on a fume board then place it on top of the supper you want removed, the bad smell repels the bees and within no time the super is clear off bees. Most love this method for the simplicity it provides; personally I think the product in use could have a questionable effect on the wax or honey even though most user have never had any problems with it.
The removal of honey from the combs requires an extractor which will spin at a high speed, this action slings the honey out of the comb. Many designs consist of a drum which can fit in several frames which are spun around to extract honey by applying centrifugal force. Honey will be then be collected at the bottom of the extractor, it may still contain some fragments of wax, bee parts like legs and wings and other things that came off the frame that will need it to be filtered.
For best filter results I recommend you use a 600 or 400 micron filter, these can be bought for about $10 and they’re made to fit most bucket sizes until a five gallon bucket. The filters allow the honey to flow though quiet quickly trapping all the foreign bodies and these filters can also be washed and re-used over and over again. Once the filtration process is complete allow the honey to sit for at least one week this make the honey to be free of bubbles, there after it should ready for bottling.
Beekeeping requires high standards of hygiene so your honey room or the place where the extraction process will take place must be spotless and germ free. Whenever you handle honey always wear a hairnet, clean clothes hands and equipment must be washed and sanitised regularly.
|
Absolutely Yes Rudolf! I Want to Know All The Secrets, So That I Can Become A Master Beekeeper!!! Send Me My Free “Beekeeping Mastery” Email Course Today! You Will Receive the First Lesson in Your Inbox Immediately. 100% Spam Free! I Value Your Email Privacy. |
