Beekeeping is, if you don’t already know, a calling that many people embrace only after they get into it. There aren’t many better examples of the perfect balance developed in nature over the millenniums than beehives. And we, as beekeepers, are interested in how to harvest honey in a sustainable way. In this post, I will cover and explain how to harvest honey, which are the specific steps to take, what type of equipment you need, what to pay attention to while harvesting, and how to process and package the honey.
Even if you don’t know a single thing about the production of honey, I will do my best and outline the simplicity of steps to prepare you for harvesting honey and shed light on the amazing abilities unique to honey bees.
Quick history recap: For thousands of years, mankind has been enjoying the sweet and nutritious taste of honey, and the techniques to harvest honey date back as far as 8.000 BC. It is important to address one specific point in history that influenced our lives immensely: the domestication of honey bees. About 3.500 years ago, mankind learned how to build and maintain beehives, but bees died during the process of harvesting. The core of the routine used to harvest honey changed in 1851. with the invention of the Langstroth hive.
Step 1: Preparation For The Harvest
Protective Gear
Protective gear is an essential part of all beekeeping tasks, even for seasoned veterans. The reason we wear protective gear can be best explained with simple math; even if 99% of bees are calm and don’t see you as a threat (we will cover techniques to make this happen down the line) that still leaves the 1% of bees that will be alerted to you, trying to defend the hive.
1% in a hive containing between 10.000 and 60.000 bees is still well over a hundred bees looking at you, wondering why are you pillaging their stocks. And even if you are “Mr. Thick Skin” and you don’t mind getting stung; the gear protects the bees as much as it protects you. If the bee can’t sting you, they live through the process. The less injured bees there are, the better. Therefore; wear protective gear at all times. If you don’t have all the right equipment, make sure you have at least these essentials on:
- Thick gloves, covering any visible skin, preferably all the way up to elbow as bees can wander off into your sleeves.
- Veiled hat, carefully tucked so that no bees can get near your face and neck area.
- Thick clothes, preferably overalls that leave no skin exposed.
Professional beekeeping suits are fairly affordable and they more than justify the investment. If you are at all serious about beekeeping and being around bees in general, a suit is a part of the basic equipment you need.
Harvesting Time; How to Pick the Right One?
There are three factors that influence harvesting time; weather, time of the day, and time of the year.
Weather
Ideally, you want to harvest honey on a sunny day when the majority of bees are out on their chores, collecting all the ingredients for honey production. The more bees are out of the hive, the less of them you have to deal with while collecting honey. Rainy days should be avoided as the majority of bees will be in the hive, making your task harder. This is one of those “makes sense” rules that add to the simplicity and beauty of beekeeping.
Time of the Day
Again, another “makes sense” rule. Bees don’t work while it’s dark outside, so naturally, between 8 AM and 5 PM should be the best time to harvest the honey. It’s a numbers game, again, but also, nobody likes being disturbed while sleeping, honeybees included. Also, depending on the method you use, you might benefit from direct sunlight to warm the honey without melting the honeycombs.
Time of the Year
While this does not affect the way you harvest honey, it affects yield and quality. The period between late summer and early fall is the time when bees stop producing honey and start feeding the queen, resulting in higher consumption and less honey for harvesting. Harvest the honey earlier in the season, preferably around mid-summer, or right after the highest nectar flow. Experienced beekeepers know how to recognize that time, but there is a trick you can do to get the best sense of it.
Simply weigh in the hive every night and when it’s heaviest, meaning filled with honey the most, pick a sunny day, start around 9 AM and look to finish well before the sunset. And that’s essentially it, all the science comes down to that.
Have the Right Equipment at Hand
There is a handful of stuff you will need to have ready before you start;
- Bee smoker
- Tools you need to open the hive and extrude the honey
- Bee Brush
- Uncapping knife (to remove the beeswax from honeycombs)
- Honey extractor (not necessary but really useful)
- Honey containers to put the honey into (not jugs, you are not at that stage yet, more like open containers)
Those are the things you need to complete the harvest as quickly and gently as possible. You want to minimize the time the hive stays open for several reasons;
- to lessen the stress on bees
- minimize the damage to the hive
- lower the chances of contaminating the hive with parasites or other harmful things
Bees, like all other creatures, like to be left alone, and you being clumsy with your harvest can leave permanent consequences defeating the whole purpose of beekeeping. Have in mind that “keeping” is the key word here, so come prepared.
Think of it this way; you wouldn’t want a surgeon going “Oh, I forgot to bring the right tools, wait while I get it” in the middle of an operation, regardless of how routine it is. Right?
So, now that you are properly prepared, let’s get down to it.
Step 2: Lighting the Bee Smoker and Approaching the Hive
If you don’t know why we smoke the bees before doing any hive-related tasks, you can check out this article that explains the amazing science behind it. Don’t approach the hive before you light the smoker. If you haven’t tried using a bee smoker yet, take a look at this post of mine that details how to do it step by step.
Once you have it ready, move towards the back end of the hive and gently blow smoke around the entrance. Once you notice the bees retreating into the hive, open the top and again, gently blow smoke into the opening. This will calm the bees down and make them retreat deeper into the hive, leaving top honeycombs free.
Ideally, you want to use smoke only for bee control. The less you use, the better. Honey can be tainted and take up the smoke flavor, and nobody likes that. It’s supposed to taste like honey, not ham.
Step 3: Opening The Hive
Honeybees are pretty diligent so you can expect the hive to be properly sealed and protected from moisture. This means the edges are sealed with propolis, a resin-like substance that acts as a sealant and glue at the same time. The reason you need to know this? Well, you will have a hard time opening the top of the hive without proper tools on the account of how effective the propolis is.
What you need to do now is to replace the frames filled with honey with empty ones. Once you pick up a frame, you are likely to find some bees still hanging around. Use the bee brush, to move them away from the frame. If you don’t have one, I suggest getting it as they are really cheap and will help you a ton. See my post here for Top 5 Best Bee Brushes.
Injuring bees cause trouble as it alerts the rest of the hive to the danger. Look to avoid injuring bees as much as you can. This is not a rule just for harvesting honey, but it happens the most during this task. It’s possible some bees will stay trapped in the honey, and you should remove them by hand, again being gentle and looking to minimize injuries.
Step 4: Uncapping Honeycombs
The most preferred method of harvesting honey is simply replacing the full frames with the spare ones, thus minimizing the time the hive stays open and allowing you to extract the honey later, away from the hive. In fact, if you uncap the honeycombs outside, the neighborhood bees will quickly pick up the scent and they will come to gather it, often in swarms. It won’t take them long to take back what’s rightfully theirs: https://gph.is/1PRj4sU
So, the best way is to extract the honey later, in an enclosed room. Whether you do it right away or later, the process is the same.
The honeycombs are sealed from both ends with beeswax. It prevents the honey from pouring out of the comb. To extract the honey, you need to remove those caps from each side of the frame, allowing the honey to pour out on either side.
Use a knife or any tool that you have at your disposal and “slice” off those cappings. This process creates a slur-like mesh that you don’t want to throw away, it’s still very useful as it contains a surprising amount of honey. Use a separate bucket for that mesh and leave it for now, we will come back to it in a minute.
You should proceed with the process as soon as you uncap the combs before the honey hardens. If that happens, you can warm it up a bit to get it to a nice liquid state, but be careful not to melt the combs.
Once you have the caps removed, it’s time to extract the honey and there are a couple of methods to do it.
Step 5: Extracting The Honey
Extractor Method
One of the most used methods involves a honey extractor. While it may sound like a big apparatus, it’s just a bucket that allows you to spin the frames really fast and use centripetal force to “suck” the honey out of the combs. There are hand-cranked and electric models, with two or more spaces for frames, but they all work using the same principle.
When the frames start spinning, the centripetal force speeds up the “oozing” of the honey. Once again, it’s not rocket science; it’s just a method that speeds up the entire process.
The honey you extract this way will slowly slide down the walls of the bucket and into the straining container.
Without Using the Extractor
You can get the same results without using the extractor apparatus, but it will take you longer. Once you uncap the combs, put them in a container and break them down to the tiniest pieces you can. Basically, crush the combs and create a mesh that you can strain the honey out of. While this method does not require an extractor, it is also considerably slower than the method using one. Essentially, the mesh should be well broken that there are no pieces bigger than a queen bee.
This method is rarely used, especially if there are more hives to harvest. It also requires a warmer room that prevents honey from hardening. But mostly, beekeepers find it way messier than using an extractor as you often need to crush the honeycombs using your hands. Regardless of the method used, the straining process is the same for both of them.
Once you extract the honey or create a mesh by crushing the combs, you need to strain it to remove all the debris, impurities, and the rest of the stuff that doesn’t belong in your teacup or on your toast. Straining is basically a filtering process and the cheesecloth method has been used for hundreds of years. There are special strainers that you can buy that feature super fine mesh made from stainless steel, but most people prefer straining honey through cheesecloth as it is just as effective and less expensive.
The straining process will take a lot longer for honey derived from crushing-extraction method as there are more debris and large lumps of wax, pollen, and at times, wood chunks from the frames. This process is simple and effective, but occasionally, contaminants still leak through the strainer. No need to worry about that. Just store the honey into a proper container and let it sit for a while. The gravity will do its thing. The honey will, over time, sink to the bottom of the container leaving all the other stuff floating on or near the surface.
Straining honey is not a fast process and you should be patient about it. Also, the more layers of cheesecloth you use, or in case of metal strainers, the finer the mesh you strain the honey through, the slower the process takes.
Straining the Cappings Mesh
Much like the crushing method, the process of removing the cappings creates a similar, although not as honey-rich, but still pretty valuable mesh. Once you strain the main honey load, make sure you crush the mesh containing cappings to the best of your abilities and put it through a strainer as well. Guaranteed, you will get at least a couple of pounds of honey from that mesh.
Step 6: Storing Honey
Now that you got pure honey, it’s important to keep it that way. The containers you use for storing honey, whether it’s jars, jugs, or plastic containers, have to be properly sterilized prior to pouring honey in. Wash the containers with hot water using proper sterilizing soap. Rinse them well and dry them out completely. Do this even for containers that never contained anything in them before. You never know what sort of contaminants are inside and honey can easily spoil in a dirty container.
The other thing crucial to storing honey is an airtight seal. Make sure your jars are properly closed and sealed, ensuring no contaminants get in and spoil the honey. Experienced beekeepers also recommend checking on the jars after a couple of days as any impurities will float near the top. You can simply remove them and re-seal the jars.
Special considerations
We covered the basic steps for harvesting honey, but you should also consider other things before you venture into the world of honeybees. The reasons honeybees produce and store honey are probably well-known to you, but make sure you don’t neglect those reasons when you harvest the honey.
Don’t empty the hive completely; leave enough honey for the bees to survive the winter. Also, don’t just do one task when harvesting honey. It’s not good to linger, but do take your time and inspect the hive while you are opening it. See if there are any signs of potential issues.
The other thing is, and this is especially true if you are putting back the frames without extracting honey; pay attention to the order. Bees spend plenty of time and effort tailoring the hive just as they need it to be organized. And you tempering with that structure is not really beneficial to the bees. So, if you are putting back the frames without extracting honey, put them back in the order you took them out. This will help the bees settle back to the hive once you close it up.
At times, you will encounter uncapped honeycombs when you pull the frames out. If you don’t know how to dry the honey, it’s best to put the frames back in and not harvest it. Uncapped frames, or partially uncapped frames, can still be harvested, and you can use it for either feeding the bees, beefing them up for the winter, or you can dry it, get it to about 17% water and use it for consumption. The drying is done in a small airtight room and having a dehumidifier on, but that’s a story for another article.
Communal Cleaning
Here is a neat little trick you can use to clean the frames and honeycombs for re-use. Once you rinse out all the honey you can, gather the frames up and leave them near the hive. The smell of honey will attract the bees, and they will clean up and gather every drop of remaining honey and pollen. Basically, instead of cleaning the frames yourself, the community of honeybees will do it for you.
Mind the Queen, Mind the Hive
As you get closer to the queen, grow ever more cautious and look to avoid injuring it as it would spell doom for your hive. Getting a hive to accept a new queen can sometimes be tricky so it’s best not to mess with the current order of things.
Also, you can use the smoking process to introduce treatments against mites and other parasites. The other thing to know is; do not take the honey from a new hive. Or try not to at least. The hive is like a workhorse; if you starve it early, you may trample its future development. So, mind the hive and you will enjoy success longer. If you have just established your hives, take a look at this article about when you can harvest honey from it – click here.
Yields and Quality
While all bees work hard, not all of them are created equal. You have stronger and weaker hives which produce different yields and honey quality. The rule here is; there are no rules. It is all dependent on many factors like the weather, location of the hive, the type of the year in terms of pollen, the number of pests and struggles the hive has had, and a bunch of other factors that are probably out of our control, some of them we don’t even fully understand. But, as long as you take care of the hive, provide them with fresh water and feed them properly before the winter, you can expect the best honey produced if the circumstances allow it. The same goes for the quantity.
Hopefully, I covered all the basics of harvesting honey. Keep in mind that while these are steps that most beekeepers agree to be common knowledge, there are never stupid questions when it comes to beekeeping and you should feel free to ask about anything. And if beekeepers around the world know one thing about honey production, it’s this: sharing is caring.
Keep buzzing!