In my opinion extracting or harvesting honey is a best benefit of beekeeping. Maintaining your hives throughout the year brings a payoff in the form of sweet honey that you can enjoy at home, give as gifts, or package and sell at the farm stand. The honey extraction process may seem a bit overwhelming at first but I’ll explain our method.
What tools do you need to extract honey
The honey extraction process involves multiple steps, starting with harvesting (selecting and collecting the frames you’ll extract), then extracting, filtering, and bottling. We always gather the tools needed before we start, including:
- Protective gear, including gloves
- Bee brush
- Bucket
- 5 gallon cheesecloth bag
- Honey press
- Honey bottles or containers with caps
How do you choose which frames to harvest?
Most often, we extract honey in July or August. Occasionally, high production allows for an early honey harvest as well. Frames should be at least 80 percent capped (100 percent capped is even better) before harvest. Trust the bees on this: They cap the honey when they are satisfied with the transformation from watery nectar to honey, which has less than 18% water content. If you harvest too early, high water content may lead to spoiled or fermented honey. We test the honey in the hive to make sure it’s below 18% and ready for harvest.
How to use a honey extractor
The operation of a honey press is simple and can be done by both beginner and experienced beekeepers. Simply follow these steps:
- First uncapping is not necessary. We scrap all comb with honey off the foundation and into a bucket. Set the foundation to the side, it’s not needed any longer. After everything is done, we cleanup these foundations and install in hives as needed.
- We install a cheesecloth bag in the sieving bucket to filter the honey.
- Now pour the pieces of cut comb into the press sieving bucket. The total amount of unpressed comb to put in depends on the size of your sieve bucket, the preferences of the beekeeper and how much force you can be apply using the press twist handle.
- Depends on your brand of press but install the twist handle on top of the press.
- Rotate the T-shaped handle on the honey press. Most honey presses require clockwise rotary motion. Rotating the handle results in the screw pressing on the middle of the pressure plate. The pressure plate then transfers the pressure to the honeycomb in the basket. Honey begins flowing out of the honeycomb and sieve as the comb is crushed under pressure.
- We catch the filtered honey in a large bowl. Once complete we transfer the honey into jars and off to sale . . .
Pressing honey out of a honeycomb is a great way to separate honey and wax. It has some advantages over using centrifugal extractors. Honey presses are effective and efficient when used well. Besides presses honey comb, this press has many other uses including making grape juice.
Is it necessary to filter honey?
Freshly extracted honey will contain bits of pollen, beeswax, propolis and even a few bee parts here and there. While it’s not a requirement, many beekeepers strain or filter honey to remove these pieces prior to bottling. You can strain using a cheesecloth bag in the press.
Eating, gifting, or selling your own honey is one of the best rewards of beekeeping.