Collecting the Honey

Clearly the main reason to set up, maintain, and stock a beehive is to collect honey. You’ll know that it’s time to collect the honey as you look in one of your hives supers and find that the frames are filled with honey combs that your bees have coated with wax caps.

Now all you must do is take out the honey combs.

Harvesting honey won’t be a problem as long as your have on all your beekeeping suit, wear light coloured clothes (beekeepers swear that light colored garments have a relaxing affect on bees) and stay calm.

If the super is filled with capped honey combs you’ll need to take out the bees from that super. There are chemicals offered in the marketplace that would make this easier. One common substance which beekeepers make use of to remove bees from the super is Bee-Go. All beekeepers must do is put Bee-Go to a fumer board. When the bees smell the Bee-Go they head to the base of the hive, leaving the super full of capped honeycombs bare so that you can gather. One more product beekeepers utilize to clear out supers is one known as Fishers Bee Quick. Neither of those products hurt the bees, the bees simply find the smell unpleasant and go away from it.

Now that you’re in possession of the honey comb you must prepare it to be taken out. The first step on this preparation is to take out the wax caps the bees have used to stick the honey into the honey comb. Various beekeepers prefer to use nine frames instead of 10 in their supers. By utilizing 9 frames they give the bees sufficient room to extract the comb out, placing the cap precisely on the very border of the comb. This makes it easier to remove the wax caps. Beekeepers use a metal knife to remove the caps, the knife works best if the knife blade is heated, after all its simpler to cut warm wax then it is to cut cold wax. You can keep the knife blade warm by way of repeated dipping in a basin that is filled with hot water. Lots of beekeepers prefer to use their bread knife to remove the wax caps from the honey comb while others favor an electrical knife that’s designed just for beekeepers. What do you think bee’s wax candles are made out of. Removing the caps from the dripping honey is easy, just use a bit of cheese fabric to empty the contents right into another pot, the honey would drain through the cheesecloth and the bee’s wax caps will gather on the top.

As soon as the caps are taken out from the honey comb the honey is ready to be extracted.

As  you take out the caps, allow them to fall into a pot, don’t just through them away. You will notice that there’s a shocking amount of honey attached to these caps, honey that could be processed and made use of. In addition there’s a market for the wax caps. As soon as the caps have been taken out from the honeycombs the honey combs are ready to have the honey taken out.