Many beekeepers manage hives with a goal of producing their own honey. One or two healthy colonies of bees in a good location can make enough excess to feed a family all year. After investing up to a year to build strong colonies, harvest day approaches. Now, it is time to learn how to extract honey from a beehive.

How to Get Honey From a Beehive

In this Post:

Extracting honey into a filter bucket image.

Our bees have a remarkable system of survival. They collect nectar from blooming plants and convert it into honey. This perfect food for bees stores for a long time without spoiling.

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Being such industrious creatures, bees continue to make honey as long as they find nectar sources and have room to store it.

This is why beekeepers can take the excess crop for themselves. A conscientious beekeeper always leaves the bees enough food for their Winter stores. Taking all their food is not cool.

How Long do I Have to Wait to Harvest Honey?

There are many misconceptions about how bees make honey and the frequency of the crop. Many new beekeepers are dismayed to learn that they may have to wait until the next season to harvest.

What? You have to take care of these bees a whole year before you can expect a jar of golden delight? Yes, in most cases that is true. Unless you live in a very warm climate with year-round nectar sources, next year is the most likely harvest time for you.

You also want to make sure the moisture content is low enough to prevent fermentation. Generally, capped frames are fine but it is not a bad idea to have a refractometer to check the water content in honey.

Frames of honey bees are making for Winter food image.

Honey Extraction Methods

Some folks enjoy eating honey in the comb. If so, the harvest may be as simple as collecting it from the hive. But most people want to have jars of liquid to store and use for recipes etc. Don’t forget you also have the option of bottling up some chunk honey too.

There are two basic methods of separating honey from comb.

Crush and Strain – technically no extractor
Use a Honey Extractor (electric or hand crank)

Crush and Strain : No Extractor Needed

Technically, the crush and strain method is not extraction. However, it is often talked about in the same conversation so lets cover it now.

For beekeepers who do not have an extractor, or prefer not to use one, crush and strain is the way to go.

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Sheets of honey filled comb are cut from the frames and placed into a large tub or bucket. Then, using a potato masher, your hands or other implement-the comb is crushed.

The purpose of this is to break open the thousands of individual cells filled with honey. The material is then usually placed in a filter bag and hung up in a warm “bee safe” location with a bucket underneath. This allows liquid to drip out of the wax.

Crush and stain method of separating honey from comb no extractor.

Once all the liquid is removed from the beeswax comb, it can be stored in an airtight container. The beeswax can be cleaned and used for many fun projects.

This method is as old as time itself and quite effective. However, it is a slow process and requires room to leave the bag hanging for several days safe from bees and other insects.

It also represents more hard work for the bees next season. They have to rebuild all the comb needed for the frames.

Crushed honey comb dripping honey from a filter bag image.

Use a Honey Spinner or Extractor

A honey extractor is a machine that holds frames in a barrel-like container. Using an electric motor or hand crank, the frames spin around causing the liquid to be spun out of their wax cells.

Beekeepers who have done a good job of assembling their hive frames should be able to extract with no problems. The wax should be securely held in the wood frame.

Tangential extractors require the beekeeper to sling honey out of one side of the frame at a time. You must manually flip the frames to do the other side.

Radial extractors hold the frames in a way that slings it out of both sides at the same time. These often cost a bit more but are well worth the expensive if you have more than 2 hives. Extractors are not cheap in price but good quality ones last for years and have decent resell value.

Using ATV to transport harvested honey supers from bee yard.

Collecting Honey Supers from Hive

One of the great advances in modern beekeeping was the hive with removable frames. The beekeeper no longer has to kill the colony to harvest.

When your collection supers are full and the time is right, go out and collect your boxes from the hive. This is not a difficult task but it can be a heavy chore. Develop a plan for taking the honey off the hive before you start.

If you harvest is good, the supers will be heavy. You need to get them away from the bee yard and into your honey house or designated work area. With the full supers safe inside a bee free room, it is time to proceed.

Gather your needed materials – these will vary a bit depending on your equipment. I have covered some of the things to consider in previous posts mentioned in this article.

Using cappings scratcher to remove honey cappings from frame image.

How to Uncap Honey Frames

When honey is ripe, bees cover each cells with a wax cap. Our first job is to get that capping off. The most common ways to uncap is to use:

Regular knife – often heated in a bowl of hot water and then wiped dry
A hot knife – electric for beekeeper use
Cappings scratcher – looks like a big metal fork with a large plastic handle

There are several more gadgets you can buy to uncap honey. However, I don’t think they are any better and it doesn’t really matter what you use. After the cappings are removed, it is time to get that extractor buzzing – but slowly please.

Extract Honey From a Hive Tutorial

Charlotte Anderson @ Carolina Honeybees, LLC

Separating your honey harvest from the comb can be accomplished in several ways. The fastest and easiest is with the use of a machine called a honey extractor.

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Print Instructions Pin for later

Tools

Honey Extractor (Electric or Hand Crank)
Electric Knife (or hot bread knife)

Supplies

Instructions

Uncapping Honey Frames
The first step in extracting honey with a machine is uncapping. When honey is ripe, bees cap each cell with a clean wax cap. This helps keep the honey clean and protected.
Before we can extract the liquid, the cap must come off. The goal is to break open or slice off the wax cappings without digging into the comb any more than you can help.
Catch the cappings in a bucket. They will contain a large amount of liquid if allowed to drain. Also, cappings wax is the one of the best types of beeswax to use for candles and other projects.
Load Uncapped Frames in Extractor
As you uncap each frame (both sides) place it directly into the extractor. Depending on the size of your extractor you may need 4 frames, 9 or even more for a full load.
If you do not balance your load, the uneven weight will cause the extractor to move. Much like Granny’s old washing machine walking across the floor.
So don’t try to do a partial load in the extractor unless you position the frames evenly to distribute weight.
Place the Catch Bucket and Strainer
Once the extractor is full of frames, you are ready to begin the process of extraction. You will have a “honey gate” spout at the bottom of the unit. This is where the liquid pours out of the extractor.
Most beekeepers use a 3 or 5 gallon bucket as the storage pail, with a “bucket filter or bag” placed inside.
No matter how hard you try to be careful, some pieces of beeswax will come out in the liquid honey. This strainer allows gravity to filter out the beeswax chunks etc.
Of course with the strainer in place, you can not fill the bucket to the top with honey. Keep that in mind as you extract – have extra buckets.
A 5 gallon bucket of honey is HEAVY! It’s okay to fill it only partially. As long as you have a tight fitting lid your honey will be fine and your back with thank you for it.
Start the Extractor
Start the extractor spinning. Go slow – this is not a race. Especially with an electric extractor the temptation is to crank that thing up. Resist the urge.
You are more likely to have your extractor walking across the floor or even damaged if you start off at top speed. This applies to hand crank models as well.
Beginning too fast can use cause weak honeycomb to be thrown out of your frames. Start slow, gradually increase the speed.
Increasing Extractor Speed
Whether using an electric or hand extractor – begin slowly. If you begin too fast, the machine is more likely to bounce around.
You will notice (and hear) drops of honey and wax hitting the inside of the extractor wall as honey is thrown from the uncapped frames. Do not insert hands or any other body parts or items inside the running extractor !!!
Slowly increase the speed and continue until no more honey is coming off the frames. You will likely never need to get your machine up to top speed – you may damage your comb.
Honey will begin to flow from the gate at the bottom into your filter and catch bucket.
Remove Empty Frames
Remove the finished frames from the extractor. They will be very sticky but the cells should be empty of honey.
If I missed a few in the uncapping process, I don’t worry. I just leave it for the bees. If you missed a large area you can put it through the extractor again but be sure to balance the weight in the machine.
Special Note: Depending on the type of extractor you have – you may have to flip the frame over and do the other side.
Cleaning Wet Frames
Place the frames back in the super boxes. These frames of drawn comb are valuable.
If you have a long honey season, they can be put back on the hives and reused. If not, they will give the bees a head start next year.
Storing Your Harvest
After all of the honey has dripped through your bucket filter, there may be a little foam on top. That is okay. Let the honey settle a few days – then use a spatula or large spoon to skim it off.
Be sure to seal the bucket with a good lid. Honey will last forever but it absorbs moisture from the air. Failure to seal the bucket could result in your entire bucket spoiling.

Notes

Extraction Tips:

For uncapping you can use an electric honey knife, a large bread knife that has been heated in hot water and wiped dry or the uncapping scrapper. They all do the same job.

How long the process takes depending on your technique, the viscosity of your local honey and the temperature in the room.

You must be in a bee-tight location or those little girls will try to take the honey back!

Learn more about bees and using products from the hive!Join me on Instagram – @carolina_honeybees

Expert Tips on Honey Extraction

Now wasn’t that fun? Extracting honey is a fun family project. However, do not try this is your open garage. The bees can and will find you and attempt to take back their honey – can you blame them?

Not everyone has the advantage of having a separate building or “honey house” dedicated to bee projects, but extracting honey is messy. Keep this in mind if you attempt the project in your house.

Your floor may never be free of beeswax again unless your protect it. Also, do not wash your extraction tools, buckets, filters in your sink – talk about clogged drains!

Some beekeepers like to place the sticky honey supers outside and lets the bees clean up the last drops. I do too though it may not be the best practice. Having food sources too near your hives can set off hive robbing.

If you intend to let the bees clean the supers outside, place them well away from your hives. At least 100 ft or more is better. Remember those bees can fly – the boxes don’t have to be right beside the hive.

Storage and Protection

Harvesting your first crop or your hundredth one is a lot of fun. Learning how to extract honey is the number 1 reason most people become beekeepers.

If you use the crush and strain method, be sure to clean your beeswax cappings and put them to good use. Make some beeswax candles or a any number of small beeswax gifts.

For those of you who have drawn comb to reuse, store it properly. Give your bees a head start next year. Your properly sealed bucket of honey will last virtually forever. But, I hope you enjoy eating it up well before then.