How to Collect Honey From a Beehive
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Collecting Honey from Your Beehives
Many beekeepers get into keeping honey bees for the simple purpose of producing honey. The key to success is having healthy productive hives that produce enough honey for themselves and the beekeeper. Once this is accomplished, it is time to learn how to collect honey from a beehive with a minimum of disturbance. This means the honey harvest is sure to bring a lot of excitement and maybe just a bit of nerves.
Well the moment has finally arrived, it’s time to learn how to collect your honey crop from your beehives.
Of course, we want to disrupt the honey bee colony as little as possible. Honestly, the bees will probably not be thrilled about giving up part of their food stores.
After months (or years) of anticipation, you can’t wait to taste that delicious golden sweetness. But before you start drooling too much, we have to get the honey away from the bees.
Not Every Year is a Harvest Year
In many areas of the country, beekeepers do not normally get to collect honey from new hives the first season.
On average, it will be the second year before you can enjoy the golden goodness. Even established colonies have bad years due to weather conditions, sickness etc. A large crop of honey is never guaranteed.
How Much Honey Can I Take?
The beekeeper should not take all the honey from the bees. Harvesting honey should only be done when the bees have surplus.
Some hives will not produce any excess honey after Spring is over. The bees need enough honey stored for Winter and they have to eat during the Summer as well.
Sometimes the hives suffer from a lack of natural nectar or dearth. Are the bees needing to dig into their Winter stores to survive during Summer.
Sometimes, beekeepers feed new or struggling colonies sugar syrup. That’s fine, it is being used as a supplement but it’s not honey.
Don’t pull all of the excess honey unless you are confident that you are not leaving your bees hungry.
How Much Honey Should You Leave Your Bees?
Honey bees survive Winter by consuming honey and generating heat within the bee cluster. Deciding how much honey to leave your bees will depend on where you live?
Those of you in a climate with long Winter months will require more honey stores. Also, some colonies keep a larger population over the Winter and require more honey.
Leaving around 60 pounds of honey for the bees is a general number to start with. Use your climate as a guide. Experienced beekeepers in your region will know how much honey you should leave on the hive.
How Often do You Collect Honey from Your Bees?
Honey is often collected from the hives after a “flow“. This refers to a period of time when the natural world has abundant nectar available.
Some locations have several honey flows. Beekeepers in these regions may have several small harvests during the season.
Other beekeepers have a shorter time when honey production is high. They may only pull honey off the hives once a year.
Most of the honey in my area is made in the Spring. I do not have a true Fall flow where the bees make honey for me to harvest.
Is the Honey Ready to Take from the Hive?
When you collect honey depends on your climate. In my area, I only make excess honey during Spring. So, I will take the ripe honey from the hives in late May or Early June.
If I am lucky, I may get to pull another batch of honey in late July. This will be Sourwood Honey.
Water Content of Honey
Each cell of honey is sealed with a wax cap. The nectar has become “capped honey” or ripe honey.
In general, honey bees will not cap honey cells until the honey is ripe and ready for storage. This usually happens when the moisture content of honey is about 18.6%
It is pretty impressive to consider that bees collect nectar with a water content of around 80% and transform it into honey with a water content of 18.6% or less.
A frame of capped honey is ready to harvest. If only a few open cells are not capped this is okay. But if most of the frame is uncapped, the bees may need a bit longer to finish.
What to do if Your Honey is Not Capped
Can your honey be uncapped and still ripe and ready to take? Yes!
I have had some years when the nectar source was abruptly cut short by weather conditions. Once, several days of storms ripped blooms from the trees.
My poor bees had finished the honey making process but they were struggling to cap the full cells. Bees need food in order to produce beeswax. And, they need wax to cap the ripe cells of honey.
Because honey production season was ending, it was time to take my share of the honey.
Using a special tool called a “Honey Refractometer“, I was able to test the moisture content of the uncapped frames of honey.
I verified that the honey was ripe and ready to harvest. This moisture content was below 18 %.
In most instances, you should listen to your bees. They will cap the honey when it is ready but you can always test a frame if you are in doubt.
They cap the honeycomb cells when the honey is ripe. If 90% of the frame is capped, you can pull the honey.
How to Get Bees Out of the Honey Supers
Ok, we have a super of honey that is mostly capped and ready to harvest. But, there’s bees in there! How do we evict the bees from their bounty?
There are several ways to remove bees from the honey supers. None of them involve using a smoker. Smoke causes bees to move away but they take honey with them.
Ways to Remove Bees from Honey Supers
- use bee escapes
- remove bees with a blower
- use a bee brush frame by frame
- use a fume board
Bee Escapes
If you live in a region with cool nights, you may use “bee escapes” to separate the bees from the honey. This is a one-way gate. The bees leave the super and cannot return.
This does not work in my area because the temps are hot at night and bees remain in the honey supers. They also require opening the hive twice and are not my favorite item.
Also, if you live in an area with Small Hive Beetles you risk them infesting the unguarded honey super.
Using a Bee Blower
Some beekeepers use a leaf blower to blow bees out of the honey supers. They remove the super and stand it on end.
The air from the blower removes the bees. This method is a bit too exciting for me but it works if you need to harvest a lot of boxes. A bit messy for smaller scale beekeepers in my opinion.
Bee Brush
A bee brush is a useful tool for many beekeeping activities. If you have just a few boxes, you can remove the box and gently brush the bees from each frame.
Sometimes this works well but the bees do not like it. And remember, we want to avoid using the smoker.
If you want to use your brush, have an extra box with a tight lid nearby. After brushing the bees off a frame you can place it in the tight box.
Fume Board & Liquid
The use of a fume board is the most common method for small scale beekeepers. A liquid is sprayed on the inside of a special top.
The bees move away from the scent, leaving the honey super almost bee free.
This is my way of harvesting. There are several approved liquids that can be used to remove the bees. One works very well but smells like dead things – I do not use it.
Bee suppliers have an almond/cherry scented product the smells great and works almost as well. I would choose either – Bee Quick or Honey B Gone.
My Method of Pulling Honey Supers
Want to learn how to harvest honey the “Beekeeper Charlotte” way? My harvest begins during early morning.
Hopefully, most of the foragers are out working. And remember – no smoke.
My tools are a fume board, liquid and a bee brush. Using the special fume board, spray liquid on the inside of the top. You do not have to use very much.
Gently open the hive, remove the outer cover and inner cover of the hive – set aside.
Now place the fume board (that has been sprayed on top of the first super to be harvested.
You will hear an increased buzzing. In a few minutes (8-10) the majority of the bees will leave the super. It works faster on a sunny day.
When most of the bees are out (you can check by lifting the fume board to peek in), remove the super from the hive and set it on a nearby stand.
Place the inner cover back on the hive to keep the bees inside calm.
Now, I take each frame out of the harvested box. I gently brush off the few bees remaining and place the honey frame in an extra empty super or tight box.
A quick check of each frame to be sure it does not contain baby bees. Some beekeepers use queen excluders for this purpose.
Close up the hive and take your harvest away from the bee yard quickly. You do not want it to attract the attention of other bees! They may take it back…LOL
Next, we need to get the liquid honey out of the comb. Process your honey right away, especially if you live in an area with Small Hive Beetles.
Any beetle eggs in the comb can hatch and destroy your harvest. Do not leave honey sitting around for days.
Harvest Honey Without an Extractor
An extractor is a special piece of equipment used to process honey. Do you have to have one? No?
You may choose to use the “Crush and Strain Method” for processing your honey.
Have a pail or large bowl and place a nylon strainer bag inside. Cut the honeycomb out of the frames and place them in the strainer bag.
Use a potato masher or similar tool to crush the comb. This action breaks open the honeycomb cells.
Hang the bag full of crushed honeycomb from a sturdy anchor. It will be heavy!!! Let the honey drip into a clean bucket.
This is will take several days. You need a bee-proof warm space for this method.
Harvest Honey with An Extractor
Honey extractors come in many configurations and styles. The process involves removing the wax capping from each honeycomb cell.
This can be accomplished with a regular bread knife, capping scratcher or hot knife.
The uncapped honey frame is placed in the extractor. The extractor’s spinning action removes the liquid honey from the comb.
The beekeeper can reuse that empty honeycomb in the hive. This increases the beekeeper’s honey yield. The bees don’t have to produce beeswax to remake all the comb cells.
After extracting, the wet honey supers can be placed outside for the bees to clean. And they will! You will have a feeding frenzy.
Do not place them near your hive or your backdoor. After a few days, the bees will calm down.
Some beekeepers like to put the wet frames from the extractor back on the hive for a few days.
The bees will clean up every drop. This is a good plan as long as you give each hive a super. Otherwise, you may start robbing in your bee yard.
Find Thoughts on How to Collect Honey from a Beehive
As you complete your honey harvest, don’t forget the left over beeswax. Beeswax cappings are valuable and have a lot of potential.
After you clean or process the cappings , they can be used for may beeswax recipes and projects.
Collecting honey from bees can be messy but it is a lot of fun. And, being able to collect honey from your own beehive is a priceless experience.
Beekeeper Charlotte
