{"id":233,"date":"2010-08-19T09:11:54","date_gmt":"2010-08-19T08:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestbeekeeping.com\/blog\/?p=233"},"modified":"2011-04-03T01:44:01","modified_gmt":"2011-04-03T00:44:01","slug":"harvesting-honey-5-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestbeekeeping.com\/blog\/harvesting-honey-5-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvesting Honey: 5 Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Your own delicious honey!<\/p><\/div>\n

Harvesting honey is one of the most exciting jobs of a beekeeper (click here to see a video showing how to harvest honey<\/a>). It is the time when all your hard work pays off, and\u00a0it is such a\u00a0thrill to taste the first honey from your own hive. But, as with\u00a0everything to do with beekeeping, there are a few pitfalls you need to watch out\u00a0for! Here are\u00a05 tips to help ensure that your first honey harvest runs smoothly.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1. Honey is very<\/em> sticky<\/strong><\/p>\n

Obvious, but still worth remembering. You will get honey on your hands, and everything<\/em> you touch will get sticky. A bucket of warm water is essential to keep rinsing your hands. \u00a0Be well prepared, with all your extraction equipment at hand before you start. If possible, do your extraction in a garage or basement rather than in the kitchen (provided you can keep the honey clean and the bees out).<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Beware of robbers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your extraction room must be bee proof. Bees will be attracted to the honey, and if they can get in, they will. Not only will they take back their honey – it is\u00a0also very difficult to extract honey with bees buzzing around your head.<\/p>\n

If possible, do not leave full\u00a0supers sitting around for long before extraction. Bees are not the only insects who like honey – ants, earwigs and wasps will all steal it if given the chance.<\/p>\n

3. Warm honey flows better<\/strong><\/p>\n

Extracting honey is much easier if it is warm – ideally 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 c) or more.\u00a0In the summer time this is not usually a problem, but if it is cooler try warming the frames before beginning the extraction. The easiest way to do this is by putting the supers under\u00a0a light bulb overnight.<\/p>\n

4. You don’t need to buy all the extraction equipment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many household items will be good enough substitutes for extraction tools, rather than spending a fortune on beekeeping supplies. Rather than an uncapping knife, you can use a serrated bread knife<\/a>.\u00a0Kitchen Strainers<\/a>\"\"\u00a0(or nylon stockings<\/a>\"\") can be used as honey filters. Tupperware containers<\/a>\"\" are good for honey and the wax cappings.<\/p>\n

One thing that you will need is a centrifugal honey extractor, but you can often borrow or\u00a0hire this from your local beekeeping association – or even\u00a0build your own honey extractor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

5. Make use of the wax cappings<\/strong><\/p>\n

About 10% of the honey will be in the wax cappings, so be sure to strain these to get all the honey you can. The cappings themselves can then be melted down and are ideal for candle making<\/a>. Do not use everyday pots to melt your wax – anything in contact with melted wax will remain forever waxy and cannot be used for anything else.<\/p>\n

6. Bees are great cleaners<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once you have extracted your honey, put the ‘wet’\u00a0super with the empty frames\u00a0back on the hive. The bees will do a great job of cleaning off any remaining honey, usually within 1 day, and the dry super can then be put into storage.<\/p>\n

Enjoy your delicious honey!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harvesting honey is one of the most exciting jobs of a beekeeper (click here to see a video showing how to harvest honey). It is the time when all your hard work pays off, and\u00a0it is such a\u00a0thrill to taste the first honey from your own hive. But, as with\u00a0everything to do with beekeeping, there … <\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,20],"tags":[68,74,72],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harvesting-honey","category-honey","tag-beekeeping","tag-harvesting-honey","tag-honey","item-wrap"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestbeekeeping.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestbeekeeping.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestbeekeeping.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestbeekeeping.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestbeekeeping.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/bestbeekeeping.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322,"href":"https:\/\/bestbeekeeping.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions\/322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestbeekeeping.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestbeekeeping.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestbeekeeping.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}