Extracting Your Honey Crop: Preparing for Honey Harvest

Once you’ve determined that your honey is ready and you’ve pulled your supers, be prepared to get that honey extracted right away. Although you can't see them, you'll likely find that you have small hive beetles or wax moths if honey is left on the frames for more than just a few days, running the risk of the honey becoming inedible.

Equipment needed

• Extractor: Depending on the amount of honey you will be extracting, a small unit (two to four frames) may be sufficient for short-term use, but for larger quantities and better quality, an investment in a good quality extractor will be money well spent. Bee clubs often will loan equipment to members, as will other club members willing to help out.
• Plastic uncapping tank
• Capping scratcher
• Uncapping knife
• Plastic uncapping punch roller
• Food-grade five-gallon bucket: Most hives will produce at least one medium super of honey weighing 35 to 45 pounds. A single bucket holds 55–60 pounds, so purchase accordingly.
• Bucket honey gate: Avoid storing honey in a bucket with a gate. IT WILL LEAK! Use this bucket for bottling only. Tip: Install the gate on the lid and not the bucket. This allows you to move the lid with the gate from bucket to bucket for bottling. Simply (with lid on securely) lay the bucket over on its side to fill bottles.
• Strainer or filter: For the “raw and unfiltered” honey designation, whether to strain is your choice. Otherwise, floating your honey would also qualify. This method involves simply letting your honey sit for a few days, allowing all of the impurities to float to the top to be skimmed off for bottling.
• Bottles: There are a number of honey bottles to choose from in various sizes. Purchase what best suits your market (area). Note: Only bottle ahead what you can sell quickly. Honey crystallizes quickly and is much easier to liquefy out of larger containers than smaller ones.

Location

For most of you, your kitchen or garage (with the door closed) will suffice. You will of course want to have it as clean as you would want any space in which any product you consume is packaged.

Using painter’s plastic or plastic tablecloths on the floors and countertops can make cleanup much easier. Consider taping them down with blue painter’s tape to prevent a tripping hazard if necessary. Tip: Have a bucket of water and rags (towels) to wipe your hands throughout the process.

Watch as Roy and Karen Morse show how easy it is to extract honey using the items discussed in this article.

Extraction process

• Place your frame vertically over the uncapping tank. Use the uncapping knife to remove (top to bottom) the thinnest slice of wax cappings possible, letting it drop inside the tank. Repeat on the other side.
• For any unopened cells, use the cappings fork to lightly scratch over the cells to open them. An uncapping roller works well for this step as well.
• Place the frame vertically into the extractor. For tangential extractors, you’ll spin the extractor until one side is empty and then reverse the frames to spin out the other side. For radial extractors, both sides will spin out simultaneously.
• Repeat this process until the tank fills to just under the spinner basket. You’ll know your honey has reached the basket when the spinning is labored (becomes difficult to spin).
• Place a bucket under the extractor gate and open the gate. Watch as your liquid gold pours out!
• If you aim to call your honey “raw and unfiltered,” you won’t use a filter, but you can use a strainer. These strainers are designed to remove only the bee body parts and not pollen—thereby retaining its natural composition. Otherwise, be prepared to let the honey “float” for a few days until all of the foreign matter floats to the top to be skimmed.
• The easiest skimming method I have found to date is the “plastic wrap method.” You simply take a piece of plastic wrap slightly larger than the bucket and carefully lay it on top of the honey, gently pressing it down all around the interior of the bucket and onto the floating foam. Pay close attention to getting it right next to the edges all the way around the inside. Once you’ve done that, in one quick motion (one handed) lift up the plastic wrap from the center with all five fingers, grabbing it as if you are picking up the honey, and lift the foam and all quickly into a waiting bowl in your other hand. The foam and debris will be encapsulated inside the plastic wrap. This will remove 95+% of the debris from the honey. Repeat as needed.
• Store the bucket of honey in a warm location, such as your garage or in an outbuilding so that it is safe from critters that might try to get to it.
• As mentioned, only bottle what you will be selling quickly unless you have a makeshift “hot box” to store it in, such as an ice chest or old nonworking chest-type freezer with a light bulb hanging inside for a low heat source. Even so, in our experience it’s best to bottle upon request, making it fresh and less likely to darken from constant heat.