Honey Time, Crush and Strain

Here is what I do, it's pretty easy really.  I’ve attached a couple of photo’s.

I pull the honey laden frames from the super and brush the bees back into the hive.  You will invariably miss a couple but don’t worry about them. 

Drop the honey frames into a clean plastic tote (big enough to hold them).  The tote will be heavy if you put a lot of frames in there so if you have a little wagon to drag it around on or something it helps.

I just do this one by one till I have as many as I want.  I put empty frames back into the hive.  I usually only pull about 4 medium frames at a time, which often fills a whole package of those 12 oz mason jars.

Make sure you keep the lid on the tote or the bees will rob their honey back just as fast as you can pull it out and you'll end up with empty combs.

Then I drag the tote up to the house and bring it in. Now don't be surprised if you have a few bees in the tote with the honey.  Just brush them from the frames into the tote and later you can set them free outside.  This year I was a in a hurry so Asa and I used my bee vac and sucked them off the frames.  Later we just set the vac cage outside and let them find their way back to the hive.  I've never been stung during this phase even without a suit.

Now at this point my method diverges from many keepers.  RJ for example has an extractor so he puts the frames into the extractor and spins the honey out.

I don't have an extractor so I do it the old fashioned way.  I take a big deep stainless pot that comes with a shallower pot that sit's within it.  The smaller one is a steamer for steaming vegetables and stuff.  It has holes in the bottom of it so that stuff in the top can drip into the bottom.  You can get these cheap at the local Wal-Mart.  Beekeeper supply stores have a similar contraption made out of plastic buckets.

I line the upper holed pot with a couple layers of moistened cheese cloth.  For some reason it works better if it's slightly damp.  It won't be enough water to affect the honey.  Then I take a butter knife and cut the combs out of the frames.  If you used wire in your frames you may need to use a wire cutter and pliers to pull the wires out.  I don't use wire so it's not an issue.  This is a messy job so I usually do it over big cookie sheets to catch any drips.

 

Put the chunks of honeycomb into the cheese cloth lined and holed upper pot.  At this point the honey will filter through the cloth, pass through the holes in the top pot and pool in the big bottom pot.  Fill the upper pot as much as you can then take a masher and pulverize the combs.  Take your time and really mush them up good.  I use an old solid maple rolling pin for my masher but any old masher will do.

After an hour or so you should have an inch or three of honey in your big pot.  You can lift the smaller one that’s full of mush off and sit it on a cookie sheet and pour the honey from the big pot into jars.  Then just put the small one back on and wait for more to trickle through.

When you start the mush will be dark.  The honey will keep percolating down for a few days so be patient.  You can periodically pour more into jars.  After a few days the mush will be light colored and will be mostly just beeswax.

If you keep the Pot warm (not hot) like on top of your fridge kind of warm, the honey will trickle down faster.  But even at room temperature gravity will eventually get the job done for you.

The stuff that trickles through the cheese cloth is high grade, all natural honey, fit for any table.  If you really want to get every drop you can melt the wax and that will release what’s left of the honey.  The wax floats on top the honey then you just separate to two.  You can get a surprising amount of honey this way and quite a lot of beeswax too, but this honey has been heated up and therefore is of lower quality.  This honey is good to use in baked goods and that sort of thing.

If you decide to melt down the wax and get every last drop make sure you use a pot for that job that will never be used for anything else because it’s a mess.

Otherwise the leavings can be put in a hive feeder and the bees will slowly reclaim it and recycle it back into the hive.