Harvesting and Bottling Honey
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Honey (how long does honey last?) is one of the sweetest rewards of beekeeping. This golden liquid is like the ultimate product of the collaborative effort of both man and bees. Bees have done their job of producing it, and it’s man’s job to extract it, process it, and bottle it for consumption and various uses. Harvesting and bottling honey is the process your crop takes from hive to jar. For many beekeepers, the first harvest is pure joy. It is the promise of the first of many more harvest to come in the future.
Harvesting honey involves certain steps and processes. There are factors to consider before one can reap that golden liquid reward. Not all seasons can beekeepers enjoy a fruitful harvest. There will be lean and difficult times as well as abundant and blissful times.
How Much Honey Can a Hive Produce?
How much honey a beehive can produce depends on a lot of factors. Normally, a beehive can produce around 30 to 60 pounds which is 14 to 27 kilograms of honey per year. A strong hive can produce more, possibly around 100 pounds or 45 kilograms per hive per year.
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Every beekeeper's experience is different. There are times when your hive will not be able to produce honey no matter how experienced you are. There will be unproductive years. Not everything is up to the bees or how you manage them. Certain factors play an important role and below are some of them:
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Weather Conditions
Temperature and rainfall affect the amount of nectar produced by different plants. It also determines how often the bees can leave their hive and forage. Rain and too much wind will deter the bees from leaving their hive. While sunny and warm weather allows them plenty of time to fly around and forage. It also enables the flowers to produce nectar generously and for longer periods. Weather conditions are unpredictable and uncontrollable. But knowing these factors allows you to foresee and estimate honey harvest volumes accordingly.
Location
Your hive should be located somewhere where there is an abundance of flowering plants. Bees can fly up to a distance of a five-mile radius to forage. A high concentration of nectar-producing flowers near the location of your hive will greatly support your honey production.
Colony Health
A hive is vulnerable to diseases and parasites. Varroa mites, nosema, wax moth, and foul brood are among those that can endanger your hive. Varroa mites cling to bees, feed on their blood, and brood. They are one of the most dangerous pests to bees that can wipe out a whole colony. Nosema is a widespread disease of adult bees that can reduce their life expectancy, can affect the glands producing royal jelly, and cease the egg-laying ability of the queen. Wax moths are pests that can destroy built combs. Foulbrood is a bacterial disease that attacks larvae and can weaken the colony. It can lead the colony to its death and it is not curable. An infected hive is a stressed hive, as a result it will produce less honey. Close monitoring of your bees’ health and responding quickly to threats is of great importance.
Competition From Other Colonies
There are times when a colony of bees will enter another colony’s hive and steal their honey. Bee robbing usually happens when the other colony is having a difficult time finding food on their own. It can result in aggression and fighting between the two hives as worker bees fight to protect their queen and food. This stressful situation can cause honey production to decline. There are certain measures that you can take to help prevent robbing situations. This includes reducing the size of your hive entrance to limit access to other bees and give your guard bees the best chance of defending the colony. You can also closely monitor hive entrance activity to check if robbing is occurring. And make sure no honey tainted equipment is lying around your hive that can attract other bees.
Hive Style
Your choice of hive can also impact your honey production. If your goal is to maximize honey supply, then choose a hive style that would support your goal in the beginning. Due to their large size and ability to easily expand during nectar flow, Langstroth hives are the best. Warre hives are smaller than Langstroth boxes, and Top Bar hives have fixed cavity sizes. But both can still produce a modest harvest. Identify your goals from the start and plan accordingly. This will help you make sound decisions and maximize your investments and efforts.
How Much Honey Can You Take?
You should not get too much from your hive as to leave the bees to starve. Harvest only the excess honey not needed by the bees. Generally, a strong and healthy hive can produce 2 to 3 times more honey than what they need. The amount of honey that can be harvested depends on your climate and the severity and length of the winter season. Bees make honey so they have food stored for the winter season. Rather than hibernating, they cluster together to retain heat to warm and protect their queen. This is known as the “winter cluster”. They vibrate their bodies and wings to generate heat. This continuous activity necessitates the use of energy, which bees get by feeding on the honey they accumulated during the warmer months.
It is quite difficult to predict exactly how much honey a hive will need so it is better to be on the conservative side and leave extra. In case of over-harvesting, beekeepers can also supplement the bees with sugar syrup or fondant if necessary.
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When to Harvest Honey?
Generally, beekeepers harvest honey after a substantial nectar flow and when the honeycombs are ripe and capped. “Honey flow” or “nectar flow” refers to the time when bees have access to abundant resources and the weather is suitable for forage. This usually occurs around summer or springtime. The precise way of knowing when that time has come is to observe your bees. The level of activity and the number of foraging bees will increase. And the amount of honey stored will rapidly grow. An experienced beekeeper will be able to tell when this might occur in their location.
The honey is ripe and mature for harvest when it has been sealed with a wax cap. The bees capped the honey when it is low in moisture around 18% and ready for storage. When around 80-90% of the frame has been capped, then it is a good sign that it is already ripe. If less than that amount, then the bees still need more time to process it. There are also times when your honey is uncapped for some reason that the bees were unable to cap it, but it is already ripe. A special tool called a honey refractometer will be able to test the moisture content of the uncapped frames of honey.
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How to Remove the Bees Out of the Honey Supers?
When the time comes to harvest your honey, you need to move the bees out of the way. There are different approaches that a beekeeper can do to achieve this. These are among the different ways of moving the bees:
Bee Escapes
This is a one-way gate between the boxes of your hive. An accessory that you can fit into a hive that will allow the bees to leave the honey super boxes to go to the brood nest at night and cannot come back. You can install this in your hive 24 to 48 hours before you plan to harvest honey. Ideally, when morning comes, the honey supers will be empty. The effectiveness of this device though depends on the cold temperature drop during night time. Bees return to the brood box during the night to warm themselves. However, in humid places where the temperature is hot at night, this might not work. The bees stay in the honey supers even at night.
Bee Blower
This is one of the fastest ways to remove bees out of your way but the bees don’t quite like it. The honey super frames are removed from the hive and placed a few feet away. Using a bee blower or even a conventional leaf blower the bees are blasted from the frames.
Bee Brush
Another useful tool that is used for a lot of beekeeping tasks. Brushing bees off the frame also works but is usually time consuming especially if you have a lot of frames to go through. You need to be gentle and brush them in an upward direction so as not to injure them.
Fume Board
Also known as an acid board looks like an outer hive cover with a flannel lining. This is the most common method for small scale beekeepers. A liquid bee repellent (acid or fume) is sprayed on the flannel and is placed on top of the honey supers. Depending on the repellent used, this method works fast and within a few minutes. Moving away from the scent, the bees move from the honey supers and down into the brood chamber. After which, the honey supers can then be safely removed and transported to the harvesting place.
There are some beekeepers who use a bee smoker to move the bees away. But there are some who are not recommending it. Smoke causes the bees to think that the hive is on fire, so their first instinct is to gather as much honey as they can. Also it has been observed that when a lot of smoke is used, it may affect the taste of honey.
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Extracting Honey
Honey can be classified as raw or processed. Raw honey is pure, natural, and unprocessed. Regular or processed honey undergoes pasteurization and filtration before bottling. These methods remove impurities and at the same time aim to extend shelf life. But it can also remove beneficial nutrients and minerals.
Here below are the methods to extract honey:
Crush and Strain
This is the method used by beekeepers who do not have an extractor. As well as Top Bar hive beekeepers as this is the only way they can harvest honey. This is done by cutting sheets of honey-filled comb from the frames and putting them into a large bucket. Crush the comb to break it open. You can use a potato masher or any other instrument that can also do the work. Strain the crushed comb and allow the liquid to drip out. This method works well for beekeepers using wax foundation comb frames or foundation-less frames. One drawback to this method is that the honeycombs are crushed and therefore cannot be reused. This would mean that the bees need to create new ones. It would entail more time and effort for your bees. For small-scale beekeepers this would be the most practical choice without the need for investing in equipment that gets rarely used. Crushing and straining the comb is a great way to get clean, pure raw honey with very little equipment needed. Honey should be kept in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight to avoid crystallization.
Using an Extractor
A honey extractor is a mechanical device that holds multiple frames of uncapped honeycombs in a cylindrical container. The frames are then spun around using centrifugal force causing the honey to come out of their wax cells. Using an extractor is the most common method of honey extraction used today. It is clean, efficient, and straightforward to use. Its primary benefit is that it allows the honeycombs to remain intact to be reused again.
There are two types of extractors on the market today. The way the frames are assembled within the container is the primary distinction between them. Both of these types can be operated manually or electronically.
Tangential Extractors. Generally small in size and usually readily available. This extractor only extracts one side of the frame at a time. You must manually flip and turn the frames halfway through to extract honey on the other side. This type of extractor takes longer in extracting and can be a little messy.
Radial Extractors. These often cost more than the tangential extractors. It allows both sides of the frames to be extracted at the same time without the need to be turned. This is more time efficient and comes in a variety of sizes.
Regardless of the type of extractor you are using, the process is the same. Uncap the honey frame cells first with a tool, load the uncapped frames into the extractor, prepare the catch bucket and strainer, start the extractor, and let it do its work. Once the honey is in the bin, it is now ready to be filtered and bottled. Store your honey in an airtight container.
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Bottling Honey
It is recommended to wait at least 24 to 48 hours after extraction before you bottle your honey. Let them sit in a warm location and let them settle. This allows air bubbles, foam, and wax debris to rise to the surface.
As with handling any food, it is imperative that your utensils, jars, and your hands should be clean. Honey, unlike other preserved jams, is an antimicrobial and highly acidic food. This is the reason they don’t spoil. Therefore it does not require sanitized bottles. But if you want to sanitize the bottles for your peace of mind, then you may do so. It is not required, the containers simply need to be clean before putting honey in them. They also do not require to be vacuum sealed or any special sealing when being bottled. It would be best though to use the bottles and containers specially intended for honey bottling as this will ensure that the lids fit properly and no leaking will occur.
If you are selling honey or plan to, there are a few things to keep in mind. You would be subjected to stricter regulations. Always check with your state and local laws as they would have specific requirements regarding food ordinances that you need to comply with. This would involve packing, labeling, bottling, and sale of honey. It would be best to go and check this first before even starting.
Label Your Bottles
It is important to know what kind of honey you have and label your products correctly. There are hundreds of different kinds of honey varieties. They are categorized by the flower source where the bees gather their nectar from. They could be from a single origin meaning one kind of flower. Or multi-flower which comes from a variety of different plants. You can also include other information such as the weight, the date of harvest, and your contact information as well. If you are selling, check with your state and local laws to know the information required in labelling bottled honey for sale.
Bottled honey is the end result of a season’s worth of effort of both the beekeeper and the bees. Never forget that your bees worked hard to produce this fruitful bounty. Return the favor by handling it properly with love, care, and as much effort as you can. Proper methods of harvesting and storing honey will ensure its quality to be good till its last drop.
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