Harvest and extraction

Anne has ten heavy frames of capped honey, an extractor borrowed from her beekeeping club, and a kitchen that is about to get very sticky. Let's walk through the harvest, start to finish.

First, getting the bees off the honey. You can't carry a box away with thousands of bees in it. Many beekeepers use an escape board, a board with a one way exit, placed under the honey boxes. The bees can go down to the brood nest but can't find their way back up, so after a while the supers are nearly empty of bees. Others use a fume board, with a smell the bees dislike, to push them down.

Next, uncapping. Each cell is sealed with a thin wax cap. Slice the caps off with a heated uncapping knife, working over a screen or tray so the cappings and the honey on them can drain. Those cappings are worth keeping, and we'll come back to them.

Then the extractor. It's a drum with a basket inside that holds the frames. As the basket spins, the honey is flung out of the cells and collects at the bottom of the drum. It's the one big tool most beginners don't own.

From the extractor, the honey goes into a settling tank with a tap at the bottom. Let it stand, and the air bubbles and bits of wax rise to the top, where you skim them off. Then strain it through a coarse screen or cloth into your pails or jars.

One thing surprises new beekeepers. Sooner or later, most honey crystallizes, turning thick and grainy. That's natural, and the honey is still good to eat. To make it runny again, warm the jar gently in a pan of warm water.

Now, the cappings. Wash the honey off them, melt the wax, and strain it through nylon into moulds. That's your beeswax.

If you plan to sell any of that honey, the jars must be new, clean and sound, and the label has to meet Ontario's rules. That's next lecture.

Cleanliness matters. Ontario's honey rules require the premises and equipment you use for honey to be clean and sanitary. And there's a pest reason too. Small hive beetle has been found in southern Ontario since twenty ten, and it goes after exposed honey comb. Extract promptly, clean up the extracting area right away, and store cappings in containers beetles can't get into.

Now let's change one fact. Suppose Anne pulls her supers on a Friday but can't extract until the following weekend. Those frames sit in the garage for a week, a target for small hive beetle, and for robbing bees if she leaves the door open. The lesson is simple: plan your extraction day before you take the honey off.

The mistake beginners make is buying an expensive extractor before they know how much honey they'll have. A basic two frame extractor costs about four hundred dollars. In your first year or two, borrow one from a club or a mentor.

Here is the rule, in one breath. Clear the bees with an escape board, uncap with a heated knife, spin the frames in an extractor, let the honey settle, skim and strain it, keep your wax, extract promptly, and clean up right away.

Next, the rules for selling your honey here in Ontario.