CHAPTER FOUR

HARVESTING OF HONEY BEES PRODUCTS

(QUALITY HONEY)

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HONEY

A good honey harvest is important. Good quality honey keeps well and gets the best price. It may
be possible to take several honey harvest in one year. Honey harvesting is vary from place to place.

TOOLS NEEDED FOR HARVESTING

STEPS TO FOLLOW IN HARVESTING GOOD AND QUALITY HONEY

 Work with a friend for safe and easy havesting.

 Smoke The Entrance and round the harvesting hive very well to calm the bees.
 Open the cover,smoke the bars at the head.
 Use knife to remove the bar gently.
 start where there is know brood or check where the bees are and open gently.
 Carry the honey comb up with your two hand and gently brush the bees convering the
honey comb.
 Only select honey comb with sealed honey for harvesting.
 It is best to harvest honey in the cool of the evening, so that the distubed bees can have the
night to settle down again.
 Harvesting honey at the night makes it hard to see if the honey being harvested is good
quality.
 Harvesting after the rain will increase the moisture content of honey and reduce its quality.
 Cut the honey comb from the bar into a clean bucket. To keep bees out the bucket lid must
be well covered immediately after the cutting of comb. Leave a starter strip for the bees to
build a new comb. Some honey should be left for the bees to eat to afford abscond or of
the colony.
 Harvest each comb in turn untill you reach the comb with brood.

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 Smoking the entrance and round the hive to
calm the bees during harvesting Use knife to open the bar gently

Lift the top bar with comb up with two hands

and gently brush the bees back to the hive

This honey comb is well sealed and good for

harvesting

Cutting the honey comb from the bar into

a clean bucket and cover the lid
A starter strip comb is left with the bar for the
bees to build a new comb and some honey left
for the bees to feed on.
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HOW TO EXTRACT QUALITY HONEY
Materials needed for quality honey extraction are;

 Two clean buckets.

 A clean straining cloth.
 Knife

STEPS TO BE TAKEN FOR PROCESSING

 Find a place safe from the bees.

 Ensure you wash your hands very well.
 Wash your knife.
 Cut the honey comb into small pieces to release the honey.
 Strain through a clean mesh cloth into the second bucket.
 Cover the bucket and allow the honey to drain until most of the honey has run out.
 Squeeze the last drops of honey from the cloth.

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 CHAPTER FIVE
HOW TO EXTRACT BEESWAX

Bee wax is a valuable commodity that can be used to make a variety of products. It should not be
thrown away.

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STEPS TO EXTRACT BEESWAX
1. Keep wax from comb harvested for honey separate from the dark or old combs that have
contained bee brood (the young bee larvae before they hatch).
2. Clean comb from harvested honey makes the best wax.
3. Wah the crushed honeycombs in water until they are free of dirty and hooney.
4. Put them in a suitable cloth sack and tie with string.
5. Heat a good quantity of water in a cooking pot.
6. Put in the sack of honeycomb and push it down under hot water.
7. Keep heating the water gently, it should not boil.
8. Keep pressing the sack until all the comb has melted.
NOTE: The melted wax will run through the mesh and rise to the surface of the water.
9. Squeeze the last wax out of the sack between two sticks with a rolling movement. Take
care because the sack will be hot.
NOTE: The wax will be solidify on the surface of the water as it cools.
10. Process the solid wax again to remove remaining dirt.
11. To do this, break the wax again into small pieces
12. Melt the wax in a pan placed inside a second pan of boiling water.
13. Heat until the wax is melted, the dirts settle on the bottom of the pan.
14. Pour the melted wax through a straining material to remove the dirt.
15. Then pour the wax into a smeared container of the desired shape. You can smear the
coontainer with soap to prevent the wax sticking as it hardens.

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 CHAPTER SIX
ADDING VALUE TO HONEY BEE PRODUCTS
Honey has been used for centuries to make fermented drinks such as mead or honey beer. A wide
range of other value added products can be made which includes candles, polish and cosmetics as
well as cooked products made using honey.

Adding value means turning more of the hive products into complex goods, or accessing the selling
chain more effectively so that extra income can be generated.

MAKING CANDLES
Many types of candles can be mades. The choice will depend on the types of market and available
moulds.Candle moulds can vary, bamboo, water pipe or carica papaya(pawpaw) stalks are all
successful.

TO MAKE A MOULDED CANDLE

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 Can MAKING A SIMPLE LIGHT
A simple light can be made from a tin can, a clay pot or
a
cut off beer can. The candule burned in the mould and
last
well because all the wax burns and none runs down the
edge of the candle .
Night lights are made in a similar manner.

candle can also be made by dipping

the wick directly into a container of
meltedwax,drawing it out and allow
the wax to set. This is repeated many
times to build up the layers of wax
into light candle. With skill candle as
this can be made.

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MAKING A BASIC BODY CREAM OR OINTMENT

NOTE: Lips balms can be made using this method. Pour into suitable container.

An effective medicinal skin

cream can be made by melting
propolis into vaselline using
the double boiler methhod
described above.

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MAKING A SOFT CREAM

To make a softer cream, add water to the basic recipe. As oil and water don’t mix,
this require an emulsifire.

NOTE: Soft cream will need a suitable preservative if they are to keep well.

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MAKING POLISH
Beeswax can also be use for making polish of different colours and shapes.

Steps to follow FOR MAKING POLISH

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