HARVESTING AND HANDLING HONEY

FOR HOBBY AND SIDELINE BEEKEEPERS

JONATHAN R. ENGELSMA, PH.D.
TOPICS

• About Us

• Producing Honey

• Harvesting Honey

• Handling Honey
QUICK FACTS

• We are a family of nine from Nunica, MI

• Mieke and Jonathan share a background in agriculture

• Jonathan works as a prof in GVSU’s School of Computing and starting

keeping bees in 1984.

• Family runs a sideline bee operation

• run 40-60 colonies mainly for honey production

• retail the annual honey crop

• sell nucs when able.

• Website: http://hudsonvillehoney.com
HONEY PRODUCTION -
PREREQUISITES
• Scout for good yard
locations and place
colonies prior to main
honey flow.

• Make sure colonies are

strong and healthy prior
to main nectar flow.

• Make sure equipment is

assembled and ready
prior to main honey flow.
LOCATION, LOCATION,
LOCATION

• Scout a year or more in

advance for good locations.

• Take good care of the

landowners and their land.

• Respect existing bee yards.

• Do the math when

establishing remote yards.
STRONG AND HEALTHY
COLONIES

• Good queens

• Encourage early spring

buildup.

• Equalize colonies

• Monitor and keep mite

populations in check!

• Keep a decent inventory

of nucs on hand.
HONEY PRODUCTION
EQUIPMENT
• Decide what kind of
honey you are going to
produce.

• Purchase / assemble
supers & frames for
surplus honey in advance
of honey flow.

• Better to have more

supers than you think you
need!
PRODUCING CUT COMB HONEY

• Minimal amount of
standard equipment
required!

• standard honey supers /

frames with “thin
surplus” foundation

• bee brush to free comb

of bees

• sharp knife to cut into

sections
CUT COMB ALONG SIDE
EXTRACT HONEY PRODUCTION
• Intersperse marked comb
honey frames within
extract supers.

• share the pain of

drawing out foundation
across all your colonies

• Use irregular shaped or

partially capped sections
to produce “chunk
honey”.
HANDLING CUT COMB HONEY
• Harvest from hive as soon as
capped.

• Cut and allow edges to drip

dry.

• use clean queen excluder

over a commercial
serving pan.

• Package and freeze for 24

hours to kill any wax moth /
hive beetle larva.

• Market / use before it

crystallizes!
ALTERNATIVES TO CUT COMB

• Ross Rounds / Bassword /

Hogg Sections

• Hard to get bees to

work in the sections

• Equipment is much
more expensive

• Must read: “Honey in the

Comb” by Eugene Killon.
Dadaist & Sons.
EQUIPMENT FOR EXTRACT
HONEY PRODUCTION
• What size supers should be
used?

• deeps - back breakers!

• shallows - easy enough

for a healthy adult to lift,
stack, etc.

• mediums - a little heavier

than a shallow, but still
manageable.

• We use wired foundation

and embed horizontal
wires … most of the time.
SUPERING
• Start adding super(s) in spring
when the brood chamber(s) are
~ 70 - 80% full of bees/brood/
food.

• Whitening of the combs means

the honey flow is on!

• Several options to consider:

• Add all supers at once!

• Bottom supering - add supers

under existing supers
sequentially as needed.

• Top Supering - add supers

directly on top of existing
supers
WHEN TO HARVEST HONEY

• When to harvest?

• Not before it is (mostly)

capped.

• When the main nectar

flow has ended.

• Allow yourself time to

knock back the mites!
MOISTURE CONTENT IN HONEY

• Refractometer: device
used to measure moisture
content in honey.

• Should be about 16-18.5%

• > 18.5% the honey will

ferment!

• Good rule of thumb is to

harvest honey when it is
mostly capped.
HARVESTING HONEY (1)

• For the hobby beekeeper

(< 5 hives).

• use a bee brush to

remove bees.

• bee escape (takes 24

hours)
HARVESTING HONEY (2)

• For the sideliner with

more hives:

• fume boards with a

fumigant

• clears the supers of

bees in minutes

• blower is handy to
remove bees clinging to
brood (inevitable if you
don’t use excluders…)
HARVESTING TIPS

• Which fumigant?

• Bee Go - very effective,

but stinks terribly and
so will you when you’re
done!

• Bee Quick - made of

non toxic natural oils
and herbal extracts.
Smells is tolerable and
works fine.
MORE HARVESTING TIPS…
• Watch the weather forecast
and harvest on a nice warm
sunny day.

• Paint your fume boards black

to absorb heat and work more
effectively.

• Have enough fume boards for

speedy super removal (we
plan on 1 board for every 4
hives).

• If loading on a truck or trailer,

always cover harvested honey
immediately to avoid robbing.
HONEY EXTRACTING FACILITY
• Some very important requirements
for honey extracting facilities:

• Must be “bee tight”. Very

important or you will have an
out of control disaster and lots
of competition for your honey!

• A warm room: like molasses,

honey doesn’t flow if its not
warm!

• The proper electrical service if

you are running powered
equipment.

• An abundance of hot water to

facilitate clean up
OUR EXTRACTION PROCESS

• Typical Extracting Day:

• 9am - 10am: make sure we

have enough buckets for
the day. hook up trailer,
load fume boards, etc.

• 10am - 1pm: remove

around 50 supers, 1 - 1.2k
pounds of honey

• 1pm - 8 pm: immediately

extract the honey while it
is still nice and warm!
EXTRACTORS

• For the hobby beekeeper (< 10

colonies)

• A hand powered 2-4 frame

extractor ($300 - $400) will
suffice.

• For the larger hobby / sideline

operation:

• powered 8+ frame extractor

($1,000+)

• Radial vs. tangential extractors

THE UNCAPPING PROCESS
• For the hobby beekeeper
(< 5 hives)

• Cold knife or capping

scratcher ($5 - $20)

• For larger hobby / sideliner

(< 60 hives)

• hot knife/plane will

suffice ($120)

• For larger sideliner, you’ll

want something less labor
intensive and more
efficient…
PROCESSING THE CAPPINGS
• Possibly your biggest bottleneck!

• Hobby Beekeeper (< 5 hives)

• Build your own solar wax

melter! (< $50)

• Larger Hobby / Sideliner

• Walter T. Kelley’s Capping

Melter / Separator ($600)

• Maxant Jr. Capping Spinner

($1500)

Steve Tilman’s Solar Wax Melter - http://www.michiganbees.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Solar-Wax-Melter_20100727.pdf

 PROCESSING THE HONEY

• Our current process:

• screen strain immediately

out of the extractor to
remove larger debris.

• immediately filter with a

400 or 600 micron filter
while still warm from the
hive (sold as raw unheated
honey)

• Remaining honey is put into

50 gallon buckets and
warmed / filtered (400
micron) bottled as needed.
 SCALING UP

Source: http://www.maxantindustries.com/pdfs/packages.pdf
DECRYSTALLIZING HONEY
• For the hobby beekeeper:

• put honey container in a pan

of water on stove with burner
on low for several hours.

• dashboard of vehicle parked

in the sunshine?

• Siderliner:

• for buckets use a round pail

heater to liquify overnight
($110)

• Similar (but larger) heating

bands can be used for honey
stored in drums.
BOTTLING HONEY

• For the hobby beekeeper

• Use a 5 gallon bucket

with a gate on the
bottom. ($15)

• For the sideline

beekeeper:

• We use a 16 gallon
Maxant bottling tank.
ANOTHER CONSIDERATION:
CREAMED HONEY
• Easy to make, and honey
customers love it! (Google for
recipes).

• Lessons we learned the hard

way:

• Use a high quality drill (1/2

inch w/ 10.5 amps or more)
for mixing seed honey. ($140)

• Purchase a stainless steel

paint mixer attachment. ($50)

• Mix in a stainless steel

container to avoid plastic
chips in your honey!! ($35)
POST EXTRACTION
CONSIDERATIONS
• Prior to storing, place
extracted “wet” supers
outside at least 100 yards
from your apiary to allow
bees to clean them up.

• Protect your stored supers

against wax moth
infestations (and mice).

• Para-Moth crystals

• Wrap / Shrinkwrap
SOME CLOSING THOUGHTS

• Don’t be afraid to
experiment and find a
process that works
efficiently (and
economically for you!)

• Learn from your fellow

beekeepers.
ANY QUESTIONS?

Jonathan Engelsma’s Contact Info:

• email: jengelsma@gmail.com

• web: http://hudsonvillehoney.com

• twitter.com/honeyandcandles

• Like us! /hudsonvillehoney

• A copy of these slides are posted on:

• http://slideshare.net/jengelsma