Honey Harvest Guide

Name: Honey Harvest Guide
Brand: Beekeeping for Beginners

The obvious reason to setup, maintain, and stock a beehive is so you can harvest great honey The right time to harvest the honey will be known when taking a look at one super hives and find that the frames are full of honey combs that your bees have covered with wax caps.

Now all you have to do is remove the honey combs.

Harvesting your honey won't be a problem as long as you are wearing your beekeeping designed gear, like very light colored bee clothes (beekeepers swear that lighter colored clothes have a soothing affect on bees) and make sure you are calm.

When the super is full of capped honey combs you are going to have to remove the bees from that super. There are chemicals available on the market that will make this easier. One of these chemicals that beekeepers use to remove bees from the super is Bee-Go. All beekeepers have to do is apply Bee-Go to a fumer board. When the bees smell the Bee-Go they head to the bottom of the hive, leaving the honey in the super for you to harvest Another product beekeepers use to clear out supers is one called Fishers Bee Quick. Neither of these products harm the bees, the bees simply find the scent offensive and move away from it.

Also Read: Honey Bees Keeping as Hobby

Once you have the honey comb you need to prepare it to be extracted. The first thing to do is removing the wax caps the bees have used to seal the honey into the honey comb. A majority of beekeepers like or prefer using nine frames not ten for their supers. By using nine frames they give the bees enough room to draw the comb out, placing the cap right on the very edge of the comb. This makes it easier to remove the wax caps.

A metal knife is used to remove the caps, the knife works best if the knife blade is warmed, after all its easier to cut warm wax then it is to cut cold wax. You can keep the knife blade warm with frequent dunking in a basin that is full of hot water. A lot of beekeepers like to use their bread knife to remove the wax caps from the honey comb while other beekeepers use specially designed beekeeping knifes. What do you think bee's wax candles are made out of. Removing the caps from the dripping honey is easy, a cheese cloth is used for this process, the cheesecloth drains the honey and the top collects the bee wax.

Once the caps are removed from the honey comb the honey is ready to be extracted.