It's Honey time and about time!
Bee Blog
It's Honey time and about time!
This is a brief account of how liquid honey is extracted from honey comb taken from the hive. Heather honey extraction is slightly different as is 'comb honey' preparation.
In 2014 and 15 I lost all my bees to Nosema, a serious and very infectious disease of the bees' gut. There are plenty of diseases and pest around to harm the honey bee and because of modern transport they travel round the world fast. Both years I have had to painstakingly sterilized my hives and equipment which was a long and tedious process. In 2016 I restocked using bees I found as swarms and these came through the winter of 2016/17 and produced surplus honey this year. With good management they should produce more in 2018. The trouble is having such a gap in extractions I had to think where all the necessary equipment was. I still haven't found my refractometer!
The start
The exact details of this process will differ from bee-keeper to bee-keeper and this is aimed really at the new beekeeper or interested person.
After getting all the extraction equipment out, cleaning it and arranged the process starts with taking the boxes called supers off the hive. The supers are where the bees store the honey. But before the supers are taken off the hive any bees in them have to be removed. This is done in several ways but usually involves the use of a 'clearer board'. This is a board which fits under the super but has a one way device in it. The bees can go downwards through it but not up. Thus the bees can be forced out of the super and into a larger lower section called the 'brood box'. This is where the queen lives, laying up to 2000/day a day and bee rearing takes place. Fig 1
Fig 1 Langstroth Jumbo hive. The deep box at the bottom is the 'brood' where the young bees are reared. The 5 shallower boxes about that are the 'supers' where excess honey is stored.
In my types of hive (Langstroth Jumbos) the supers weigh, when full of honey, about 40 lb each. It can be back breaking work lifting these off. and care needs to be taken not to injure yourself. Many beekeepers suffer from 'bee-keepers back'. The hopefully bee-less supers are taken into a bee proof room for the rest of the process. If bees can get into the extraction area they soon discover their honey and will come in their thousands to take it back to the hive(s) so once removed it's best if the supers are attended to quickly. If the bees find them life can become difficult and perhaps hazardous. .
Uncapping
When honey is mature the bees put a thin layer of wax over the cell in which it is stored. Honey like this can last for years as it is naturally sterile. However, this wax seal needs to be removed before the honey can be got out of the honey comb and this can be a sticky business. For over 40 years I've never been able to stop 'stickiness' occurring. Honey from the hands gets onto door handles, cups, keys, equipment -- in fact anything you might touch. Inevitably some honey ends up on the floor and so onto the soles of shoes and then gets trampled around! Fig 2, 3 & 4
Fig 2.A frame of capped
Fig 3. Close up of the capping
Fig 4 Uncapped frame of honey
Specialised knives are used for uncapping and mine --an electrically heated one -- saves the constantly dipping the none electric types into hot water. It's very helpful if you have a second person involved so the beekeeper can get on with the extraction its self. Once organised two people can get through the whole process reasonably quickly, depending on how much honey you have. Eight Langstroth supers (80 frames) can be extracted in a day, depending on the temperature of the honey. (Fig 5).
Fig 5. Cutting cappings off
Fig 6 Uncapping tray assembly
Fig 7 Plastic sieve in tray
There is an art to uncapping and it shouldn't be rushed. I uncap over a purpose made food grade plastic tray. (Fig 6). This is arranged so that the wax capping fall onto a large plastic sieve (Fig 7) and any honey on the wax cappings drains into another container below. The cappings are useful as they are clean and new. Home made cosmetics is one use for mine.
The extractor
There various designs of these but it's basically a cylindrical container into which the frames, now with exposed honey, can be slotted. The cage in which the frames are placed can be turned hand or an electrical (Figs 8 & 9). Hand cranking is hard work but I suppose we have all done it early on in beekeeping. I electrified mine my self as I did the one previous to this one. I think the cost of electrification was about £50. (Fig 8). The motor speed is frequency dependent. The speed of rotation and the weight of the frames is important in this part of the process. If the frames are very different in weight and have not been arranged incorrectly the extractor can become very unbalanced and tend to rock all over the floor. If the speed of rotation is too great wax can break from the frames making subsequent filtration harder.
Fig 8 Electrified extractor
Fig 9. Frames are slotted into the cage
The speed can be such that wooden frames can break. In my extractor a rotation of 285 revolutions/min will make a 3 lb frame weight 54 lb so you can see there can be large forces involved and why wax can break if the frames aren't put in the extractor properly. Most Associations have an extractor to lend or hire to their members.
Through the course filters
When enough honey is extracted the extractor valve is opened to let it run through stainless steel mesh filters and into another container (Fig 10) These remove wax debris and any bees that have got into the extractor. Honey is a 'silent runner' which means you can't hear it as it runs from one container to another so don't leave it as it could over flow!
Fig 10 Primary filters. Remove the large bit of wax etc.
This can take time if the honey is cool and there is a lot of wax in it say from a broken frame. The other thing is that if you get too much honey in the bucket you can't lift it up for the next stage.
Settling and de-gassing
Again the exact details of the stage may differ between bee-keepers but the out come is the same. I now run the honey into a stainless steel tank The honey needs to be slightly warm and there are several ways of doing but one is to use heating belts of the sort you use for brewing or just leave it in a warm room. Standing like this for say 48 hrs hours or longer, depending on the temperature, allows air trapped in the honey to escape and 'froth' to rise to the top (Fig 11). As the honey is drawn off much of the froth is left on the sides of the tank. The next stage is to put the honey through an even finer filter made of cloth and into another container. Filter cloths can be obtained from bee equipment supply outlets (Fig 12). If you heat honey to 37 degrees C you will start to denature it and hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) can form in significant amounts at higher temperatures. After the settling and de-gassing stage the honey can be jarred and labelled. There are regulations about labelling and it's important to follow these. Note: Some people want raw honey and not one that has been warmed or excessively filtered.
Fig 11. The froth on the top of settled honey
Fig 12. The honey is put through a fine filter cloth
Jarring
If you sell your honey in jars it's important to fill the jar so it meets the weight criteria on the label. For the small beekeeper it is easier to add a little more than have too little. Of course you can weigh it but this is tedious when you filling a lot of jars. Labels have to conform to the regulation of print size and what has to be on them. They have to have your name and address, weight of the product, Produce of England (if that's what it is) and a best before date. In the case of honey it's usually taken as 10 years from the extraction date. I have my own label which the printers keep on file for me so reordering is easy. Honey has to have a water content of 20% or less. If it's more it has to be sold as bakers honey which commands a smaller price. To prevent fermentation the honey needs to be about 17% water. The water content can be tested with a refractometer. Jarring for competition is much more complex.
The Clear up
The extracted frames can be put in their super boxes and put back on the beehives, preferably the same hive as they came from. Fig 13 & 14.
Fig 13 Transport of some extracted supers to the hives
Fig 14 Extracted supers put onto hives so bees can clean them
The bees will clear out any remaining honey very quickly leaving the comb dry so they can be stored for use next year. Finally a good wash of equipment in hot soapy water and a good rinse and we can store things until next year's honey extraction. Of course there are floors to clean as well as door handles etc if applicable.
Chris Coulson. Sept 2017