Summer Honey Harvesting

…and just like that summer is nearly over! Extraction is well underway and very nearly finished. 

The harvesting process has remained largely unchanged for a very long time. My Grandpa can remember his Grandpa spinning honey in the garage to the farmhouse. Now our equipment is much larger but the process is the same.

First we go out and put clearing boards on the hives, they’re kind of line one way valves, the bees leave the supers and can’t get back in. The next day we go and collect the supers which are stacked on pallets. 

When we get back we forklift them in to the honey room and begin extracting. The part of the process is to remove the wax cappings. Historically that was done with a knife but due to the number of frames we have we now have a machine that has serrated knives that go back and forth as the frame is pushed between them. 

Next the uncapped frame goes in to the extractor where it spins for about 8 minutes sometimes more and times less depending on the consistency of the honey. 

The honey drains out and it goes into a tank where it settles overnight to allow the beeswax to float up and mean only a small amount of straining is required to make it ready for jarring. 

The wax from the cappings goes through a press to make sure any remaining honey is collected and the wax is rendered down and traded in for something called foundation which is used to fill our new frames.