The fall blooms are lift down , and you ’ve get down prepare your fall chores . Before you shut up the beehive for the wintertime and tender the bees good portion , you comment you have an excess of honey in your urticaria . Congratulations ! This is a beekeeper ’s dream : one final dear harvesting . Not all years produce the same amountof beloved , and sure enough not all hives do , either . Honeybee colonies in most North American neighborhood will junket on 40 to 60 pounds of honey through the winter if they need to see spring . Any beyond that amount is considered excess — and it can be yours .
Harvesting dearest is advantageously done in two means : the smash method , or the traditional Langstroth spinning method . Let ’s look at the pro and con of each .
Crushing Comb
It fathom like the name of a nerveless Modern stripe , but it ’s really an ancient form of harvest home dear . Before the Langstroth beehive was invented , there were n’t many other pick . This form of dear harvest requires entering the beehive , cut out the honeycomb ( leave brood comb , of course ) , and crush it , usually by deal , into jars . Some people then , as today , revel bottling full intact slices of comb into jar of pure honey — it has an esthetical value , and it ’s delightful ( and look beautiful on your standstill at the husbandman ’s market ) .
The pro to this dearest harvest home method are in force ones : You preserve a stack of meter preparing an cartridge remover and cleaning all of the equipment before and after . It ’s also great for someone living in a small space who ca n’t store ( or does n’t need to hire ) all of the honey harvesting equipment .
On the downside , it ’s rather messy for a light period of time . But the big drawback is the loss of comb . edifice comb is far more vigor and resourcefulness intensive than simply hive away dearest , so you ’re setting the colony back significantly by cutting out the comb . The bees will have to rebuild all of that before they can put in honey again . If you do select this honey harvest method , be materialistic with how much you cut out . Also consider the time of year : surrender is not the best time to cut and crush comb for love — save this method acting for your spring harvest .
Spinning
This might also sound like another bully dance band name . But this honey crop method acting refers to using install anatomy and “ pulling ” the dear out by spinning them in a cylindrical extractor that use motor force . For this to act upon , the frames must be the correct size for the extractor ( no brood frames here ) and will probably take the wire wax initiation to keep the comb from interrupt .
On the positive side , this honey harvest home method acting is a great deal of work with various components , but it pays off : The resolution is a lightly strained , vestal honey intersection that is well-off to bottle , use and trade . The skeletal system are eagerly reprocess by the bee , and you simply place the whole human body , with still - intact honeycomb on it , back in the beehive for them to clean up and satisfy again .
This downside to this method acting , as mention above , is that it requires plenteous amounts of equipment , including the cartridge remover itself , honey crotch , wax knife , strainers and sieves , and intellectual nourishment - gradation buckets with the right spout .
It should be said that any method is quite a task , but the beloved harvest is one of the most fun and rewarding component part of being a apiculturist ( other than seeing your nettle rash flourish ) . harvest home honey is instantaneous satisfaction : You go from comb covered in X of thou of insects to beautiful , shining , gilt jars of the sweet-flavored stuff on the major planet in one afternoon . It ’s well worth all the hard body of work put in through the twelvemonth .
