PLAN BEE: Extracting honey

Extracting honey is considered the most enjoyable part of beekeeping. John Schellenberger manages part of the process.

I have to admit, extracting the honey is probably the most fun part of beekeeping.

Every year, we invite new beekeepers or those with an interest in beekeeping to join us in the honey room when extracting honey, the “nectar of the gods.” Many new beekeepers may not have a honey harvest for the first or second year due to many factors, including the health and size of their colonies. So, inviting them to help extract offers an opportunity to get involved in another aspect of beekeeping and have the experience of extracting. Hey, it also provides additional help!

Extracting honey from the frames is part of the process.

We usually extract on a Saturday morning. Everything we need is ready; the extractor has been cleaned, uncapping tools are ready, uncapping pan and buckets with strainers are ready. The honey frames and supers have been harvested, stored in the honey room and ready for extracting.

When the nectar was at 17% moisture content, the hive bees produced wax from their wax glands and painstakingly capped each honey cell with wax to preserve and keep the honey intact. Prior to extracting, we undo all their hard work; uncap the sealed honey comb to allow the honey to flow from the cell.

There are several tools used for uncapping. If the capped comb extends beyond the frame, many beekeepers will use an electric heat knife, running the hot knife down the length of frame cutting just below the cappings. There are also several manual uncapping tools available and our preference is the uncapping scratcher and the uncapping fork.

The scratcher resembles a wide metal hair pick with a comfortable angled handle. The metal picks are placed just under the wax capping and using a quick upward forward motion, the cell is uncapped. The uncapping fork is very similar but wider and is pulled just under the wax cappings. The uncapping fork provides the fastest means of uncapping a honey frame but does require a bit more practice than the scratcher. Both tools are easy to use and each person has their individual preference.

The honey frames are individually moved from the supers to the uncapping pan where each side of the honey frame is uncapped. The uncapping pan serves as a work area for uncapping and a reservoir to hold any honey that may drip from the newly uncapped frame. With two or three people uncapping, the pan collects a lot of cappings and is emptied with its contents placed in a five-gallon bucket to be pressed to remove excess honey.

When both sides of the honey frame have been uncapped, they are placed in the extractor. We started out using my dad’s manual two frame tangential extractor. The tangential extractor spins out the honey on only one side of the frame at a time; half way through the process, it needs to be turned to spin out the other side.

At that time, we only had three to four productive colonies. As we increased the number of colonies and apiaries, we have since upgraded to a motor operated radial extractor that holds 20 honey supers. Radial extractors are considered more efficient because they can extract honey from both sides during the process.

Though the extractor can hold more, only twelve frames are loaded in the basket, allowing more space to sling the honey during the process. We carefully loaded the extractor, slowly start the extractor and gradually ramp up the speed. Each honey frame weighs differently, so we try to place the frames in the basket of the extractor to keep a balance during the spinning process.

As the extractor is rotating, centrifugal force slings the honey from the cells to the inner wall of the extractor and slowly slides to the bottom. A bottom gate valve is opened as the honey flows from the extractor into strainers and collects in five-gallon buckets. The strainers remove any wax cappings, propolis or other fragments from the raw honey. Seeing that first flow of honey from the extractor is one that everyone anticipates and enjoys.

We maintain a moderate speed while monitoring the honey on the walls. Several commented on the sweet aroma of honey riding on the nice breeze created by the spinning of the frames. When the majority of the honey has been extracted, the frames are removed from the extractor and placed back into the empty honey supers.

These “wet” frames will be returned to the apiary for the honey bees to clean out any leftover honey and then stored in the honey room for next year’s nectar flow. The cappings will be pressed to remove as much honey as possible before returning them to the apiary for a good cleaning. These cappings can be used for candles, lip balm and other wax products.

As honey frames are being extracted, we continue to uncap for the next load. Everyone has an opportunity to experience every aspect of extracting including sampling the honey or a clump of honey and wax.

It was a very bountiful harvest this year. We have discovered that placing nine honey frames with built out comb will produce more honey than ten frames in a honey super. There were several “jelly donut” honey frames, loaded and bulging with honey that had a net weight over six pounds. It took over 4,600 bees to forage for nectar to make the six pounds of honey. Remember one honey bee produces 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her short lifetime!

We harvest in early July and it usually takes two Saturdays to extract the honey. Extracting honey is hard work but we make it a fun day for everyone. At the end of the day, we wash up and sit down for a lunch, enjoying the delicious Wolfe port wieners, coleslaw, potato salad, chips, salsa and ice-cold peppermint tea. Everyone is given a pound of honey at the end of the day. We have a fun day, but you know, spending a day with another beekeeper and friends is always a fun day.

Tony Stewart was one of our local beekeepers, he was a machinist by trade and built a sturdy, heavy stainless-steel radial extractor. He was an unselfish and wonderful mentor to our local beekeepers. His memory lives on especially in the early summer when we use Tony’s extractor to extract honey, the “nectar of the gods.”

I hope you enjoy Plan Bee and better understand another aspect of the little honey bee. Thank you for all the positive responses from the many readers who have enjoyed reading and learning more about the little honey bee.

Visit our Spring Valley Beekeepers Facebook and request to be a member or come join us on the first Monday at Tunnel Hill Christian Church. You can also follow my beekeeping on Facebook, John Schellenberger.

As our mentor Kenny Schneider always reminded us: “Remember, it’s not how many hives you keep, but how well you keep your hives. Think about that.”

Stay safe and Bee happy.

John Schellenberger is a Floyd County Commissioner and beekeeper. He’s a member of the Spring Valley Beekeepers.

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