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| A.J. Moses |
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| Addie, aspiring beekeeper! |
Our group of Jr. Master Gardeners did not make it to the garden today. So, we made an announcement and invited our staff to come out and enjoy the honey harvest lesson! Some of the staff took turns using the hot knife to remove the was caps before spinning the honey out.
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| The Fume Board Stinks! |
We not only learned so much about harvesting honey, but A.J. and his assistant Addie brought tasting sticks with them and we all got a chance to taste the fresh honey!
Below is a description of harvesting honey from A.J.!
"As summer wanes, beekeepers efforts turn to
harvesting surplus honey from their hives. With traditional
Lanstroth hives the process involves evacuating the bees from their surplus
boxes – called honey supers – uncapping the stored honey, spinning the frames
in a centrifuge and finally filtering out wax particles that invariably find
their way into the extracted honey.
Evacuating the bees can
be done a couple of ways. We used a ‘fume board’ – a framed piece
of fabric sprayed with a smelly liquid; brand name is Honey Robber, or Butyric. It
smells bad and the bees are driven down from the honey supers at the top of the
hive into lower boxes.
Another method uses a
bee brush. The beekeeper uses a little smoke to
distract the bees, then she/he pulls one frame at a time and simply brushes the
bees away before placing the frame into a separate box.
Honey robber works best
at temperatures above 75 degrees. Cooler temps mean using a bee brush – a
little slower but still effective.
Honey supers containing
frames are taken to a site away from the hive to keep the bees from finding and
raiding the honey. The comb is uncapped, placed into the
extractor, (centrifuge), and spun to extract the honey from one side of the
frame. The frames are turned 180 degrees to allow
extraction from the other side.
Finally, the honey is
drained from the extractor through a series of filters to ensure particles of
wax are removed before the honey is bottled."
- Contributed by A.J. Moses - Beekeeper and Master Gardener
