How to harvest your honey from your bee hives is described in this slide show -- how to remove your bees from the honey boxes (supers) - how to extract the honey and what to do with the extracted (wet) honey frames after extraction
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1. Week Six Harvesting Your Honey Dara K. Dimitrov
[email protected]
2. Honey, Honey Flow . And when it stops Honey flow it is the
magic state of the bees collecting honey and pollen the weather
begins to improve lots of blossoms begin to appear (Spring time)
Bees begin bringing in pollen The Queen is at her peak of egg
laying and the bee population in the hive grows very quickly The
nectar in the flowers is high and the honey flow has begun
3. Honey Flow If it is a sunny spring with a few showers - --
the hives will thrive If it is a really wet spring the flowering
doesnt happen properly and the hives are stalled and the honey
season may be diminished The spring sees the hives get really busy
with activity bees shooting out the hive, increasing numbers you
will see drones emerging from the hive
4. Honey flow.. The honey flow will continue over the summer
months The Queens laying will slow a little bit Hot and Humid
nights you should see bees cooling themselves on the outside of the
hive Now is the time you will start putting on Honey Supers (Honey
boxes)
5. Honey Flow . Inspections of the hive should be occurring
weekly to every other week Keep an eye on the health of the hive
Adding more honey supers when they are needed
6. Honey Flow .. Honey frames that are full and capped are
heavy Each frame can weigh as much as 3 kilos A Honey Super box can
weigh as much 35 40 kilos A good reason to use boxes for honey
boxes Remember you should leave enough honey on the hives to feed
them over the winter to reduce any sugar feeding
7. When to collect the honey You should be harvesting the honey
from frames where Honey is cured and capped The honey flow is
almost over and the bees have filled the honey frames Capped Honey
cells are capped with wax and ready to extract Open cells (so not
capped with wax) can only be extracted if it is cured You give the
frame a shake if the honey leaks from the cells it is not honey the
water content is too high and will ferment and spoil
8. Honey Harvesting YOU MUST REMOVE THE BEES FROM THE HONEY
SUPERS BEFORE YOU TAKE THE HONEY BOXES OFF There are a number of
ways to remove the bees It depends on the number of hives you have
How much time you have
9. How to remove the bees 1. Shaking the bees off 2. Blowing
the bees out 3. Using a Bee escape board
10. Shaking the bees out You remove each frame from the honey
super You shake the frame gently to begin with You can brush the
bees off as well Have to use this method if you have a top bar hive
This is a good method if you have one or two hives and you want to
harvest a box at a time
11. Blowing the bees out They hate this method (I am sure they
do!) You take the honey super off the hive Place it onto a
frame-stand with a space under it happens away from the hive Using
a blower (you can buy a special one or just use a leaf blower) You
give them a 200 km per hour blast and the bees are blasted off the
honey frame It works very quickly and the bees are removed but they
are very irritated and upset - Most Commercial beekeepers use this
method
12. Bee Escape Boards An easy method Less invasive -- better
for the bees You place the escape board between the honey supers
and the rest of the hive (honey boxes above the board) The bees
travel down to the brood boxes but cant travel back up into the
honey boxes Its a one-way trip you leave the escape board on for a
few days before you collect the honey Takes more time and therefore
you need to plan for this
13. Extracting the honey You need An extractor otherwise it is
draining through a sieve A filter to drain off all the other bits
in the honey Big buckets (at least 30 kilos a box in a good season)
An Hot Knife to uncap the honey frames with Make sure that
everything is absolutely clean
14. Extracting the Honey If you join the Waikato Domestic Bee
Association you can hire the honey extractor for $10 and the hot
knife for free You have to uncap the honey by removing the cappings
A hot knife cuts off the cappings Keep the cappings to drain for
honey
15. Extractor and the honey frame Spin the frames in the
extractor
16. Tutin Toxic Honey Bees feed on Tutu which is native to NZ
Tutu is found in the bush close to waterways and regenerating bush
Not commonly found in urban areas Tutin is a neurotoxin for humans
but not for bees
17. Tutin Toxic Honey If there is tutu bushes near your hives
(take a walk and check) High numbers of vine hoppers (monitor this)
Hot dry weather and little rain (like the current weather we have
had) Then you are recommended to test your honey for tutin You
should avoid harvesting honey from the middle of Dec to the end of
March if you live in a high risk area
18. A quick video on tutin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedd
ed&v=bWXQ6YJU_U4
19. Semi Commercial Bee Keeping Places to put the hives
Sourcing the bees Capital investment required 50 hives
approximately$10,000 Time involved in bee keeping Generating an
income
20. Set Up and Generating an Income Revenue streams Selling the
honey Selling the Propolis Pollination Selling the bees
overseas
21. Guest Speakers Tim and William Stewart Silver Fern Honey
NZ