Extracting honey from darkened brood frames

[Howsoonisnow]

Is it acceptable to extract honey from darkened brood frames and sell the honey?

Thanks

 

[Tom Bick]

Not in my opinion honey in brood frames are for the bees. Give it back to them later in the year or when you create nucs.

 

[enrico]

it's up to you but I always try and sell my best honey. At the end of the day we are trying to keep quality. I keep all the other honey for myself or the bees.
I would like to think that we all have a pride in our products!
E

 

[Howsoonisnow]

What I'm trying to find out is what, if anything, is making the honey from darkened comb inferior?

Thanks

 

[Poly Hive]

Nothing that I am aware of apart from beekeeper prejudice which is founded upon? Not a clue.

Personally I have extracted tons of heather from the brood combs and my mentors hundreds of tons.

If you have a think of how the major operations in the States and Canada and the Pacific too work virtually all commercial honey is extracted from brood combs as they do not use excluders.

PH

 

[oliver90owner]

It is larval cocoons which darken the frames. The cells are scrupulously cleaned by the bees before storing, so the only contamination is likely from uncapping the frames. There are ways, like the hot air gun, which only open the cappings without affecting the cell walls.

If it is good enough for the bees, it is good enough for me.

Regards, RAB

 

[Ceph]

It's frowned upon by many as it is said to taint the taste of the honey being with brood, although I have tasted it and havnt noticed a difference.

I wouldn't extract it as it's bad form in my opinion for customers and the bees, if everything is being taken off them and they are fed with supplements i.e. Syrup, then I don't think that's very fair. They work themselves to death to produce the fruits of their labour an should be allowed to enjoy it. But everyone's entitled to their opinion of course.

I have a load from an AS filling up a bb b4 the queen starts laying so as above I too plan to use it for nucs, it's a brucy bonus.

 

[victor meldrew]

I made the mistake of extracting honey from old brood frames , the result was awful
It was dark, tasted grainy and had a bitter propolis taste .
I burned the lot !!

John Wilkinson

 

[Howsoonisnow]

I produce most of my honey in supers.

I'll try a little from a few brood frames on the last extraction and see if I can notice any difference.

Thanks.

 

[oliver90owner]

Of course, if the question was of honey which may have been in the hive for years, the answer might be a little different, to that of honey stored freshly in darker combs.

When you think about it, all skep honey was likely stored in cells previously used for brood. Just not dozens of brood cycles though!

Warres are much the same. n'est pas?

RAB

 

[YorkshireBees]

Well in my case I will be extracting from brood frames as using he demaree method of swarm prevention I have ended up with lots of totally honey filled brood frames!

The first trial gave me 7lbs from 3 partially filled frames and it tastes and looks fantastic. Not saying I will sell the honey that is from brood frames as I hope to have plenty from the supers but for family and friends I see nothing wrong with it.

* It is fresh honey though and not old, over-wintered honey, those frames I store and use for nucs or return them back to the hive in autumn.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

MEGABUMP ALERT

I'm bumping this because us first-year beeks are encountering the messy joys of extracting and I found this a REALLY interesting thread. A thorough google on the subject turned it up.

Like one of the posters, I Demareed this year, making a scrupulous separation brood/supers pretty well impossible. I then ran QE- during the reunite and the colony rewarded me by being very strong. But, you do end up with "mixed-use" frames full of honey.

In my case, whether that "tasted" the honey seemed to be a matter of duration. I had three frames of very dark honey. At least one had over-wintered as honey in the brood box I think. I span them out separately as an experiment and am very glad I did (keep them separate. Hint when cracking a lot of eggs: crack them in small batches and a rotten one only spoils a few.)

The resulting honey was very dark and one corner of the overwintered comb had a downright fishy odour (probably goldenrod, rather than age, but worth bearing in mind when extracting summer honey). So I think it's a matter of length of exposure: almost all honey passed through brood cells at some point in its life, but overwintering there is going to have a strong effect.

 

[Finman]

It more than normal that in beekeeping honey is extracted from used brood combs. Hobby beeks can generate what ever rules but it has no ground.

In Honey Rules it is said that you are not allowed to extract frames,which have living brood. If you look hungarian nursing style, they extract brood frames because they have not supers.
If you sell, it should be named "kitchen honey".

Ok, you have douple brood box and second box is full of honey, 25 kg, what you do with that
That is usual. Professional beeks use in early summer two brood boxes, and after midd summer move excluder over first box. They over winter in one box and next spring they foundation box to second box.

Brood comb does not make honey bitter taste. It is sure.

 

[Finman]

.
I have sold 50 years honey from brood frames. It is surely better than rape honey from fresh combs. I extracted rape honey yesterday from used brood combs and the taste and color was the same as in new combs, almost nothing.

Of course if you put into hive old combs which have fermented and molded over winter in hives, it surely gives aroma to honey.

 

[Dared]

I thought when the bees are processing the nectar it moves around the hive before ending up in a super so may have spent the majority of its life in brood comb anyway so is it not really the same? As long as it is fresh of course. Just remember how honey is produced before getting squeamish about it spending some time in brood comb

 

[Finman]

.
When comb has some larva silk, it it much more stronger in extracting than a new comb. In Langstroth size comb it is essential.

Like an example from this summer : I joined 3 artificial swarms together at the beginning of July. And today I took 100 kg capped honey from the hive. 4 medium boxes and 2 langstrots. The queen was laying in the middle of tower in mediums.

I just piled those colonies together without papers and so it happened. and I saw a new queen too.

Bees foraged the yield in 5 weeks. Hive has still 20 kg capped honey in pollen frames and in brood frames.

 

[Dared]

.
When comb has some larva silk, it it much more stronger in extracting than a new comb. In Langstroth size comb it is essential.

Like an example from this summer : I joined 3 artificial swarms together at the beginning of July. And today I took 100 kg capped honey from the hive. 4 medium boxes and 2 langstrots. The queen was laying in the middle of tower.

Do you extract when there is still brood in the frame? If so capped and/or uncapped?

 

[Finman]

Do you extract when there is still brood in the frame? If so capped and/or uncapped?

.no, I do not extract frames with brood.
I wait that brood emerges, or I leave it into the hive.

 

[tudorcd]

It is a serious no-no to extract honey with brood in the frame, contaminating with lots of bugs, whether capped or not. Just leave frames out of the job and put them back in the hive, can hatch out and extract later if needed.

 

[oliver90owner]

Go back to post #10

THINK Warre! Most of all the honey crop will likely have been brooded in, the central frames more than the outer, but do you think M Warre sorted the separately?