Honey without an extractor

[Perry]

I'm new to beekeeping this year and so far so good with three heavy supers. One is full with the cells capped so I want to get the honey out. I do not have an extractor. Someone told me I can cut out all the frame, cells and foundation, melt the lot in a pan so the wax rises to the top, then after the wax solidifies, make a hole in the wax and pour out and filter the honey.

Does this sound workable? Any other advice? I just have the one hive.

 

[tonybloke]

are you a member of a local Beekeeping association? they usually have at least one extractor to hire / borrow

 

[beeatshellards]

with tonybloke it would be a waste of good comb . there must be beekeepers in your area who will loan you one

 

[MuswellMetro]

the simple answer to your method of heating it, is NO, heat will destroy both wax and honey unless you control the temp very well

i would suggest you decap the comb and just rest the frame on it side on a bowll and drain it in the airing cupboard ( warm but not to hot,) turning the comb over to do the other side

but seal it over with cling film otherwise half of the bees and wasps within a mile will join you

OR see hedgerow Petes homemade extractor video

 

[huntsman666]

Please don't do that. You need to know exactly what you're doing if you heat honey.

If you haven't access to an extractor, then at least two simple options are open to you.

1: See the Youtube on 'crushed strained honey' I posted today. You'll need a bit of readily available but cheap kit.

2: Just cut it into blocks and keep the air away from it. A tad messy but clingfilm will do the job for now.

 

[oliver90owner]

Someone told me I can cut out all the frame,

You certainly can, but there is no need to destroy the foundation if the honey is liquid. You can carefully scrape the honey and wax from the 'foundation line' after removing the cappings. No heat, not all the wax destroyed. Very messy but possible.

RAB

 

[JCBrum]

The Omlet guide to Beekeeping .......

Click here for the Omlet Guide in pdf form ......... page 53 . . .

. . . contains an illustrated description of 'the scrape and mash' method of honey extraction.

There is other information which may be useful to beginners too, but some is peculiar to the Omlet long hive, or perhaps the Dartington.

JC

 

[danro]

Hi Huntsman666, MuswellMetro and others.
I'm new to processing honey too, so I'm not looking for an argument..

Please don't do that. You need to know exactly what you're doing if you heat honey.

...But why?

I'm interested in the reasons against heating honey as the method described above was recommended to me a few weeks ago (although I was told to keep the temp low)..
Both of you are advising against heating ...but also both answers suggest it is possible - under the right circumstances. What are they?

It will also allow other noobees to make informed decisions if they understand the reasoning behind your helpful statement.

With the greatest respect...
Danny

 

[drstitson]

overheating honey:

1. you lose the substances that impart the flavour
2. you create HMF

see the crush and strain post for a useable technique. i recently had to deal with a few frames of OSR without an extractor. uncap. scrape wax and honey off of foundation with a paint scraper. mash up a bit in bucket. leave to drain trough sieves as per video (or as i did use a fruit press).

 

[plumberman]

If, like me, the number of colonies that you have (ahem) "creeps" up, and certainly beekeeping is a lot simpler with 2 or 3 colonies you might want to consider biting the bullet and buying an extractor.

Extractors seem to hold their value well, and if all goes wrong, then you would be able to sell it without too much of a loss.

 

[nelletap]

Have you joined a BKA? as well as hiring out an extractor I think some have extraction days where you can take your honey to a location where they are extracting partly as a demo for newbees and partly as a service. If you are worried about whether the extractor will be available when you need it, it might make sense to see whether 2 or 3 others in a local BKA wanted to join you in a syndicate owning an extractor? Rather like you hear of rich people having a share in a racehorse. But again, joining an association gives you a newsletter in which to ask. The BKA fee (usually of the order of £26 including BBKA sub and insurance) is soon recouped when it saves you the extractor cost and especially for a first extraction, it allows you to try one and think about the benefits and negatives of any model. My own BKA has an electric model.
Having just extracted my own honey for the first time, stickiness can get everywhere but I bet it is much less spread when you have an extractor to when you try a more Heath Robinson approach.
Tricia

 

[theengraver]

if you have no access to an extractor
you could scrape the frames wax honey and all in to a bowl or pan.

buy a brand new pair of stockings
tip the whole contents of the bowl in to the stocking and hang it over a clean honey bucket.
in a warm kitchen or bee tight shed the honey will filter through the stocking in to a honey bucket keeping the wax and any othey bits of dead bees wings and legs behind

when you have all the honey out wash the stocking under the tap and your left with clean non sticky wax to use.

The stockings well its up to you wear them keep them until next time rob a bank

 

[MandF]

Hi Perry, I live in Twickenham too, near Fulwell!

Anyhow, you should definitely get along to the Twickenham & Thames Valley association, they are located near Twickenham station. I cant remember how much our membership was, but it was around £40 for the year. For that you get insurance for your hive (public liability as well as for your hive/equipment if they need to be destroyed due to disease), you get the increasingly informative BBKA magazine, you get access to buy equipment from there, you get access to other beekeepers, and some wise old heads.. there are socials, we meet every friday through the season, you can join in with some beekeeping on the apiary hives, etc etc etc.

On top of all the above, you can book out their extraction equipment (either to borrow, or better, use on site). For that alone is it worth the joining fee.

If interested let me know and I can give you the membership secretary's (Neil Hilbery)details, alternatively I can give you the address and you can turn up on friday from about 6.15 onwards.

Mark

PS Where in Twickenham are you?

 

[greatbritishhoney]

If you have any intention of selling your honey you should avoid heating at all costs.
If you are borrowing an extractor make sure it is scrupulously clean before you start.

 

[MandF]

Also, there are laws applicable, health and safety, labelling and others, if you intend to sell honey.. another reason for using the association facilities, making use of their food hygiene certificate courses and so on..

 

[huntsman666]

This is what you were told; <Someone told me I can cut out all the frame, cells and foundation, melt the lot in a pan so the wax rises to the top, then after the wax solidifies, make a hole in the wax and pour out and filter the honey.>


There's a lot to it but very basically honey is degraded if heated over 35C.

The melting point of wax is 64C so if you heat the lot together to float the wax, you're really going to destroy your honey.

 

[kermit]

A little off topic, but probably useful to newcomers who may be reading this...

A tip I got from Finman was - rather than extracting a small number of frames because you want to try your honey, just take out a frame and eat it straight from there. Now we just have a frame sat on a large plate that comes out when we want honey on our toast. Also a nice gift to friends. One problem is where to store it, as a frame is quite long. Our solution is to put it in the second oven of our cooker. Just don't forget to take it out before warming plates (only happened once last year).

Dave

 

[Raceyboy]

May i suggest a 'Bees on a budget' extractor from Thornees, £104 plus you get other bits with it

 

[buzz bee]

Check out Hedgerow Pete's Videos

Have you looked at Hedgerow Pete's videos? He has one on making a cheap 'dustbin' extractor, for someone who has a bit of ability to make. Great for extracting just one hive and if it is mainly for your own and family needs.

 

[Perry]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. In case you are interested, here is what I did.

First, I ordered a "on a budget" extractor. It won't arrive for a few days so I will use it for future extractions.

Then, for the full super I have, I did the following. Frame by frame I uncapped them and then scraped the honey and comb and all into a bowl - but not the foundation which I carefully left on the frame. I then put the scraped honey mess into a double strainer, big mesh then small mesh and voila clear honey came out after a few hours. That's where I am now and my next step will be to strain it again with a fine nylon strainer cloth and put it in jars.

Comments always welcome!