Honey is one of the most important products of bee keeping and proper extraction of the honey is key in maximizing proceeds from the bee keeping business.
Before going for honey extraction, you need to ensure that all the parts of the skin are covered by wearing personal protective equipment and these include a bee suit, Gumboots and gloves. Before opening the hive, you need smoke which relaxes the bees. The smoke is obtained by lighting a smoker filed with wood chips.
Honey extraction process
In a langstroth hive, there are 5 sections but only the top 2 contain honey in their combs which are the honey supers while the bottom three are brooding chambers and do not contain honey but contain the queen‘s eggs.
Inside each of the honey supers are 10 combs and each is slowly and carefully removed. The combs contain honey which is caped off by the bees.
The process of extraction begins by uncapping/ removing the wax that cover the honey combs using a knife. After removing the wax, the honey will begin dripping so you need to work a little faster.
After u capping, insert the frames inside a honey extractor and begin spinning to remove the honey.
After spinning and removing honey from both sides of the frame, you are left with empty honey combs which are placed back into the honey supers and then back into the hive to start the process of filling back honey again.
Honey processing
After spinning the frames, the honey collects at the bottom of the extractor where it is filtered with a double strainer to remove any material and remain with fine honey.
The honey can be packaged into jars one by one and the wax processed to make other products like candles.
