5 Simple Advices in Harvesting Honey from Bees
As an apiarist, harvesting your first honey is probably an enjoyable task. It is the fruit of all your hard work and labor. It is very satisfying to taste the honey from your very first harvest. However, there are things that you should be aware of regarding beekeeping. Here are 5 simple tips to make sure that you will have a successful harvest of honey.
Tip 1. The Honey is Sweet and Sticky
This is very obvious but still worth to remember. You’ll pick up some honey using your hands, and whatever things you touch will obviously get sticky. You should get a bucket of water to rinse your hands. You should prepare all the equipment necessary for extraction before starting. You should carry out your extraction process in a basement or garage instead of doing it in the kitchen.
Tip 2. Keep the Area Away from Bees
The extraction area has to be bee proof or away from bees.. Bees can get attracted to honey very easily, and when they can enter, they really will. They will not only retrieve the honey – it’s also very hard to do the extraction with the bees buzzing all over the place.
If you can, don’t leave full supers hanging out for a long time prior to extraction. You should be aware that bees aren’t the only insects that like honey. Ants, earwigs and wasps can take the honey if they have the opportunity.
Tip 3. Extract the Honey Warm
For those of you who still don’t know, extracting honey is less difficult if it’s warm, around 27 degrees Celsius or higher. During summer, it’s not a concern, but when it’s a cool day, warm the frames prior to starting the honey extraction. The most effective way to get this done is by placing the supers underneath a light bulb all throughout the night.
Tip 4. Utilize the Max Wappings
Around 10 percent of honey will go to the wax cappings. Therefore, make sure to strain those to obtain all the honey that you can. The cappings will then be melted and are perfect for making candles. Do not use daily containers to melt, they wax because anything that has melted wax with it will stay permanently waxy and can’t be utilized for other things.
Tip 5. Bees Can Do a Great Job In Cleaning
When you are done extracting your honey, place the ‘wet’ super to a vacant frame back to the hive. The bees can do a good work of cleaning the leftover honey, normally within one day, and the dried up super will then be placed to the storage.
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