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ocba - Re: [ocba] Honey harvest

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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Peter Smith <psmith AT leaptec.com>
  • To: Shadi Cinpinski <shadikaze AT gmail.com>, "ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org" <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Honey harvest
  • Date: Wed, 3 May 2017 13:44:50 +0000

Hello Shadi,

Honey harvest is one of the most fun parts of keeping bees. Not that I suggest this is feasible for everyone, but my wife and I have long had a tradition of making the extraction and bottling part an “open invitation” event at our home. We would take the supers off the day before and store them in the garage overnight. We would invite almost anyone we knew from neighbors to colleagues and friends etc to visit us and view the process and event help out if they felt the urge. With a little effort on our part (providing a few refreshments), It turned out to be a very popular annual event, much anticipated by the “regulars”. People would pass through and stay for just long enough to see the process and be a bit social, others would help the whole time even with the cleanup. It was a great way to introduce people to beekeeping, there were always lots of questions and at the same time we met new people and got some free help. It was fun for everyone and I think resulted in sparking interest in a few new keepers over the years.

 

To answer your question more directly, I typically harvest only 4 or 5 hives and use a small manual extractor (4 frame). These are much more fun than the electric ones, and spinning was a favorite activity at the harvest party for grown ups and kids alike. I built a wooden stand for it to make it more comfortable to use.

 

I have 2 electric hot knives and decapping stations setup. You can get away with one, but this is a bottleneck in the process and again most people want to give it a try, so its slow. I use a coarse/fine stainless sieve and large collecting bucket with honey gate for bottling.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Peter Smith

 




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