Extracting Honey, The Basics

[@danim4884]

Great advice Jim. You're reminding me of all of my blunders the first time! I feel ready this time. It's often hard to filter the info coming in when you are deciding on equipment purchases. Absolutely no need here for a hobby keeper to feel pressured to upgrade when this just works so well. I do envy your honey room though! Cheers.

[@debjackson5766]

thanks for the nice demonstration, very enjoyable! :)

[@shreddder999]

It's just going well because he's using Rental #1

[@derekpearse1012]

This is why you should always buy honey from a local beekeeper you know. Notice none of the honey was heated in a containment tank (commonly used by medium/large beekeepers to speed up the bottling process).

[@heavenscenthomestead4242]

Very informative. Thank You!

[@426superbee4]

i must say i like you capping tubs. i like to use paint filter that fits 5 gal buckets can get 25 for 7 bucks then i can squeeze the filter with capping in a cheese press when i get a bag full. . every one dose thing different, its what works for you Oh the BEEKEEPER WOOD WORKING SHOP as a good stand. Thanks for the video cheers

[@kennapop3]

"fits easily" I love adverbs, please do not kill the Lees. Thanks for the extracting lesson as well. You performed splendidly.

[@OOTD_]

Look like a lot of capping was left on. Why not use a knife?

[@beefitter]

Your first year of extracting honey, there are 10 frames in the super box You need to run ten frames when using new foundation. If you use nine frames with new foundation, the bees will screw up making comb on the new frames. When using ten frames the capped honey is flush with the wood of the frames. Using a knife is difficult because the comb is hard to cut into. Next year run nine frames in the supers now that the comb is drawn. With nine frames, the capped frames are fatter and easy to uncap with a knife.

[@shegocrazy]

Do you ever try to agitate the honey in the filters to get more through? It seems you'd have a lot that doesn't drip into the bucket. Also I'd think that if the equipment or ambient temperature is warm the honey would be extracted easier. Is that something to factor in? Thanks.

[@beefitter]

You are correct about warming the honey. I normally bring the honey into my honey house and turn on two dehumidifiers. (Caution needs to be in place if you are in an area with hive beetle. In this case honey should be extracted within two days of pulling it off the hive.) The dehumidifiers warm the room, the honey and remove moisture from the honey to help assure that the honey has a Grade A moisture content of 18.6% water content or less. The warm honey will run through filters and strainers much better than cooler honey. All strainers will plug up with wax sooner or later. Cleaning them as needed will keep the honey flowing. Agitating won't really work, it really is gravity and time. The honey always seems to get through the strainer.

[@Sheriff_K]

After extraction, are the honey supers re-usable (so the bees don't have to waste efficiency re-making the combs?)

[@beefitter]

Yes, By removing the cappings and spinning out the frames, the comb on the frames can be reused. The comb may look beat up, but the bees will easily fix it next season. By reusing the comb, you will get more honey next year.

[@jennm2689]

Whenever you keep bees it's always a disaster..... I cracked up! Thank you for this video!

[@kristaj428]

Why not remove the extra comb around the frames. Genuinely curious

[@beefitter]

Do you mean the burr comb that is on the wooden frame?

[@davidwilliams9673]

@@beefitter thats what was thinking but you have to filter anyway so it don't madder

[@originalbudstar]

how do you feel about using a heat gun to uncap thoughts please

[@Banishedsoulsofficial]

Just comb or cut with decap knife. Heat gun sounds like a lot of work

[@rebeccaocker6834]

Have you ever used a bread knife l watched another bee keeper use one an it looked great u did not have all that wax that looked a mess u might want to try it

[@beefitter]

When you uncap the honey with any knife. You will always get the same amount of wax. The wax is used to make candles. If I didn't get any wax, I couldn't make any candles.

[@katiamedeiros2356]

Nice 👍🏻

[@rayschearer9680]

Katia Medeiros faf

[@bowmag803]

Are you a union fitter?

[@beefitter]

yes

[@pnwcut]

wow half still in there are the poor bees

[@karimkenich8643]

wow

[@calvinsylveste8474]

Perhaps you should consider flow frames to avoid all this hassle.

[@beefitter]

In my opinion, flow frames do not work very good in Minnesota. Our nectar flows are too intense. It would cost too much money to buy all of the flow frames. I had six full supers on several of my hives and pulled of a total of thirty five supers off of twenty hives. I can pay for a new motorized extractor rather than buying this many flow hives. Also with a flow hive, the honey can get a higher moisture content while waiting for the honey to leak out of the frames in our humid weather. On a humid day unattended honey supers can go up a whole percentage point in moisture content. Extracting honey is not the hassle. Having high moisture honey is a big hassle. Everything I have heard about flow hives by members of a couple bee clubs in the area I live in is from disappointment to total fail. Many of these beekeepers are thinking on going back to traditional equipment.

[@calvinsylveste8474]

Given 35 supers, a little hassle maybe acceptable since it would cost ~19k to convert to flow.

[@stevecorcoran2960]

That & the fact that with a flow hive you are supposed to be able to extract your honey without ever having to open the hive but . . . . . . unless you open the hive & examine each frame you have NO idea if all the honey is capped, so you might be pulling wet honey out of your hives & a single frame of wet honey would cause the entire harvest to start fermenting rendering it trash.

[@towerheist73]

not efficient enough.

[@beefitter]

This is basic extracting with basic equipment. If you want better equipment it will cost you more for that efficiency. Most new beekeepers don't want to go out and drop $2000.00 for better equipment. They only have one or two hives. A beekeeper can rent an extractor from me and buy a capping scratcher, a bottling pail and a filter. They can extract their crop of honey for less than $75.00. I would call that an efficient use of their money. After their first year if they expand their operation, they can purchase a better extracting system.

[@hhhydrom3198]

Bad example.. U left a ton of honey..

[@beefitter]

This was a basic video for new beekeepers on the equipment needed and how to extract honey. I am just trying to give my beekeeping customers some direction on how to extract. Most new beekeepers have no idea how to extract honey or the steps to do it. With this video, new beekeepers can have some confidence that they extracting their honey properly. Your response was negative and you criticize the video. I see you have no beekeeping video's. There really was no reason to be negative but for some reason you felt it was important to do so.