Honey Harvest: Learning the hard way

Last year when we harvested honey and had no clue what we were doing, we made a big mess and it took days to harvest one super. This year we lost more than half our harvest because we did not immediately process it. We made the mistake of buying an extractor after we harvested supers and learned the hard way that the best place to leave supers is on the hive until ready to extract, within-2-3 days.
We end the video with a review of what we learned this year. Always an adventure!
#backyardbeekeeping #beekeepingadventures #honey #rawhoney

[@esauer1014]

Learning those lessons the hard way sucks but it teaches us how to proceed the next time!!! Wishing you well on your bee journey!!!

[@Manuherikiabeekeeping]

Im so sorry you experienced the curse of the dratted moth. Great little extractor though👍I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but if you want to delay your extraction, shove your honey frames into a freezer for 48 hrs. This will kill any greater or lesser wax moth eggs and then you can seal them in a airtight container and extract when you want. Many commercial beekeepers do this because they have a large amount of frames to work through and often you have to store honey frames up while you're pulling supers (honey boxes)from areas. Its an easy mistake don't beat yourself up about it, seriously when you're new to beekeeping you never think about blasted moths😅Ive helped a hobbyist who completly lost an entire stored deep frame box because it had pollen in the comb as well and wax moth loves pollen way more than honey and they actually completely stripped everything off the frames down to the wax wires😬. A rat chewed an entrance at a corner and the wax moth took out the lot. If you're going to pull food frames (frames with honey and pollen) to feed a nuc or a split i absolutely recommend freezing. Lesson learned and this year will be a greater harvest because of it. 👍 Great video 👋 from central Otago southern New Zealand 👋🥝😄

[@thebeesmeads]

How interesting. Thanks for sharing. So cool to see a Kiwi following us!!!

[@Burt_Beebe]

you're very brave extracting honey inside your home. Looking forward to seeing more of your beekeeping journey.

[@thebeesmeads]

it's our barn that we converted to home office

[@Mandbec]

Thank you for sharing. I just invested in a 9” electric knife like one used for slicing bread, as I watched a video on it and it seemed really easy to use for uncapping the comb. It was very convenient and worth the 25 bucks.

[@thebeesmeads]

We will have to look into it

[@robertofkennedy]

Freeze honey frames for long-term storage

[@cindywestern8628]

If you're not going to extract right away you should freeze your frames. It will kill any bugs that may be on your frames.

[@cindywestern8628]

Also, when freezing the frames, I put mine in kitchen trash bags, you can easily fit a couple frames in a bag.

[@44thala49]

Let the bees clean out the wax moth frames outside the hive and when they get in capped over inside hive, just harvest it like normal.

[@thebeesmeads]

Once infestations occur their is no saving the honey for human consumption

[@comradecamarada6725]

Nice job

[@thebeesmeads]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@AndrewAHayes]

harvest frames within 48 hours, this is written in stone!

[@mathgasm8484]

I always pull honey and extract same day and I have 30 hives.

[@thebeesmeads]

Wow. 30!

[@JuanPadilla-mn7nt]

es una alegría tener esto para su ogar en casa

[@LarryBruceBelfairWA.]

I heard that putting frames in the freezer kills moth larva so you may get away with storing the frames longer before you process them, maybe more information is on the internet concerning that. Nice video, like your new honey extractor and the plastic thing i will try to find for myself, thanks.

[@thebeesmeads]

Yeah but we heard once frozen it’s really hard to extract the honey and plus the larvae and moths pooped all over the honey so I still wouldn’t trust it.

[@JuanPadilla-mn7nt]

sirve para muchos beneficios

[@JuanPadilla-mn7nt]

lo puedes a comparar con un boliyo ke sea sa lado

[@JuanPadilla-mn7nt]

para cuando tienes a petito de un postre ai lo tienes si entre

[@JuanPadilla-mn7nt]

ocon un pan tostao en el orno tu postre

[@blitz_zen]

I'd strain it and eat it anyway :)

[@thebeesmeads]

Don’t. Wax moth larvae contain bacteria harmful to humans.

[@mikemcgilvray8558]

I put a good bug zapper in my yard no moths

[@rayheath7840]

What stops the bees from getting zapped ???

[@rayheath7840]

Nice video, really good to see people having a go, even if you get little or no honey, bee keeping is very rewarding and you will do better with time,good luck for next season guys.

[@davidpotts3844]

how is it that you raised bees to make honey but failed learn about the extraction process. Should have known to not remove honey frames til extraction time or known to freeze the frames while storing off the hive. Study in advance when engaging in something you are not sure about. Don't put hive moth infested frames back in the hive until you freeze them for 48 hrs to kill the moth larvae

[@John-gn3eq]

I don't see any videos of you doing it right. Maybe you'd like to teach a master class?