Processing honey
From honeycomb to honey jar
Clearing Processing Honey Wax
Basic Assessment: Describe the process of extracting honey from combs and a method of straining and bottling honey suitable for the small-scale beekeeper, including hygiene.
The flowers, weather, and other conditions determine the mix of sugars, honey contains. Whilst a forager holds nectar in her honey stomach, an enzyme called invertase splits some sucrose into fructose and glucose. The proportions of these and other sugars vary from flower to flower. For example: fructose 27: 44%, glucose 21: 31%, sucrose 0.1: 17% Maltose 0.1: 17% etc. The nectar is further processed in the comb and once its sugar content is reduced to 18-20% it’s called honey! The practical implication of different flowers having different types of sugar content is that different kinds of honey can be mixed to achieve desired qualities. So, by combining high-glucose OSR honey with a “standard” floral honey, the glucose level can be reduced, so the time before crystallisation increases.
You may not have a harvest in a lousy year or when all your colonies swarm. But this avoids the sticky trial of honey extraction.
A poor harvest happens more often than people like to admit. If you suffer disappointment, work out what went wrong and what you will do differently next year. Formulate a plan and start implementing this as you prepare for winter.
Harvest
Once you have some honey, harvest it in early August or whatever time ties in with your nectar sources and your chosen method of varroa control. Break down brace comb the day before removing the frames.
Basic Assessment: Describe a method to clear bees from the supers.
Clearer Boards
Drones may block the mechanism. The devices come in various designs, and some work better than others. Porter Bee Escapes are slow. In contrast, in fine weather, Rhombus and Canadian devices take 4–7 hours. Moreover, they are less likely to get blocked.
If you’ve not used a QE, you face the nightmare of knowing which box contains the queen (Q), which is nearly impossible to work out when there is a high risk of robbing. However, she should be somewhere in the brood nest (which is problematic if the brood is placed in the middle of several boxes forming a chimney shape).
Emptying bees from the comb is usually achieved using a clearer board with a one-way valve. But if you only have a few frames, remove the bees with a brush.
The white, clearer devices on the green board face downwards, and the eke ensures the bees have somewhere to hang out. The problem with these is that if left too long (more than 24 hours), the bees find their way back and steal your honey.
A board designed by David Evans that uses a rhomboid device.
Porter bee escapes. They contain two springs that have to be adjusted just so. A slight aberration, and they fail.
Curtain bee escape
Fume board
The inner surface is impregnated with a substance that evaporates and repels bees.
There is a black metallic top and an inner surface covered with felt. On a hot, sunny day, the metal heats up, causing the bee-repellant to evaporate off the felt. If you choose a heat-resistant paint, you can blast it with a plumber’s torch (but it is difficult to heat it sufficiently).
A fume board needs to be used in hot, sunny weather.
The bee-repellent Beequick smells lovely, like marzipan, but bees hate it. To use, spray the felt and puff smoke over the top of the frames, so the bees know which direction to go. Then, put the fume board on top of the hive. The bees rattle down (if the felt is hot enough). This is an excellent method if you do not know the whereabouts of the Q. It is not so good at clearing brood boxes as the nurse bees hang on tight.
Removing the combs - check that the honey is ripe.
Combs that contain honey that is not capped need to be checked. The honey must be ripe enough, or it will ferment. Do the shake test. Shake the frame over the hive; if nectar spits out, it is not ripe.
Processing
If you can, process the honey immediately after you’ve grabbed it.
Collect the frames early in the morning and take them to your extraction room.
The room must be spotlessly clean with washable surfaces. Use separate hand and instrument sinks.
Note wax forms “fatty” streaks in hot water.
Preferably, a toilet should not lead off the room. Failing this, don’t use the bathroom before or during extraction.
Best wear a hair net, apron, long cuffed gloves, everything needed to ensure hair or dirt won’t hop into the jars.
The processing stages are:
Uncapping—remove the wax caps that cover the honey in the cells
Extracting honey from the combs by crushing or whizzing them around in a circle so that the honey is flung out due to centrifugal force.
Sieving and filtering.
Leaving it to stand for 24 hours in settling tanks so that crud and bubbles rise to the surface.
Bottling
Labelling
Before you start, make sure the room is bee-proof.
Uncapping
A bread or carving knife can be used for uncapping (but it should be twice the width of a super, a purpose-made knife works best) — run it just under the surface of the comb, slicing the top (caps) off the honeycombs. You might like to warm it every few cuts in hot water, but dry it thoroughly. There are expensive uncapping trays for sale, but it is possible to use a large greenhouse gravel tray and colander instead.
A hedgehog is quick and easy.
A purpose-made de-capping knife is good for slicing bread. It has a raised handle, which reduces contact with the honey. The white cappings make lovely candles.
Crush and sieve
If you destroy combs, you will have fewer drawn frames next year. Drawn comb is so helpful, and I struggled until I had some, but many people are okay without it. If you only have a few combs, you could leave them for the bees.
An extractor (spinner) is a metal or food-grade plastic cylinder mounted vertically, usually on 18 inch legs, closed at the lower end, with a large tap (Honey gate). The extractor is open at the top end. Inside, the frames are held vertically in metal mesh baskets attached to an axle that can be rotated by hand or motor.
Honey Extractor
Top view of a tangential extractor. There are two sorts of extractors. Easy ones are called radial (the name indicates the orientation of the frames). Tangential ones are fussier, as you have to turn the combs over halfway through (3 turns is best). Tangential spinners extract more honey but cannot be used with unwired frames. Some extractors can accommodate small frames in a radial position, while larger ones must be extracted tangentially. “Small” usually means National supers. If you use Manley frames, check that they will fit. It is easy to wash an extractor with a pressure washer.
With a manual spinner, start slow and build up. Keep going until honey stops sloshing onto the sides of the drum like candy floss. At speed, an electric-powered extractor can wobble across the room, especially if it is not evenly loaded. There are three approaches to fix this: Bolt it to the floor, employ someone to hang onto it for dear life, or put it on casters. If you fix the extractor to a chunky T-shaped wooden frame with casters at each end, it will find its balance and do a sedate waltz.
Sieving
Sieve the honey through regular “hang off the outlet” strainers. Some consider that a conical filter under the tap results in fewer bubbles. Filter it through a single, preferably double layer of muslin or net curtain material. Heat the honey to 44 degrees C for optimal results and pass it through a purpose-made nylon cloth.
Once you have all the honey in buckets, leave it for 24–48 hours so contaminants and bubbles rise to the surface. Then lay pieces of kitchen towel or a sheet of cling film on top and peel them off so they remove the scum. That is all that is necessary to make “raw” honey. Raw is a nebulous term that should be avoided; unpasteurised, unheated, or cold-filtered make more sense.
Bubbles, pollen, and other extraneous objects in the honey can act as foci for crystallisation.
Cleaning jars in a dishwasher works great. When bottling, the jars must be warm. Using your oven at its lowest setting is perfect. Check how full the jars must be to attain the correct weight. If you look under the screw top and see no light percolating through from the other side, you can be sure that the weight is adequate. Honey in hexagonal jars forms bubbles in the corners. These need poking out with something long, curved and pointy.
Return cappings to be cleaned
The feeding slot in the rapid feeder can be reduced, so the bees clean the wet frames (notice the tiny hole). Gooey stuff can be put in plastic sandwich bags. Poke some holes with a cocktail stick, and the bees can suck the honey out without getting stuck.
Storing combs
Extracted comb, honey comb, and disused comb should be put in the freezer overnight to kill wax moth. Store it in sealed containers.
Forms of honey
Honey can be produced as “chunk” (a bit of comb floating in runny honey — it soon crystallises but looks nice) or “comb” — a lovely-looking bit of comb that the bees build in a frame. “Drained” = Section (a lump of comb cut out of a frame, left to drain and dumped in a container), “soft set” which is the correct term for “creamed” honey (runny honey seeded with 2-10% fine sugar crystals and then blended until it has the consistency of lemon curd or clotted cream). Baker’s honey is imperfect. Runny honey is the most popular choice.
Set honey
Your Bee Association may sell cheap honey jars if they order in bulk.
A. Fancy Simple
Warm the starter and uncrystalline honey so they are at the same temperature and flow. If necessary, melt any crystals first by warming the honey to 49 degrees..
Cool, then add the starter (5-10% soft set) and blend.
Allow it to set solid at floor temperature - 14 degrees. C
Once set, warm to 27–32 degrees C for 24 hours. Warming a large bucket to this temperature can take days. Stir when possible.
Stir with a dedicated creamer attachment. Creamers look suitable for churning milk or drilling. You need something beefy, like a masonry drill, to rotate the spindle. Be careful not to introduce bubbles—finally warm until it flows, and bottle.
B. Simple
The honey will become an opaque set honey but not with a gloopy consistency. This works if the honey is high in glucose, and in a three-gallon drum when heating to 23 degrees feels like a decade.
If necessary, melt the honey until it is liquid. Allow to cool until still warm.
Blend with the warm starter. Bottle and put the jars in a cool place, like on a tiled floor.
Floor honey
I used an electric fan overnight to dehumidify some honey.
Comb honey
High-glucose honey must be extracted soon (within a few weeks) after it is capped. The common sources are Dandelion, Oil Seed Rape (OSR) and Ivy. It must be transformed into soft set honey or mixed with another honey.
Commercially, honey is forced through filters and pasteurised so that it is slow to crystallise. Cheap “honey” is made by spinning out nectar and concentrating it using heat. This makes a bland “not honey”. Apiarists in the West and many other parts of the world would not dream of making this honey-like substance. China is the largest exporter of honey in the world.
Honey's crystallisation depends on its glucose/fructose balance. High-glucose honey sets rapidly with tiny crystals, whereas high-fructose honey does so more slowly but with large crystals. Temperature, water concentration, and contaminants are influential.
Since honey is hygroscopic, tanks must be full almost to the top and well sealed. Tough containers have a strong seal. It is so good that I find getting the lid on and off a battle. To put it on, angle the top about 20–30 degrees towards the joint opposite you. It is a matter of pushing it down in a small area, just like replacing a bicycle tyre. To remove the lid, there is a “curtain” that has to be peeled up. Once it has started coming up, you can use a unique tool.
There is a knack to this. The folk on YouTube demonstrate the technique. But it does not work for me. I got fed up wrestling with bears and threw all the lids away in contempt. I replaced them with screw-top Gamma lids. These are not completely airtight, so you need to tape the lid on. It’s too late for me to test, but maybe the standard lids could be easier to remove after warming them in a hot bath. Small containers are easier.
If the honey contains too much water, it ferments. To ensure honey’s water content, use a type of hygrometer (a specialised refractometer) or work out its density. With care, this won’t be necessary if you use the shake method (described above) unless you are serious about selling honey.
Measuring honey density
Weigh a jar full of honey (H)
Weigh an empty jar (J)
Weigh full of water (W).
Density = H - J / (W - J)
Good honey should be over 1.45 kg/litre.
It is best to store honey in small buckets in order to ease subsequent warming.
Storage
Frosting
If you are not careful and do not use warm jars, warm honey, and you have not sieved the honey well enough, or the honey cools too fast, tiny bubbles may form on the walls of the jars. This is called frosting. Initially, it looks like white swirls; it does not affect the taste.
A warming fridge fits medium plastic frames.
Honey warming cabinet
A tube heater is handy for warming. Purchase one that does not have a thermal cutout. I’ve used a 60W Thermotube tubular heater, and use a heat shield (not shown). It must be used with an exterior thermostat. I have drilled a hole in the door of the fridge for a thermometer and sensor. A computer fan with a USB connection circulates warm air.
Processing Old Wax
Put the cappings in a rapid feeder to be cleaned by the bees. Then try this:
First Stage
Remove dirty-looking wax.
Put it in a honey solar extractor, angled at 35 degrees in Southern England, further North, dropping to 14 degrees (JD & BD Yates). If you make the extractor large enough, whole wooden frames can be rendered. The extractor uses the heat from the sun to melt the wax, which trickles through a grill (a bit of varroa mesh will do) into a bucket. Solar extractors are expensive to buy, but cheap to make if you can find a discarded doubled-glazed unit and have a few DIY skills.
Second stage
microwave the wax in a full to overflowing Pyrex jug for 6 minutes on full power, then repetitively blast and stir until it has all melted. It should be less than 90 degrees. Wax explodes/ignites at 200 degrees C.
Pour it into a disposable container like a fresh soup supermarket container or milk carton.
When cooled, cut it open and use a knife to remove the crud from the bottom. For purer wax, repeat this process or pass it through a filter.
Soft water, like rainwater, should be used to stop the wax from forming an emulsion. I use hard water, and yellow wax turns out okay.
Wax in old comb can be retrieved by mashing the comb to form a mush, heating it in water and releasing it by compacting the crud in a sieve.
Crystallisation and 5-(Hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF)
Apart from set honey, honey eventually crystallises and goes hard. If it does so in the jars, the official advice is to stand the jars up to the level of the honey in 40 deg.C water. Let the water cool for 30 minutes while stirring the honey now and again. I’m impatient and zap honey (for personal consumption) in my microwave. I inspect and stir every 30 seconds.
HMF is a measure of overheating or long storage. The honey develops a caramel taste. HMF is common in many foods like toast.
HMF levels rise with heating. For example, levels are acceptable if the honey is warmed to 50 degrees C. for less than ten days. For more detail, read the Apiarist.
Gifting and Selling
Then, the nice bit: sharing the honey with your nearest and dearest. The optimal temperature range for crystallisation is 11–14 degrees C, so to slow crystallisation advise your customers to store it in a warm cupboard 18-40 °C. or a fridge, set to less than 4 °C.
If you sell honey, the labels have specific requirements. Fortunately, labels sold by beekeeping equipment retailers will ensure you fulfil them. The picture on the label must represent the contents; for example, it must not depict a Bumblebee. A six-to-12-month "best before" date is reasonable, although three months is better for honey that's prone to crystallization. Before selling honey, please read the honey regulations.
Page BK 8.
