Subject: "This ONE tip Helps YOU Harvest Honey More Efficiently"

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Harvest Your Dream Honey

"O-Bee-Wan© here..."

"This ONE tip Helps YOU Harvest Honey More Efficiently"

"At Honey Harvest Time"

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Harvesting Tools

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Harvesting Tools

"Honey is Here. Let's harvest Effeciently!"

By Doing #1: Spare supers and honey extractors are vital equipment for beekeepers this time of year!

Inspect regularly. Bees at this time of year are pumping from a production perspective. This leads to excess honey which you can harvest.

By Deciding your budget #2: Honey extractors range from about R3000 to R30,000 depending on type and quantity of frames that can be extracted at one time.

Manual wax presses are the basic choice for low budgets but require crushing up the comb.

Honey extractors come in manual and electric options with the ability to spin from 3 frames at a time up to 30. Manual types require no electricity but elbow grease - you spin a handle that acts like a turnstile to turn the frames round that pulls the honey out of the cells and down the sides - ready to be filtered.

Electric types do the same as manual ones but using electric motors to turn the spinning frames.

Harvesting requires other tools #3: Processing honey, regardless of which way you decide to do it, requires more tools.

Crushing the comb is easy to do. Using a wax press is the best means of doing this. However, as discussed in my videos on youtube and in previous newsletters, this method decreases overall annual honey production. It also makes comb honey more valuable.

For anyone using spinners or extractors you also need the following equipment:

Uncapping fork / knife. It uncaps the comb in the frame to allow honey to escape
Double strainers to filter the honey
Buckets / Stainless steel settling tanks
Honeygate taps to control honey flow into jars, containers
Honey containers like jars, tubs and bottles
Labels
Honey pumps for larger operators
Bottling services
- Bee Ware provides bottling services where you drop off your natural honey in large volume containers to be weighed and then bottled into packaging of your choice and then tallied up to be collected again.
Refractometers for measuring the moisture content of honey

For low budgets, use pantyhose to crush and filter at the same time.

Make sure you ALWAYS use virgin plastic buckets for food safety.

Ensure highest quality of sanitary practices when dealing with honey as a food to avoid contamination of the product.

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What: Want to harvest honey at home?

Issue #1: "All type of honey harvesting is best done at higher temperatures in enclosed space.”

From a technical point of view, honey is stored at 36 degrees in the hive. It flows much easier at temperatures above 25 degrees Celsius.

"This ONE tip Helps YOU Harvest Honey More Efficiently"

➡️ Plan to keep your harvesting environment warm!

When you raise the temperature or have a room temperature of 25+ degrees celsius NOT only does the honey flow and run out at much faster rates but it ALSO means you can extract MORE of the honey stored in the same cells.

This way, you get faster harvesting and processing times as well as much more efficiency in total honey you can extract. Research shows that up to 20% of any honey on a frame is left behind when extracted in cool temperatures.

Also make sure windows and doors are shut otherwise bees will be attracted and make it risky to continue the process without being stung or getting bees stuck in honey.

Ants can also be attracted to the honey especially if spilled on the floor's surface.

Issue #2: Whenever harvesting honey sanitising your equipment is paramount!

Honey as a food source falls under the food handling and packaging legislation. This usually means using stainless steel equipment, access to ventilated working space and hygienic conditions.

Bottling and working with honey should mean high hygienic practice!

Issue #3: The bottling and storage of honey.

Due to honey being hygroscopic it is vital to store and bottle honey in air tight containers. These containers should be sanitised too before filling them.

Hygroscopic means honey absorbs moisture from its environment.

Honey stored in cold places may also speed up the granulation process turning it into crystalised honey before it would if it was stored in a warmer place.

Success Stories From the Swarm Catcher

"With these tools and tips, I have regularly been able to place 20 catch boxes on a site, matching the resources above and in the start beekeeping academy, and filled up to 16 boxes within 7-10 days with new swarms to manage and do bee farming."