If you have honey bees and dream of one day owning your very own honey extractor, you might just find that you can save that money for something else after you check out this method of harvesting your natural honey. Considering that most backyard beekeepers will only need to harvest a few frames at a time in most cases, this method could be quite useful for you.
I do what is called “crush and strain”, where I take a frame of honey out of my hive and simply cut the entire comb out and then crush it in a bucket and strain it before putting it into a jar. This method works particularly well for those beekeepers that manage their bees using wax foundation, or foundation less comb guide frames where the bees build the entire comb themselves without the use of plastic style foundation. Top bar beekeepers are very familiar with this method since this is the only way they can harvest honey.
Here is what you’ll need:
- 2 Food Grade plastic buckets
- 1 Potato masher
- 1 honey strainer or nylon window screen
- 1 long serrated knife
1. I use a 5 gallon bucket for my harvesting because that’s what I have, but you can use almost any size that works for you. I see people use 1 gallon or even 3 gallon buckets. Just make sure they are clean before you begin.
2. Drill several 3/8” diameter holes in one of your buckets and place this one over the 2nd bucket with a honey strainer or piece of nylon window screen in between the 2 buckets. This will strain out chunks of wax and other stuff like bees just in case you get a stray one by accident. I use a couple of pieces of wood to support the top bucket over the other one.
3. Get your frame of honey and hold it over the top bucket and use a long serrated knife to gently cut the wax comb out letting it fall into the top bucket. After you cut the comb out, just use a potato masher to crush the comb allowing the honey to flow out of the capped cells. Just keep mashing until you know that all the cells have been ruptured allowing the honey to come out. If you have several more frames of honey, simply repeat this step until you are done. I can usually harvest a dozen frames of honey before the bucket gets full.
4. Now all you have to do is let the honey drip out through the 3/8” holes and the strainer into the 2nd bottom bucket. One tip that will help make this easier for you is to do this on a very warm or hot day. The honey runs quicker in warmer weather. After I crush all the honey comb and it begins straining, I get a big plastic trash bag and cover the 2 buckets from top to bottom and let it sit all day. I usually leave it over night and by the next day, your bottom bucket will be filled with sweet honey ready to pour into jars.
5. Now just get several jars and pour your honey. I find that 1 medium frame yields 1+ quart jar. So a good rule of thumb is to have 1 jar for every medium frame you intend to harvest. If I have 5 frames to harvest, I’ll bring 6 jars because they tend to be on the plus side. After pouring into jars, I like to mark the date on the jar lid for reference.
Another tip, is to harvest away from the bees if you want to work in peace. Once they know you are harvesting honey, they’ll tell their buddies, and you’ll have all kinds of bees flying around getting into the honey. So keep your bees safe and harvest in an area that they can’t get into the honey and die – which they seem to be experts at. Perhaps you can harvest in your garage or a screened porch.
After you are all finished, you can leave your utensils that are covered in honey out for the bees to clean up. They’ll reclaim every drop! So there is never any waste – which is the really cool part about using this method. Just don’t give your bees a bucket of honey to dive into and drown themselves. If you have a little left that you can’t pour into a jar, just dump out the crushed wax from the top bucket and pour the excess honey on it. Your bees will enjoy working through the wax collecting all the honey you couldn’t harvest and they’ll bring it back into the hive for you to get next time. Talk about efficient!
If you happen to use plastic foundation, you can still harvest by using your clean hive tool to scrape off the combs into the bucket. I think a lot of beekeepers will find that this method works fine for backyard beekeepers. I run an average of 40-60 colonies and I’ve never owned an extractor, so don’t’ feel as if you are missing out on some important gadget if you don’t have one.
I have a video of one of my recent honey harvests using this method if you want to check it out and see how it’s done, watch below or click here. Enjoy that sweet honey, and as always, Enjoy Beekeeping!
8 Comments
Hi! I enjoyed watching your video!
We purchased a hive a year ago last April in upstate NY. Luckily our hive survived the winter!
Last year when I was enjoying our first harvest I used the same technique to separate the honey from the wax! I took the remaining honey covered wax and tools back to the top of the hive on a parchment covered cookie sheet for the bees to clean up. They cleaned up every speck of honey within a couple hours!
Later when I was visiting our local bee supplier/beekeeper they informed me that if you have more than one hive this probably isn’t the best idea because it can lead to hive “robbing” from other hives causing the bees to fight it out with each other basically because the host hive bees are protecting their hive and the robbers will actually try to steal the reserves in the main box leaving nothing for the host hive. Apparently this can also happen with bees from other hives within their 2-3 mile territory.
I thought that was interesting but the next time I decided to harvest another few frames I did the same thing. I did observe what I would describe as fighting (bees attacking bees) with hundreds of the bees. Many died in the process. Our hive did survive the winter but I wonder if you have ever noticed that same thing happen?
Thanks,
Lynette
This only creates a robbing situation if you place these gleanings near you hives. Place then far away from your hives and even separate into 2 or 3 feeding stations. The bees will not recognize this as part of their hive and will just be intent on feeding on the honey.
I always enjoy your videos. I like this one but music was a bit loud. Love ya!! 🙂
What a mess! Next time try using a couple of old baking sheets, overturned plastic tote lid, or other large tray with an edge around it and spread the wax/honey mix on it. The bees can do the same thing and you won’t have to clean up wax chips scattered all over your deck. Also an easier way to drain honey from comb is to cut the caps off and simply turn the comb upside down in the bucket. Bees form comb with a slight incline at the cell entrance so that the honey will not spill out while they fill the cells, so when turned over it will drain without having to crush up all of that comb, and faster.
I guess it’s an ok process if you’re not going to keep your bees to produce next season. There’s a very good reason we spin the frames and preserve the comb for next year’s honey. Save’s the bees a lot of work and they will produce more. You still get wax to use when you cut off the cappings.
This method is only one way to get honey without using an extractor. I’ve actually scraped or scratched the cells and let it drip out too. If you are concerned about hurting the bees by destroying the comb, just remember NOT to harvest more than what your bees need to survive. They will happily build more honey comb next season during the flow, or feed a little sugar water for them to use in building comb.
I wonder if this method of allowing bees to clean up honey from old comb isn’t a reason for disease spreading between hives, especially when wild bees are invited in so close to your own domestic bees?
So is this another cause of ccd?
If you know you have a sick hive, then I wouldn’t recommend it. But if you consider that the diseases of honey bees seem centered around the brood nest and not the honey supers, I would feel comfortable enough doing the crush and strain.