How to Harvest Comb Honey
Honey bee colonies are exotic pets, raised and maintained for the purpose of honey production and for pollination of local food-producing crops. You may be one of the many bee farmers who uses a specific type of bee hive called a "Top-Bar" hive, so you may harvest comb honey. Comb honey is the purest, most raw form of honey that can be marketed, and honey still in its combs can bring a premium price. Harvesting comb honey is far more simple than honey extraction from Langstroth hive boards, which require centrifugal extraction machines costing thousands of dollars.
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Things You'll Need
- Hive tool
- Bee smoker and wood chip fuel
- Beekeeper's head and face net
- Gloves
- Pocket knife, clean and sanitized
- 5-gallon bucket with sealing lid
Instructions
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1
Put on your head net and your gloves. Place your wood chips into the smoker and ignite them. Use the smoker to smoke the bees with two or three puffs directed around the hive and also through the entry holes of the hive until the bees begin feeding on honey and become docile.
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2
Remove the lid of the hive using the hive tool, and begin pulling each "top bar" from the hive rim, beginning with the one farthest back to the rear of the hive and inspecting each for comb development. Gently brush the bees from the combs that are nearly full, and blow a small amount of smoke into the area where each bar is removed, so the bees flee to adjacent combs.
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3
Cut the comb off of the four bars closest to the rear of the hive, leaving intact the other bars on which the bees may feed. Hold the comb over a clean five-gallon bucket, and use your cleaned pocket knife to cut the comb from the bar straight across from one edge to the other, allowing the whole comb to fall into the bucket gently. Leave a half-inch wide length of filled comb along the entire bar, so the bees have a reference point on which to build an entirely new comb.
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Replace the harvested bars on the hive rim, and replace the hive cover. Don't disturb the hive for another two weeks, providing the bees time to "get their house back in order."
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Transport your harvested honey combs to your processing room and cut the combs into octagon-shaped pieces to about three inches across, or cut them to the size necessary to place in any custom comb package trays you may have purchased. Sell the packaged comb honey at your local (or other) market.
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Tips & Warnings
If you desire to harvest the wax from your combs and extract the honey (two crops in one), then use a hot knife to melt the wax caps from the comb and store them in a separated container. Use a large piece of cheese cloth, and place a piece of the uncapped comb in its center. Squeeze the comb tightly in the cheesecloth, and collect the honey in a jar as it pours from the cheesecloth. Discard the crushed comb.
Never remove more than 20 percent of the comb from your hives at any given time. The bee colony needs the majority to keep themselves fed. Toward the end of the year, just before winter, refrain from harvesting any additional honey combs to ensure your bee colony has plenty of honey to feed upon to get through the winter.
