A Beekeeper's Journal: How to Harvest Raw Honey

by Lisa Johnson

What is Raw Honey?

As we all walk into a large grocery store, we search for the aisle containing honey. When we reach our goal, we are confronted with shelves packed with all choices of honey. There are containers shaped as bears and skepts (old time beehives). There are containers shaped as tall jars to short squat jars.

But- how to find the honey we want? We all look for the word Raw on the label. That key word gives us the feeling that the honey in that container is the honey in its most natural state. That is exactly the reason why beekeepers use that word on their honey labels.

From Hive to Jar

To understand what is in the jar of honey, the knowledge of how the honey is made and put into the jar is very important.

Beekeepers harvest the honey. Depending upon where the beekeeper is located, the harvest begins after the spring bloom ends. The honey bees have collected nectar and have gone through the process of creating honey out of nectar.

The honey has all been stored in the comb and beautifully capped with wax. It is at this time the beekeeper goes into each hive and removes all the frames that are fully capped. The phrase, “busy as a bee” has merit. Each production hive a beekeeper owns can generate up to 100 lbs. of honey per year! This is extra honey the bees have stored.

Beekeepers are very mindful to only take the excess honey the bees generate. The majority of beekeepers harvest only after the spring bloom for that reason.

Harvesting Raw Honey

Let’s talk about the frames. A beehive is made up of wooden boxes roughly 15” x 18” with varying depths. On average, beekeepers use ten removable frames in each box. A frame is a wooden rectangle that fits the dimension of its box. The frame is open in its entirety so the honey bees can fill in the space with the wax that they produce. The wax fills the frame like glass fills the window frames in your home. The beeswax is hexagonal shapes called cells.

When the honey bees fill these cells with honey, the bees put an additional layer of wax to “cap” the cell. When a frame is ready for harvest, all those cells must be capped. Only capped cells contain honey. When a beekeeper sees a fully capped frame, it can be taken for harvest.

The next step in collecting the honey is the process of the beekeeper taking all these capped frames to a honey house for extraction. A honey house is a place closed off so the honey bees can’t get in. So, before the frames are brought into the honey house, the honey bees must be removed. It is very easy to remove the honey bees from the capped frame!

Once a frame is fully capped there is nothing else for the honey bee to do on the frame so there are few very honey bees left on it. When the beekeeper lifts the frame out of the hive a simple shake will remove any honey bees remaining on it. With a quick shake of the frame, the honey bees easily all back into the hive.

Honey Frame Extraction

So now we have capped frames without the honey bees on them in a honey house where the honey bees can’t get in. Inside the honey house is the uncapping tank and the extractor.

First, a capped frame needs to be uncapped. A large serrated knife is used to carefully slice off on the thin wax cap of the frame. The uncapping of the frame is done over top of the uncapping tank. As the serrated knife slices through the wax capping, the wax falls into the tank. The honey is now exposed! The frame is held over the uncapping tank to capture all the drips of honey.

The uncapped frames of honey go into the extractor. The extractor looks like a stainless-steel drum. Inside the extractor, wire racks hold the frames. The wire rack positions the frames in a radial formation, or a tangential formation. This wire rack holding the uncapped frames act as a centrifuge. The extractor will spin the frames that allow the honey to spin out of the frames.

While the honey spins out of the frames it falls to the bottom of the extractor. There is an opening at the bottom of the extractor perfectly names the honey gate. When the honey gate is open the honey pours out. This is the time when beekeepers strain the honey.

It’s a two-strainer system. First, the honey strains through a course screen then into a finer screen. It then flows into a food grade container. This straining is to catch any honey bees that may have been caught in the harvest process to return them to the hive.

As Close to the Hive as You Can Get

With the understanding of how beekeepers harvest honey comes the understanding of why we at Adagio Bees use the word Raw is used on our honey labels.

When the term Raw Honey is used it tells the consumer that they are purchasing honey in its pure and natural state. This honey was harvested directly from the beehives with no required processing for safe consumption. As always, the label shows the product is 100% honey.