Honey Harvesting Equipment

Honey harvesting equipment is the full set of tools, such as bee escapes, uncapping tools, uncapping trays, extractors, strainers, settling tanks and refractometers, used to take ripe honey from the hive, separate it from the comb, strain it, let it settle and prepare it for jarring. Honey that leaves the hive in perfect condition can be spoiled at this stage by the wrong materials, temperature or moisture. This page summarises the harvesting chain from start to finish and points you to the detailed page for each tool.

What equipment do you need to harvest honey?

Harvesting is a chain: each link in the chain corresponds to a tool, and the weakest link determines the quality of the product. The workflow should always move in the same direction:

1. Clearing bees from the supers: a clearer board, a soft bee brush and, if needed, a blower.
2. Transport: covered supers, a drip tray, a frame carrying box.
3. Ripeness check: moisture measurement with a refractometer.
4. Uncapping: uncapping knife, uncapping fork (uncapping comb), uncapping tray.
5. Extraction: a centrifugal honey extractor (commonly just called a honey spinner) or, on a small scale, a press.
6. Straining: coarse and medium mesh strainers, often in two stages.
7. Settling: a lidded settling tank with a tap at the bottom.
8. Filling and storage: clean, dry, food-grade jars and buckets.

A honey warming tank or warming cabinet may also be needed to make crystallised honey runny again; this tool is part of bottling rather than harvesting, and it is where most mistakes are made.

What material should honey harvesting equipment be made of?

Honey is an acidic food (its pH is mostly between 3.5 and 4.5) and corrodes unsuitable metals. Dissolved metal both spoils the taste of the honey and is a food safety problem. So the rule for every surface in contact with honey is clear:

Old galvanised extractors are still passed from hand to hand. Don't use such an extractor for food production; it can only be considered if the inside has been given a food-safe coating or the drum has been replaced.

How are supers cleared of bees and transported?

The first piece of harvesting equipment is the clearer board (bee escape board). The one-way passages in this board, placed under the super, let bees go down but not come back. After a day or two the super is largely free of bees. For a few frames, shaking and brushing with a soft brush is enough; large operations use blowers. Chemical bee repellents are not recommended, because their smell and residues can pass into the honey.

Removed supers must be transported closed and bee-tight. A drip tray goes underneath and a tight lid on top. Even a single super left in the open can start robbing. Transport and storage equipment is covered in detail on the "Frame carrying and storage boxes" page.

How is ripeness measured? The refractometer

The refractometer is the cheapest and most decisive piece of harvesting equipment. It reads the water content from how much a drop of honey refracts light. Honey with high moisture ferments and can spoil a whole batch. In the Turkish Food Codex and international standards, the general limit is a maximum of 20 per cent moisture; for safe storage, the target is below about 18 per cent.

• When to measure: when partly capped frames will be extracted, when harvesting in a rainy period, and for every extraction batch.
• How: before measuring, the instrument is zeroed with the liquid specified by the manufacturer; the measurement is made at room temperature, or an instrument with automatic temperature compensation is chosen.
• Records: the moisture value of each batch is written down with the date.

Which tools are used for uncapping and extraction?

Uncapping tools and tray

Honey will not come out in the extractor until the thin wax caps over the cells (cappings) are removed. An uncapping knife is fast on a flat surface; heated or electric types make the job easier. An uncapping fork opens cells left in hollows. The cut cappings drop into the uncapping tray; the tray's strainer compartment separates the honey from the cappings. Cappings wax is the cleanest and lightest-coloured wax and should be collected separately.

Extractor

A centrifugal extractor spins the frames and removes the honey by centrifugal force. The comb stays intact and is returned to the bees; this is the real gain over pressing, since bees spend a lot of nectar and energy building comb. There are two basic types: the tangential extractor, which extracts one side at a time, and the radial extractor, which extracts both sides at once. Hand-cranked models are enough for a beekeeper with few hives; motorised, speed-controlled models save time and comb as the number of hives grows.

How is extracted honey cleaned and settled?

Honey coming out of the extractor contains wax fragments, bee parts and air bubbles. It is first passed through coarse and medium mesh strainers. Very fine filters are not used; a fine filter also holds back pollen grains, making it harder to prove the botanical and geographical origin of the honey in the laboratory.

The strained honey is left in the settling tank for a few days. Bubbles and fine wax particles rise to the surface, the foam is skimmed off, and the clean honey is filled into jars through the tap at the bottom. The tank lid must close tightly; honey draws moisture from the air.

Warming honey: the easiest mistake to make

Crystallisation is a natural property of honey, not spoilage. If honey needs to be made runny again, gentle, controlled and brief warming is essential. Excessive heat destroys enzymes (especially diastase and invertase) and raises the value of HMF (hydroxymethylfurfural), an indicator of heat treatment and ageing in honey. The legal limit is generally 40 milligrams per kilogram. Never put honey directly on a flame; use a water-jacketed (double-walled) tank or a thermostatic warming cabinet, and keep the temperature close to hive temperature.

What should the extraction room be like?

• Bee-tight: an open door or window invites robbing.
• Dry: honey is hygroscopic; honey left open in a damp room picks up water.
• Warm: cold honey flows poorly. Leaving supers in a warm room before extracting makes the honey flow more easily.
• Washable surfaces and running water: a clean floor, clean clothing, a hairnet, washed hands.
• Process without delay: supers waiting to be extracted are an attractive target for wax moth and, where it occurs, the small hive beetle.

Maintaining harvesting equipment and common mistakes

Equipment is washed with lukewarm water after every harvest; very hot water melts the wax and makes it stick to surfaces. If detergent has been used, rinse thoroughly. No part should be put away until it is completely dry: leftover honey and water cause mould, odours and corrosion. Over the winter, extractors and tanks are covered to keep dust out.

• Extracting without measuring moisture: a fermented batch wastes all your work.
• Unsuitable materials: a galvanised bucket, a brass tap or a tank with flaking paint.
• Overheating: warming honey "so it flows faster" means enzyme loss and higher HMF.
• Over-filtering: removing pollen for the sake of clarity.
• Mixing different apiaries: traceability is lost and a monofloral honey claim cannot be defended.
• Using a shared extractor without cleaning it: residues from another apiary can carry disease agents.