Uncapping Trays

Preparing honey frames at the uncapping tray means setting a capped honey frame taken from the super on the tray's resting pin, uncapping both sides, letting the frame drain and getting it ready for the extractor. This page describes the uncapping tray from the frame's point of view: which frames are extracted, how they are placed on the tray, how the cappings are removed and what happens to the frame after extraction. The page introducing the tray itself is “Uncapping Trays (Honey Production)”.

Which honey frame is ready for extraction?

Only ripe honey frames should come to the tray. What the beekeeper needs to check:

• Capping: Most of the frame should be sealed with white or light-coloured cappings. Cappings show that the bees have evaporated enough water from the honey.
• Moisture: Take a refractometer reading on partly capped frames. If there are many uncapped cells, the frame is returned to the hive or extracted separately and its moisture measured.
• No brood: A frame containing brood is not extracted. If no queen excluder was used, there may be brood in the super; these frames are returned to the hive.
• Pollen: Cells packed with pollen are not extracted; they give the honey a pollen taste and cloudiness. It is better to set such frames aside.
• Health: Frames from a colony showing signs of disease are not extracted with shared equipment.

How is a frame prepared for the tray?

1. Scraping: Scrape propolis and brace comb from the top bar and lugs of the frame with the hive tool; the scrapings should go into a separate container, not into the tray.
2. Checking: Hold the frame up to the light; look for broken comb, brood or pollen.
3. Warmth: Leaving supers taken off on a cool day in a warm room before extraction softens the cappings and makes cutting easier.
4. Order: Take frames out of the super one at a time; do not leave the super uncovered.

How is a honey frame uncapped on the tray?

1. Set it on the pin: Rest one lug of the frame on the pin in the tray's cross bar and hold the frame upright or at a slight angle. The cappings should fall into the tray.
2. Cut from top to bottom: Rest the uncapping knife on the side bars of the frame and slide it downwards just under the cappings with a sawing motion. Do not cut deep into the cell walls.
3. Open the hollows: Open the low-lying and edge cells that the knife cannot reach with an uncapping fork.
4. Turn it: Rotate the frame on the pin and uncap the other side the same way.
5. Let it drip: Hang the uncapped frame on the tray's rack; honey dripping off in the next few seconds falls into the tray.
6. Take it to the extractor: Place the frame in the extractor opposite a frame of similar weight.

What to do with frames in different conditions?

What happens to the uncapped frame after extraction?

• Cleaning out by the bees: Wet extracted frames are given back to the bees to clean in the evening, in supers placed on colonies in your own apiary. Leaving them out in the open triggers robbing; taking them to another apiary can spread disease.
• Sorting: Broken, very dark or misshapen combs are set aside for melting down.
• Storage: Dry combs are stored protected from wax moth (see “Frame Carrying and Storage Equipment”).

A well-kept honey comb can be extracted for years. Every sound comb diverts into honey the energy the bees would otherwise spend producing new wax.

What if you don't have a tray?

For a harvest of a few frames, a wooden bar placed across a clean, wide food-grade container does the job of a tray. A nail driven into the bar serves as the pin. The cappings fall into the container; but a separate strainer is needed to drain the honey from the cappings, and more honey is lost. As the number of hives grows, a tray with a strainer and a gate soon pays for itself.

Common mistakes

• Taking frames containing brood or a lot of pollen for extraction.
• Cutting deep into the cell walls with the knife; the bees use up honey to rebuild the comb.
• Leaving an uncapped frame hanging for a long time; the honey cools and the surface absorbs moisture.
• Leaving supers uncovered in the extracting room.
• Having wet frames cleaned out in other apiaries.