What is the best way to uncap honey?
A heat gun can be used to melt the wax caps off the honey. It only takes a second for the wax to shrivel and melt so it’s not a danger to your wooden frames. Starting with the lowest setting you wave the heat gun, quickly over the frame starting at about 10 inches away and moving closer if needed.
How does an uncapping tank work?
Electric uncapping knives or planes are constantly heated to cut through the sealed beeswax cell. A capping scratcher is very handy to help open the low areas on the honey frame. The cappings are usually placed in a filter over a bucket or tank to allow the honey to drip from the cappings.
What do you do with an uncapped honey comb?
One of the easiest ways to get rid of most of the uncapped honey is to give the frames a good hard shake. Hold the frames upside down and flick them with your wrists. The nectar will fly out like rain. Alternatively, you can gently knock the frames against a tree or a post.
What do you do with frames after harvesting honey?
The most common way is to put the frames back in the supers just harvested and put the supers back on your hives. Then in a few days, the bees will have cleaned up the mess and you’re left with a super full of clean, dry, not sticky frames. Usually.
What equipment do I need to extract honey?
Harvest: There are three main tools for harvesting honey: a bee brush, an escape board, and a fume board. Use a bee brush to sweep the bees out of the way when harvesting honey.
How do you separate honey from wax caps?
1: Cut and collect Most home beekeepers use the scrape and drain method to collect their honey. In this process, wax cappings are scraped from the comb using a special ‘hot knife’ then set aside while the honey is extracted.
Is it OK to extract uncapped honey?
If a large portion of your honey is uncapped, you can extract the uncapped frames separately from the rest, store it in the refrigerator, and use it for cooking.
Should you collect uncapped honey?
If you extract the honey from a partially uncapped frame, remember that too many uncapped cells may make the moisture content of the honey excessively high. If you store the frame, the uncapped cells may ferment.
What is the best time of day to harvest honey?
We have found the bees are often calmest in the late afternoon, and at this time the honey in the hive is likely to be warmest and may flow more easily, so this can be a good time to harvest. Also check out our harvesting checklist.
How do you use a honey strainer?
Simply place the sieve on top of your bottling bucket, place the bucket under the gate at the bottom of your extractor, open the gate slowly and watch as your pure, delicious honey flows out and into the double sieve. Be sure to watch the flow carefully as you don’t want the sieve to overflow with honey.
What do you do with the Caps after extracting honey?
The wax cappings used to seal in honey are removed during honey collection, but can be kept, cleaned, and used to make products like candles, lip balms, and skincare products. Even if you’re not interested in using the wax yourself, it’s worth collecting and clarifying your wax for resale, or to give to friends.