Honeybees are synonymous with their main food source of honey. It is even in their name! Despite the name, they are not the only eusocial insect to make honey. Stingless bees and some bumblebees make honey. Even some varieties of wasps have been known to make or consume honey. Despite this, honeybees have become semi-domesticated by humans instead of these other insects because of the quantity of their honey production. Other species might make honey, but honeybees make it in higher quantities, making them a hot commodity for humans to rear and keep. People have been harvesting honey for thousands of years, enjoying it for its sweet and medicinal properties.
As their name suggests, honeybees create and consume honey doing all the work themselves, from flower to beehive.
Foraging and creating honey
Honeybees forage from flowers, collecting nectar from the nectary of a flower. When bees forage for pollen and nectar, they exhibit flower fidelity. This means on each foraging flight a bee makes, she only collects nectar and/or pollen from the same species of flower for the duration of this trip. Once collected, they carry the nectar back to their hive, storing it in their honey stomach during the flight. In the honey stomach (or honey sac), enzymes begin breaking down the nectar, beginning the process of converting the nectar into honey. The forager will also consume bits of the nectar, using it to give her energy to fly back to the hive.
Once back at the hive, the nectar is exchanged from bee to bee. Each bee adds their own enzymes to the nectar with each pass, further breaking down the nectar. The last worker bee in the chain places the nectar into a cell, fanning it to remove moisture. Nectar in its true form has a high moisture content (generally 70-80%). Left with that much moisture, the nectar will ferment instead of turning into honey. Honey is comprised mostly of sugars and water, making it easy to ferment the nectar.
To prevent this, bees will fan their wings over the uncapped nectar stores, working to get the moisture content to an acceptable level. Once the cell is full enough and the moisture content is perfect (somewhere between 16-18.5%), the bees will cover the cell in wax capping, protecting it from water, the elements, or potential invaders. This is when it officially becomes honey.
Beekeeper assesses whether to harvest honey
Now that the honey’s made, a bee’s job is over and the beekeeper is making the decisions.
Assessing for honey harvest is an important aspect of beekeeping. Beekeepers want to harvest as much honey as they can but also leave enough for the bees to have winter stores. This is a delicate balance and can be determined by a variety of factors. A low nectar flow year will see little honey stores. A hive that has had to battle parasites or disease will have less honey stored due to lower population numbers. A recently robbed hive will have low honey stores.
Hives need adequate honey stores to get their populations through the winter into the first spring bloom. Depending on where the bees are that can range from two to six months with no nectar flow.
When looking for potential frames to harvest, beekeepers want to find frames that are at least 75% capped. If not, they can either leave the frames in, allowing the bees to cap them for later harvest or for their winter stores. They can also remove the frames and dehydrate them by using fans.
Preparing for harvesting
Beehives have different sized boxes to place on them, including sizes of frames that are bigger and smaller. A lot of beekeepers have different preferences for box sizes for most of the year, but for honey harvesting, shallow boxes are very popular to use as honey supers. Whatever the size, you want to place honey supers on your hives before the nectar flow begins, adding them as they fill the frames out.
Honey can be quite weighty. For shallow boxes, all frames being full of honey makes it around 40 pounds. Medium boxes can be up to 50 pounds and deep boxes can get up to 70 to 90 pounds. It’s more common to use shallower boxes for better ease of moving the boxes. When beekeeping, always remember to protect your back.
Harvesting
Harvesting honey is a messy, sticky business, but is most beekeepers favorite day of the year. Harvesting includes prepping hives, making sure there are no bees on the honey frames or in the honey supers. This can include advanced set ups or simply brushing the bees off the frames.
Once the frames are taken far away from the hives, beekeepers first uncap the honey and then put the frame into an extractor. It’s important to make sure the caps are completely removed – the wax capping is very durable and the honey won’t come out of the frame if the capping is still on it.
Once the frames are put into an extractor (following the extractors instructions/weight distribution), it will either be manually spun with a hand crank or spun automatically. Once they begin spinning, the honey will begin seeping to the bottom of the extractor. After several minutes of spinning, and constant checking that the frames are emptying, the frames are removed and either replaced with more that need extracting or completely finished.
Bottling
Once the honey is extracted and filtered, it’s easy to just pour into bottles. There are hundreds of bottle options – it all comes down to preference. Honey never goes bad. It can crystallize in bottles, but placing a bottle of crystallized honey in a warm water bath will fix that.
Depending on your state regulations, to sell honey make sure to check your local laws for labelling instructions and specifications.
Many beekeepers sell at their local farmer’s markets. To get a good idea of what’s blooming near you, consider looking for local beekeepers to buy your honey from. Promoting local beekeepers and getting delicious honey is a win-win.
