Many beekeepers in our area harvest their honey by the end of August. By then, the bees have been hard at work producing honey and most of what you can take is ready. (We always try to leave enough honey for the hives to over-winter so we don’t have to feed them sugar water.)
How do we know it’s time to harvest?
Aside from the time of year (late summer), the main thing Craig looks for are multiple frames of completely capped honey. (Worker bees cap each cell when the water content is perfect for ripe honey.)
How harvesting works
This bit is written for anyone with a mild interest in how the honey they’re buying/eating has been harvested. (If you’re a new beekeeper, you’re going to want more detailed instructions — see below.)
- Uncap the supers. This means the beekeeper basically takes a hot knife and cuts the top off all those little honey cells.
- Extract the honey from the frames. We use a centrifugal honey extractor. All the honey gets spun out of the frame, drips down the side of the extractor, through a filter, which gets out all of the really big bits of wax, etc. Then the filtered honey drips into a clean bucket with a closed spout.
- Bottle the honey. Glass jars are sanitized, lined up, and filled from the bucket. Usually, Craig fills the jars and I put the lids on. It takes an hour or two to bottle one bucket of extracted honey.
Etsy is a great place to find quilt squares - Package the honey jars. I keep it simple. Each jar gets a little quilt square, secured with a clean rubber band.
- Box them up for sale… Or give them away to friends & family! 🙂
For wannabees and beginner beekeepers
If you want more information on getting started or harvesting your first batch of honey, here are some additional resources:
- A Beginner’s Guide to Beekeeping
- Beekeeping Like a Girl
- Maryland Beekeepers Association
- University of Maryland Extension
- Maryland Department of Agriculture – Apiary Inspections
- Maryland Agricultural Resource Council
JE SUIS PREST
Anyone an Outlander fan? First published in 1991, the novel follows the adventures of Claire Fraser nee Beauchamp as she travels back and forth through time, Scotland, France, and the U.S. Her lover’s clan motto is “Je suis prest” — I am ready. 😀
Stay tuned… I’ll let you know in a future post how the harvest went!
Craig has been beekeeping since 2015. Jill started selling honey in 2018. Currently, they have three established hives and one nuc, which they will likely overwinter at a friend’s house. Craig has presented at the Hereford and Cockeysville libraries on beekeeping basics.
Windtree Bee 