Top Bar Harvest
I have been following the developments of my friend’s Kenyan top bar hive for nearly four years now. They have been kind enough to tolerate my endless questions. I have wanted a beehive for years. I want to monitor their impact on the edible garden. I want to observe honeybees. I want honey. Who doesn’t? This year, I have won the bee lottery. I was provided a swarm (thank you Claudio!) and my amazing bee friends Lawrence and Timur gave me a top bar hive choke full of honey! The hive has been thriving in a junkyard in San Francisco. They brought it over and helped me do some maintenance on it, harvest the honey, and figure out what was going on with my new Langstoth hive.
We gathered our equipment: hats, veils, latex dish gloves, jeans, white hoodie, covered ankles, smoker, hive tool, feather, wire thing to release comb from the sides and bottom, smoker, a spray bottle with sugar water, and two 5 gallon buckets. We then removed entrance reducer and outer cover of the hive and started to gently pry the bars away from the hive body.
We removed six bars from each side of the hive, placing honeycomb on one bucket and brood comb (where they keep the babies) in another. We had to remove some of the brood comb so they do not become outgrow the hive and swarm to find other housing.
Its a very good thing that we did this because they had actually started forming “swarm cells.” These is a special type of brood chamber where they raise queens. Once a queen is ready to hatch from the swarm cell, the hive splits in half and buzzes away. Once we replaced the removed bars with clean bars, we closed things up and hid the buckets in my basement. We didn’t want any bees to find where their stolen honey was being stored or they would come buzzing around none too happy. I cleaned off the used top bars and other equipment. I removed the brood comb from the white bucket and cleaned with warm water and some dish soap. Then I began the process of harvesting the honey. The first thing I did was mash the comb with a potato masher.
I lined the freshly clean white 5 gallon bucket with an unused paint strainer and placed a large expandable strainer on top. Next, I used a large stainless steel spoon to scoop globs of wax and honey into the expandable strainer.
The honey filtered through the metal strainer and the paint strainer making it good, clean and edible. It took three batches to empty the bucket of comb. Each batch filtered about an hour and a half. At the end the paint strainer needed to be removed and the honey drained to try to recover as much honey as possible.
Once this was done, I was able to ladle the honey into jars. A bucket with a spigot at the bottom would be better but I don’t have one yet so its ladling for me. I also used a wide mouth canning funnel to make it easier to pour into the jars.
I was able to harvest 18.75 lbs of honey! Yum!
Next I will process the wax…
We gathered our equipment: hats, veils, latex dish gloves, jeans, white hoodie, covered ankles, smoker, hive tool, feather, wire thing to release comb from the sides and bottom, smoker, a spray bottle with sugar water, and two 5 gallon buckets. We then removed entrance reducer and outer cover of the hive and started to gently pry the bars away from the hive body.
We removed six bars from each side of the hive, placing honeycomb on one bucket and brood comb (where they keep the babies) in another. We had to remove some of the brood comb so they do not become outgrow the hive and swarm to find other housing.
Its a very good thing that we did this because they had actually started forming “swarm cells.” These is a special type of brood chamber where they raise queens. Once a queen is ready to hatch from the swarm cell, the hive splits in half and buzzes away. Once we replaced the removed bars with clean bars, we closed things up and hid the buckets in my basement. We didn’t want any bees to find where their stolen honey was being stored or they would come buzzing around none too happy. I cleaned off the used top bars and other equipment. I removed the brood comb from the white bucket and cleaned with warm water and some dish soap. Then I began the process of harvesting the honey. The first thing I did was mash the comb with a potato masher.
I lined the freshly clean white 5 gallon bucket with an unused paint strainer and placed a large expandable strainer on top. Next, I used a large stainless steel spoon to scoop globs of wax and honey into the expandable strainer.
The honey filtered through the metal strainer and the paint strainer making it good, clean and edible. It took three batches to empty the bucket of comb. Each batch filtered about an hour and a half. At the end the paint strainer needed to be removed and the honey drained to try to recover as much honey as possible.
Once this was done, I was able to ladle the honey into jars. A bucket with a spigot at the bottom would be better but I don’t have one yet so its ladling for me. I also used a wide mouth canning funnel to make it easier to pour into the jars.
I was able to harvest 18.75 lbs of honey! Yum!
Next I will process the wax…
Greetings from New Zealand.
Strangely enough, I have just returned to NZ after a visit to the USA, starting at San Francisco. I admire the life you are leading…
I came across your site as I was looking for a picture of a paint strainer. We were shown how we could raise a butterfly using a paint strainer, and given one to bring home as a sample. We were told, yes, they would be available here in NZ – but they’re not. So I need to get hold of a supply. Would you tell me please where you buy yours, as shown in your honey post.
Look forward to hearing from you – and keep up the great work. Yours is a very interesting site.
Jacqui
September 9th, 2008 at 3:50 pm