Feb 19, 2018
Honey Harvesting Advice & Information from a rural beekeeper: When the combs are ready to be harvested the beekeeper should check for the moisture level and make sure it is at about 19 percent. The bees create a wax coating seal around the edges of the comb. This wax seal needs to be broken in order to get the honey out. Beekeepers normally do this with a hot knife that punctures the comb cells. The beekeeper I talked with uses an extractor to spin the frames of the comb and then releases the honey into the filtration system. After the honey is filtered it can be bottled and used! The frames are then put back and the bees are left to clean them out and start producing again. (personal interview)