Spring 2012 Extraction

We had a honey extracting extravaganza on Sunday!  Thanks so much to everyone who came out to help: Dean, Danielle, Elizabeth, Kim and Steve!   Dean is tending three colonies at the Spring Street Farm in Aliquippa, which part of the amazing efforts of the Uncommon Grounds Cafe (Dean's on Facebook, too--look for "Spring Street Farm.").  Danielle and interns Elizabeth and Kim tend seven colonies now (after their successful splits this spring!) at Churchview Farms.  And Steve, a state wildlife biologist,  is one of our area's few Master Beekeepers and Burgh Bees's indefatigable Apiary Director.  Steve also sells his honey on the last Saturday of the month at the Sewickley Farmers' Market. Check out their work:

Beautiful fully capped frame of spring honey

Dean & Robert using uncapping knives
to remove the wax caps from the honey

Danielle showing lovely uncapping technique!

An uncapped frame of honey ready for the extractor

The uncapped frames are loaded into the extractor.
This is a motorized radial extractor, which spins
the honey out of the comb.

Honey pouring out of the extractor and
into a strainer placed over a bucket.

Freshly extracted honey!

When all's done, there's still lots of honey
at the bottom of the extractor.
It will slowly drain into a bucket.

Spring honey bottled and ready to enjoy!

Spring Honey Extraction!

Frames of capped honey waiting to be extracted

Spring honey is one of Western Pennsylvania's most amazing delicacies. Nectar from early and late spring tree blossoms, especially the black locust and tulip poplar trees combine to create a delightfully light and delicious spring honey.  With all the rain in early spring, we were worried we wouldn't have much of a spring crop.  Rain can dilute the nectar so much that the bees have trouble turning it into honey.

     Once foragers collect the nectar, they store it in their "honey stomachs" and take it back to the colony.  At the colony, waiting house bees take the nectar from foragers in a mouth-to-mouth transfer.  The house bee will work with honey for about 30 minutes, moving it in and out of her proboscis, a process that adds enzymes and helps with evaporation.  Nectar is usually about 80% water, while honey is about 17% water-very dry!  Once she works with the nectar, she'll place it in a cell to evaporate more.  She and her sisters will fan the nectar until most of the water in it has been evaporated.  At that point, they'll cap the cell with a bit of beeswax to prevent moisture from getting back in.

A close up of nectar and just-capped honey (as well as some pollen)

Here's a close up photo of nectar on the verge of being capped.  In the top left, you can see some that the bees are starting to cap some of the cells.  The shiny cells have nectar not yet ready to cap.  In the lower right, the cells are filled with solid, colorful pollen. Nectar and honey are the bees' source of carbohydrates.  Pollen provides their protein.

Uncapping the honey to get it ready to extract

To extract the honey, we remove the beeswax cappings using a hot knife. The frames are then put into the extractor.









Here's a photo of "Big Green," our four-frame "antique" honey extractor, which we use when we don't have a lot of honey to extract.  The extractor spins the honey out of the cells using centrifugal force.

"Big Green" our 4-frame extractor  

And voila! Honey flows from the extractor into a strainer and a gated bucket.

Fresh spring honey!