Chapter 9: Harvesting Honey and Hive Products
Overview of Chapter Nine~
Harvest in late summer/autumn by removing top boxes of fully capped honey. Crush and strain (no centrifuge needed). Yield is modest but high-quality raw honey. Also collect propolis, beeswax and pollen.
Chapter Nine~
Harvest falls in late July to early September depending on the flow. Heather honey may be later and may crystallise in the comb, so plan to cut it promptly. Take only boxes that are fully capped and sit above a clear brood nest. Leave the equivalent of one full box of honey (roughly 12–15 kg) over the cluster for winter in most Irish sites; more if the apiary is on poor late forage. A colony reduced to brood and a light box in August often needs feeding, which defeats the point.
Removal is physical. Clear bees with a soft brush, a leaf blower on low, or an escape board placed the day before. Cut the combs from the bars with a knife, crush them in a clean bucket, and strain through a coarse then fine mesh. Settling for a day lets wax particles rise. The honey is raw and may contain pollen; label it accordingly and follow EU rules on origin and weight. Yield from a Warre box is often 8–12 kg if well filled, so two surplus boxes give a useful household crop.
Wax is rendered from the crush residue in a solar melter or a careful water bath. Propolis scraped from bars and rebates can be tinctured. Pollen is not routinely trapped in a minimal-intervention system; if you do trap, do it briefly and not before winter. None of these products require an extractor, uncapping knife, or settling tank beyond a food-grade bucket and cloth.
