PROCESSING HONEY FROM TOP-BAR HIVES by Marieke Mutsaers, Nigeria sieve to separate wax particles from the honey « several clean containers of 5-10 litre capacity » scrapers to clean honey off the trays and containers (bakers’ plastic scrapers work very well) « three large aprons (if available, plastic are very good). e a
Preparation ideally two people should do the uncapping while one person turns the centrifuge.
FIGURE I. Transfer of combs to the harvest hive. The harvested comb is replaced with an empty topbar or by bars with extracted combs
(honey extractor) is very efficient for honey removal from combs in Sonttituge frames, but it can also be used for combs attached to top-bars. During transport some combs may break off the top-bars but this can be avoided during extraction: most of the empty combs can then be returned to the hives. This leads to future increased honey yields as bees are saved the effort and resources of rebuilding honeycomb.
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Removing honeycombs from the hive
FIGURE 2.
Manual centrifuge for two combs.
Take top-bars with honeycombs carefully out of the hive and transfer them to an empty hive: we call this the ‘harvest hive’ (Figure 1). Replace the removed top-bars with empty ones or with top-bars with extracted combs. The harvest hive should be of a small size (not more than 10-15 top-bars) or, if larger, it should not be filled up completely. This is because ten combs may weigh 10-15 kg, which is a heavy load. Try to keep the combs intact — attached to the top-bar — until reaching the place of processing. Broken pieces of comb can be put on a tray or in a container. Use a harvest hive which does not have the bee entrance at the bottom, but higher up. This will prevent honey from running out of the hive.
Materials needed
FIGURE 3. A
plastic container for cappings, a scraper, a fork for uncapping, and a tray with a rack or grid placed over it.
(Assuming that three people are participating in the honey harvesting) » a manual centrifugal extractor which holds two combs at a time (Figure 2) « trays for uncapping (Figure 3) « a wire grid placed over each tray: this supports the comb and prevents it from breaking during uncapping (Figures 3 and 4) a forks for uncapping » plastic containers to collect the cappings from the fork = two hinged, double-mesh frames to process broken-off pieces of comb in the centrifuge (Figure 5) « a double pot, the top one with a perforated bottom to press out the cappings and small pieces of comb (Figure 6) e asack with a plastic net at the bottom which fits in the top pot (Figure 6) e asimple honey press (cheese press) (Figure 7)
The extraction should be done indoors. If this is not possible then do it early in the morning or in the evening. If there is frequent honey and wax processing there will always be bees around which will recruit others. In less than 20 minutes there may be thousands of bees, reclaiming their honey and making work difficult.
Clean the inside of the centrifuge with a clean, wet cloth and dry it with clean, dry towels. Clean the mesh frames and put a container under the centrifuge (Figure 2). Put the trays with comb support, uncapping forks and capping containers (Figure 3) ready on a table. Put on a large apron.
Uncapping honeycombs a comb on each uncapping tray (Figure comb should always be manipulated vertically, to prevent it from breaking off the top-bar and to avoid loss of honey. This is illustrated in Figure 8. When placing it horizontally on the tray for uncapping, it should therefore be supported with the rack as shown in Figure 4.
Place
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Uncap one side, turn the comb carefully, and place it on the tray with the second side up while supporting it. Uncap the other side. Now lift it up with the comb hanging vertically. Turn the bar carefully (Figure 8) and place it in the centrifuge. With two combs in the centrifuge, spin the centrifuge at half-speed. After a little while stop the centrifuge, turn the combs (vertically only) and spin again. This time the centrifuge can be spun at full speed, until the cells on one side are completely empty. Now the combs are turned back and side one is extracted fully in a third run. In the first run the cells should not be emptied because the weight of the honey in the cells at the other side may cause the comb to break off.
While the first pair of combs is being extracted the other persons can start uncapping the next two combs.
Extracting broken comb using the centrifuge Combs which have become detached from the top-bar are placed in a hinged, double-mesh frame (Figure 5), and then put into the centrifuge. This frame should also be held only vertically, otherwise the honey wiil drip out and the wire may even come off as the weight to be carried can be more than one kilo.
