Honey Extraction

Using a centrifugal extractor to get the liquid honey from honeycombs is a quick and convenient way for the bee-keeper to get their crop. There are many websites that show this so I won't expand upon it here except to say that some people have said you cannot extract natural comb in a centrifugal extractor which is nonsense. You can do so by making a simple wire cage to hold the comb whilst it is being spun.

There are other ways to extract liquid honey from honeycombs and they are the 'Crush & Strain' method and Pressing. If you google crush & strain there are many examples including videos on Utube etc., and I show the pressing method on my blog The criticism from conventional bee-keepers is that these methods are wasteful of comb. My answer to them is that renewing comb regularly is one of the ways in which we keep healthy colonies. The bee-keeper who keeps comb year on year is accumulating whatever nasties end up in the wax. In a feral situation, bees know when their wax has become untenable and abscond leaving the wax moths to clean out the area again to leave a clean void in which a new swarm can come back and take up residence once more. Can the bee-keeper guess when that point has come! By renewing comb in both the brood area and the honeycombs, we ensure a continuing healthy environment. Besides beeswax is a valuable crop as well as honey.

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