How We Harvest Honey Without Harming the Bees

People often picture honey harvesting as a chaotic scene of angry bees and sticky beekeepers. When it's done with care, it's actually calm and methodical. The goal is simple: take only the honey the colony doesn't need, disturb the bees as little as possible, and keep the honey as close to how the bees made it as we can.

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Step 1: Make sure there's extra

Before we take anything, we look at the whole hive. The colony needs enough honey to feed itself through lean times and cold, rainy weather. (That's why bees make honey in the first place.) Honey in the brood area and the frames the bees depend on stay put. We only consider honey stored above and beyond that, in the boxes called "supers" that bees fill when nectar is plentiful.

Step 2: Wait until the honey is ripe

Bees cap a cell with wax only when the honey inside has been dried down to the right moisture level. Honey that's harvested too early is watery and can ferment. So we wait until most of a frame is capped. Ripe honey keeps for years; unripe honey doesn't.

If you want to be sure, a honey refractometer measures moisture with a single drop.

Step 3: Pick a good day

Warm, sunny, calm midday weather is best. Many of the foragers are out working, and the bees that remain are usually more relaxed. We avoid cold, windy, or stormy days, when bees are home and grumpier.

Step 4: Gently clear the bees off

There are several gentle ways to move bees off honey frames:

• A soft bee brush to sweep them back into the hive
• A light shake of the frame over the open hive
• A bee escape board, a one-way door placed under the honey box a day or two ahead, which lets bees leave but not return

We move slowly and use calm, steady motions, which helps keep everyone at ease.

Step 5: Uncap and extract

Back inside, away from the bees, we slice off the thin wax caps from each frame. That wax becomes precious cappings wax for balms and other goods. The frames then go into an extractor, a drum that spins them so the honey is flung out of the comb while leaving the comb itself intact.

Tools that make this easier: an uncapping knife and a small hand-crank extractor for backyard hives.

Keeping the comb whole is a big deal. Building wax costs the bees a lot of energy, so returning intact comb to the hive lets them get right back to storing nectar instead of rebuilding.

Step 6: Strain lightly

We pour the honey through a strainer to catch bits of wax and the occasional bee part, but we don't pressure-filter it or heat it. That leaves the natural pollen, aroma, and flavor intact. It's why our honey is called raw.

Step 7: Let it settle and jar it

Honey rests for a few days so tiny air bubbles and wax particles float to the top. Then it's poured into jars, ready to share. A bucket with a honey gate makes bottling much less sticky.

What about the bees afterward?

After the harvest, we return the frames to the colony or store them safely, and keep a close eye on the hive. Our aim is that the bees barely notice we were there. (In fall, we also make sure they're set for winter. See Fall Hive Prep in the Bay Area.)

Want to see what calm beekeeping looks like during inspections, too? Read How to Calm Your Bees During Hive Inspections.