Time to extract the honey

After a few months without honey, it looks like its time to extract some.
People who I have spoken to about this seem to think extraction must fun, 'reward for all the hard work' etc.
It isn't.
Its hard work and everything gets covered in a film of sticky honey and is probably one of the reasons I don't eat honey.

Honey extraction isn't an ongoing process, unless you have a Flow Hive of course, and normally its done twice a year in May and August.
The actual timing depends on how quickly the bees fill the frames and the flowers they have been extracting nectar from.
All honey crystallises and the rate it does so depends on the nectar. Honey from Oil Seed Rape is notorious for going hard very quickly and so you have to keep a close eye on the frames so as soon as the frames are capped they are taken out of the hive and the honey extracted. If you don't, you find the honey has gone hard in the frames and its a pain in the [....] to deal with.
You have to cut the comb out of the frames, warm it until it melts, let it cool to leave the wax on top and the liquid honey underneath.
There has been very little OSR around the apiaries and the honey looks to be nice and runny.

There are two stages to the extraction, clearing the frames of bees and then the actual extraction.

However firstly, some basics about honey
Honey is made from nectar collected from flowers. The bees 'drink' the nectar using their proboscis

The nectar is stored in their 'honey stomach' which is separate to their 'normal stomach'. There is a valve between the two stomachs and if the bee wants food the valve is opened and nectar passes into its stomach. Its a one way valve so it can't return to the honey stomach. I get very irritated when people say honey is 'bee vomit'.

Nectar is far from the finished item and the first stage of the processing is when the bee adds enzymes from glands in their mouths to the nectar to change the nature of the sugars in the nectar. They also make the honey acidic adding to its anti bacterial properties
When full the bee returns to the hive and the nectar is transferred to other bees waiting in the hive.

The foraging bee then leaves the hive and the nectar gets stored in the comb inside the hive.
As nectar is still quite liquid the bees build the comb at an angle of ~ 14⁰ to stop it running out.

The water content in nectar is quite high, about 80%. Unless this is reduced the honey is liable to ferment and also the bees do not want to take on too much water in winter as they cannot leave the hive in winter to get rid of it.
The inside of a hive is quite warm and the water starts to evaporate and the bees fan the nectar with their wings to help the evaporation until its about 17%
Once its just right the bees then cap over each cell with wax to make a sealed container of food.

Next blog will be about clearing the frames ready for extraction.