I take the comb with honey in it and squish it with a potato masher or something similar in the bottom of a pot. Then i pour that through cheese cloth as many times as needed to clean the wax and stuff out. I let it sit and drain through the cloth over night and it works quite well.
Assuming you already found a better way to "smash" the honey out of the comb, In Winery we use a press. You can buy them in 'kitchen' size, but that will be big enough for your honey harvest (as it looks in your video 🙂
A book I recommend on the subject of Warré hives is "the idel beekeeper" by Bill Anderson. He extracts by cutting the comb in half, so that all the cells are opened, and then putting it into a contraption of two buckets and a screen and letting gravity do all the work, eventually pulling the honey into the bottom part. Takes a few days, apparently, but is not very actively strenuous.
I have no experience at all, but I just read that they used a straining cloth. IDK buy a cheap pillow case, and throw the whole thing in there. Put the case in a big bucket.
Watching from the PNW. Really enjoyed your video. Thank you. Gives me a great visual of werré hives and the harvesting process. I like the idea of a less hands on approach. I hope to be able to bee keep on my own land one day. I appreciate your investment of time and patients to keep a healthy hive. What a wonderful reward for cultivating such wholesome environment for your swarms.👍🏼👏🙂
Thank you very much, Chantel 😊 I do hope you get to fulfill that dream before too long 🙏🏽😌 I feel you'd be an excellent and more caring bee guardian! 🐝🍯🤗
I have Langstroth Hives, but often have "Burr Comb", aka Random / and / or added Comb on the bottom of Mediums amongst Deeps... 😄 Tip : I add this Comb, into one of those Veg Mesh Bags Super Markets have when buying lose items. About 30p at Tesco, Asda etc... Instead of Plastic baggies in the Veggie Section.... They have very Fine Mesh and the Draw String Top ! ✔... Is ideal for Straining Runny Honey 👀... Also, get yourself one of those under the Bed Clear Plastic Storage Boxes (with Lid) ... Add Wax Comb and it's Honey in its Draw Sting Bag... AND place it Tilted, at an Angle towards some Sunshine... 🌞🌞🌞 The Interior warms UP nicely, the Honey Runs to the Corner.... then you can carefully peel the Lid Corner back, over your Jar(s) and pour that Honey out for Storage. No bits, bugs, or Bees hasseling you as you do it ! 😉 When Wax is all Empty. Add it to a Large "Dark Surfaced" Ex Roasting Tin Add a Sheet of Glass over the whole thing.... The Metal Deep Tin/Tray 'should Heat Up,' make that Wax Melt into the lower edge as you tilt it towards the Sun's Ray's... Again pour carefully into eg Ex Take Away Lidded Tubs*. These are really Cheap, or Free after an Order. The reason why they are good, is, if, when you bang, or bash, or twist container... to get that Clean Wax out... if they split or crack, it's no big deal.... Just order more Take Out ! 🤭 Tip : Rather than Mash Comb to a Pulp, lie Comb on its flat side, carefully cut with a Bread Knife a slither of that Top Wax... By doing this, one Side at a Tim's, it De-caps the Honey, turning it over, allow to Drain out thru a Cooling Rack, over a long Baking/Roasting Tin. Once empty (Dry Cells) Take Comb and trim off its other sides of Capping, on your Wooden Chopping Board, lift carefully, place back on the Cooling Rack... Same, let it Drain... 👍 You can use This Dry Wax (Comb Only/No Honey) to Craft with, or Add under Top Bars, into Bait Boxes (catch Swarms) or place in regular Bee Frames, using Elastic Bands to hold in place as Bees re-attach / build it up as New Comb again ! ** If Wax is not Brittle, you can Press its upper Edge (get the correct orientation as Bees made it !) And this Wax will attach to TBH easily. (If brittle, warm with a Hair Dryer, until it is soft and it will attach again, by carefully pressing it onto the place of use. (...not fragile and doesn't end up crumbling into lots of tiny pieces !?!) Hope this helps. 😎 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2022. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
That really helps! Thank you very much! 🙏 There are some brilliant tips there I'd not considered before, plus I already have all the necessary equipment! Apart from a hairdryer, which my electrical system wouldn't cope with anyway! 😄 Thank you for taking the time to type all that. I hope other people find it useful too 😊
Rob, or others... No Hair Drier? Then ... Any Brittle Wax*#, or Foundations* that Shatters !?! Place said in a Warm Environment, say in your Kitchen, in some indirect Sunshine, even in the Car. You want it to warm up and become Flexible AND smell like Wax again ! BUT no to Melt. *Works even on really old stuff. What Beek doesn't have Foundation so old, it's found on Shed Clear outs !!! 🤣 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2022. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Mashing up the comb. What about using a paint mixer that attaches to a drill. Put everything in a plastic bucket and let the bit grind everything up. Pour it through a strainer into another bucket and you've got your pressed honey. Would that work for you?
Interesting vlog on bee keeping. You can get large plastic strainers. Of course they are not as strong to push down on. Have you thought of ceramic containers. I thought of my slow crockpot with its 6 - 8 hours heating up cycles that can be interrupted. You are supposed to use water in the container though you could take the container out and adapt the heat source somehow.
Your videos make me so happy! Such an inspiring person you are Rob! Keep them coming!!! Can muslin cloth be used for squeezing out the honey from the comb? 💖
It depends where in the world you are and on one's beekeeping methods/philosophy, but it's common for my area and 'hands off' more natural, non intensive approach 🐝😊
Yes, Anne,you're right. I used to to this in a bain-marie. The wax would float to the top and could be removed as a disc. (After having mashed out as much honey as possible, of course. We don't want to damage the honey!) I ought to have done it this time, or at least mentioned that it could be done. I still could actually, the honey free wax is still there 🤔 The bees have finished helping themselves now 😊
@@robsdiscovery Oh and another idea to have on the table is perhaps using a cloth sack and a fruit press. I don't know about your area, but where I live, I can rent a fruit press for a day from a brew shop to press a bunch of fruit for cider. I imagine that would work well.
Hi Kath, which part of this process do you consider cruel? I really am interested. As a responsible bee custodian I keep an extremely close eye on the honeybees who've chosen to make their homes here and would never allow them to come even slightly close to starving. Feeding sugar (i.e nutritionally depleted 'junk' food) is a last resort. It's far better to take as little as possible as infrequently as possible. As opposed to taking almost everything and feeding with sugar syrup, as commercial beekeepers do. I leave most of the colonies alone completely and hadn't touched this one, as mentioned, for three years. Not a single bee was harmed or even slightly distressed (it's easy to tell from their tone and behaviour), and they had/have plenty of stores left for the rest of the year. They have since refilled the empty box with fresh, disease free combe and would probably have abandoned the hive if they weren't happy, as they sometimes do. I never intervene to prevent swarming and in fact actively encourage it as it keeps them healthy. Do you have bees? I'm always keen to learn more about different methods. I've tried quite a few bee 'keeping' techniques over the last 16 years and made many mistakes in the past (and may even be making some now!) but feel obliged to defend this particular method as it's the least invasive one I've found so far, apart from the entirely untouched conservation colonies that don't tend to thrive as well as the warre colonies do.
In case you don't reply, Kath, I'm answering so that anyone who may feel similarly is able to read this also. I ought to leave it be (leave it 🐝😄) but feel too strongly about the matter not to. It's quite a thing to be accused of cruelty when one lives their whole life so as to avoid it in all its forms. I feel I have failed in the video to explain that the honey is only a byproduct of the way by which this type of hive is healthily and sustainably managed. I by no means 'keep' bees (they can't be artificially kept with this method) purely for honey (which incidentally isn't just a sweeter, it's one of the world's best medicines and should be treated as such, with the appropriate respect) but for the sake of helping to repopulate the country with healthy and genetically diverse honeybees. Or at least to keep them alive until the countryside is a safe place for them repopulate again. In an ideal world no-one would have to be a beekeeper and the woods and rooftops would be abundant with wild honeybees that need no help from people to thrive, as was the case in centuries past. This however is not the case and beekeeping has become necessary (in the UK at least) to keep the populations alive. That's not to say there aren't wild bees about. There are. In fact some of my colonies now have darker hairier bodies after having successfully bred with the native British black bee (apis mellifera mellifera). No method is perfect (besides the bees own) but we must do what we can to help them. Being a natural beekeeper means that interference in the natural lives of bees ia kept to an absolute minimum. Nothing is put into the hive that is known to be, or likely to be harmful either to the bees, or to the wider environment and nothing is taken out that the bees cannot afford to lose. The bees know what they are doing and our job is to listen to them and provide the optimum conditions for their wellbeing. I hope that's a thorough enough answer! 😄
@@robsdiscovery i have been watching and enjoying your garden, i recently watched this ruclips.net/video/clMNw_VO1xo/видео.html&feature=share it put me off eating honey.
Thanks, Kath. I'm so glad you've been enjoying the videos :-) I hope I've not offended you by expressing my thoughts/feelings on beekeeping! :-D Thanks for the link. I knew commercial beekeeping was bad but I didn't know it was that horrific! :-o I can totally understand why you wouldn't want to eat honey. It makes me even more glad than ever not to buy or advocate buying mass produced honey. As to the wild UK bee population some of that came as news to me though I'd like to think that natural beekeeping helps rather than hinders. It's difficult to say for certain without conducting a proper survey but it certainly seems to have helped in my area as the bees in the various hives/boxes/logs at my place are all but a wild species and becoming more so with each passing generation. I'll need to do more research though. In the meantime let's keep planting more trees and flowers and restoring the wild bees' habitat! 🌳🌻🤗
I take the comb with honey in it and squish it with a potato masher or something similar in the bottom of a pot. Then i pour that through cheese cloth as many times as needed to clean the wax and stuff out. I let it sit and drain through the cloth over night and it works quite well.
An excellent method 🤗 I must invest in a cheese cloth! 😄
Assuming you already found a better way to "smash" the honey out of the comb, In Winery we use a press. You can buy them in 'kitchen' size, but that will be big enough for your honey harvest (as it looks in your video 🙂
Nothing more exciting (or delicious) than a harvest Rob.
Indeed, Anita! 🤗😋
Wow! That was an awesome video, thanks Rob! The bees seem happy in that hive type.
Your videos are great! It’s like if Monty Don lived in a yurt.
Thanks, Deb! 🎪🌱😄
Buy a honey press. It works great for my warres. Its basically like a fruit press but smaller and stainless steel, like $100 on ebay
Thanks! I've just been looking at them! You're right they're mostly exactly $100/£70 🤗 I'll have to start saving up! 😄
🤩 Lovely updating!!
A book I recommend on the subject of Warré hives is "the idel beekeeper" by Bill Anderson. He extracts by cutting the comb in half, so that all the cells are opened, and then putting it into a contraption of two buckets and a screen and letting gravity do all the work, eventually pulling the honey into the bottom part. Takes a few days, apparently, but is not very actively strenuous.
An excellent recommendation, Tobias, thank you 🍯📙😊
I have no experience at all, but I just read that they used a straining cloth.
IDK buy a cheap pillow case, and throw the whole thing in there. Put the case in a big bucket.
Watching from the PNW. Really enjoyed your video. Thank you. Gives me a great visual of werré hives and the harvesting process. I like the idea of a less hands on approach. I hope to be able to bee keep on my own land one day. I appreciate your investment of time and patients to keep a healthy hive. What a wonderful reward for cultivating such wholesome environment for your swarms.👍🏼👏🙂
Thank you very much, Chantel 😊
I do hope you get to fulfill that dream before too long 🙏🏽😌 I feel you'd be an excellent and more caring bee guardian! 🐝🍯🤗
@@robsdiscovery Thank you friend.
Bless you and your journey. 🙏🏼
Awesome video! Thank you!
Just one thought about the smacking while eating the comb… that could have been edited out.. hey, but that’s me 😅
Thank you, that was terrific.
I have Langstroth Hives, but often have "Burr Comb", aka Random / and / or added Comb on the bottom of Mediums amongst Deeps... 😄
Tip :
I add this Comb, into one of those Veg Mesh Bags Super Markets have when buying lose items. About 30p at Tesco, Asda etc... Instead of Plastic baggies in the Veggie Section....
They have very Fine Mesh and the Draw String Top ! ✔...
Is ideal for Straining Runny Honey 👀...
Also, get yourself one of those under the Bed Clear Plastic Storage Boxes (with Lid) ...
Add Wax Comb and it's Honey in its Draw Sting Bag... AND place it Tilted, at an Angle towards some Sunshine... 🌞🌞🌞
The Interior warms UP nicely, the Honey Runs to the Corner.... then you can carefully peel the Lid Corner back, over your Jar(s) and pour that Honey out for Storage. No bits, bugs, or Bees hasseling you as you do it ! 😉
When Wax is all Empty. Add it to a Large "Dark Surfaced" Ex Roasting Tin Add a Sheet of Glass over the whole thing....
The Metal Deep Tin/Tray 'should Heat Up,' make that Wax Melt into the lower edge as you tilt it towards the Sun's Ray's... Again pour carefully into eg Ex Take Away Lidded Tubs*. These are really Cheap, or Free after an Order. The reason why they are good, is, if, when you bang, or bash, or twist container... to get that Clean Wax out... if they split or crack, it's no big deal.... Just order more Take Out ! 🤭
Tip :
Rather than Mash Comb to a Pulp, lie Comb on its flat side, carefully cut with a Bread Knife a slither of that Top Wax... By doing this, one Side at a Tim's, it De-caps the Honey, turning it over, allow to Drain out thru a Cooling Rack, over a long Baking/Roasting Tin. Once empty (Dry Cells) Take Comb and trim off its other sides of Capping, on your Wooden Chopping Board, lift carefully, place back on the Cooling Rack... Same, let it Drain... 👍
You can use This Dry Wax (Comb Only/No Honey) to Craft with, or Add under Top Bars, into Bait Boxes (catch Swarms) or place in regular Bee Frames, using Elastic Bands to hold in place as Bees re-attach / build it up as New Comb again ! ** If Wax is not Brittle, you can Press its upper Edge (get the correct orientation as Bees made it !) And this Wax will attach to TBH easily.
(If brittle, warm with a Hair Dryer, until it is soft and it will attach again, by carefully pressing it onto the place of use. (...not fragile and doesn't end up crumbling into lots of tiny pieces !?!)
Hope this helps. 😎
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Happy Beekeeping 2022.
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
That really helps! Thank you very much! 🙏 There are some brilliant tips there I'd not considered before, plus I already have all the necessary equipment! Apart from a hairdryer, which my electrical system wouldn't cope with anyway! 😄 Thank you for taking the time to type all that. I hope other people find it useful too 😊
Oops Typo's ! Phone Keys Sticky, so playing Up... 🙄
Rob, or others...
No Hair Drier? Then ...
Any Brittle Wax*#, or Foundations* that Shatters !?! Place said in a Warm Environment, say in your Kitchen, in some indirect Sunshine, even in the Car. You want it to warm up and become Flexible AND smell like Wax again ! BUT no to Melt.
*Works even on really old stuff. What Beek doesn't have Foundation so old, it's found on Shed Clear outs !!! 🤣
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Happy Beekeeping 2022.
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
You love your 🐝
really nice video glad to see more
Mashing up the comb. What about using a paint mixer that attaches to a drill. Put everything in a plastic bucket and let the bit grind everything up. Pour it through a strainer into another bucket and you've got your pressed honey.
Would that work for you?
That's sounds simple, I wonder how well it would work 🤔 I shall do some research 🧐😁
Interesting vlog on bee keeping. You can get large plastic strainers. Of course they are not as strong to push down on. Have you thought of ceramic containers. I thought of my slow crockpot with its 6 - 8 hours heating up cycles that can be interrupted. You are supposed to use water in the container though you could take the container out and adapt the heat source somehow.
Lots of sweet food for thought! 🍯 Thanks! 😊
Lovely video! Thanks :)
Thanks, Phil. I'm glad you liked it 😊
Use a salad bowel spinner. Uncap the Combe first then cut it to size to fit in the bowel and spin it. It’s all plastic and honey won’t touch any metal
Good advice, The Knowledge of London!
Why did you only harvest once in three years?
i used to produce chunk honey in the small 6 inch supers i got thin edible wax starter strips from the bee supply company
Your videos make me so happy! Such an inspiring person you are Rob! Keep them coming!!! Can muslin cloth be used for squeezing out the honey from the comb? 💖
What a lovely thing to say, Claire. Thank you very much. I'm sure it can 🤔 It has so many uses, I really ought to finally get some 😄
Is it common to Herr they honey so infrequently? I would assume a year is too long
It depends where in the world you are and on one's beekeeping methods/philosophy, but it's common for my area and 'hands off' more natural, non intensive approach 🐝😊
I wonder if you heat it up if the wax would float on top and you could skim it off?
Yes, Anne,you're right. I used to to this in a bain-marie. The wax would float to the top and could be removed as a disc. (After having mashed out as much honey as possible, of course. We don't want to damage the honey!) I ought to have done it this time, or at least mentioned that it could be done. I still could actually, the honey free wax is still there 🤔 The bees have finished helping themselves now 😊
well it looks delicious and after three years hard work you deserve it!
@@kosty002 Thanks, Anne 😊
What about a wood press? Or a press using cloth as a filter?
That sounds ideal, Scott. I expect there are wood presses specially designed for honey extraction with cloth & all. I shall have a search 🔎🧐😁
@@robsdiscovery Oh and another idea to have on the table is perhaps using a cloth sack and a fruit press. I don't know about your area, but where I live, I can rent a fruit press for a day from a brew shop to press a bunch of fruit for cider. I imagine that would work well.
I have a fruit press that I use for cider 😁 I've not thought about using it for honey.. Until now 🤔
@@robsdiscovery Awesome, I bet it will work well! :)
Watching September 2022
Watching the Adverts
Using metal knives on honey doesnt do anything at all to it.
I think you have to find a better method to extract Honey from the Comb rather than this. it is not practical
I agree, it's too time consuming this way. There are some excellent suggestions here in the comments!I'll try something differ next time 😊
What makes that pretty clanking sound in the background?
Bamboo wind chimes 😉
@@robsdiscovery Thank you!
Remember to Thumbs Up 👆
I would recommend a hot knife to cut the caps off, I've seen that done before
That would certainly have made for less strenuous mashing 🤔
Hot knives are usually used with framed comb so that the comb can be used again. but, it would be a different way to do it
"I dont like using a steel knive as it damages the Honey" So I'll just mash it up in this steel seive Hypocrite.
😂😂
I do not like smell of Honey 🍯
That's the first time I've ever heard that! 😄 Just as well it's only a video 😉
poor bees, its not hard to replace honey with a sweetner that is less cruel.
Hi Kath, which part of this process do you consider cruel? I really am interested. As a responsible bee custodian I keep an extremely close eye on the honeybees who've chosen to make their homes here and would never allow them to come even slightly close to starving. Feeding sugar (i.e nutritionally depleted 'junk' food) is a last resort. It's far better to take as little as possible as infrequently as possible. As opposed to taking almost everything and feeding with sugar syrup, as commercial beekeepers do. I leave most of the colonies alone completely and hadn't touched this one, as mentioned, for three years. Not a single bee was harmed or even slightly distressed (it's easy to tell from their tone and behaviour), and they had/have plenty of stores left for the rest of the year. They have since refilled the empty box with fresh, disease free combe and would probably have abandoned the hive if they weren't happy, as they sometimes do. I never intervene to prevent swarming and in fact actively encourage it as it keeps them healthy. Do you have bees? I'm always keen to learn more about different methods. I've tried quite a few bee 'keeping' techniques over the last 16 years and made many mistakes in the past (and may even be making some now!) but feel obliged to defend this particular method as it's the least invasive one I've found so far, apart from the entirely untouched conservation colonies that don't tend to thrive as well as the warre colonies do.
I may have misunderstood. You're not suggesting I feed the bees sugar, you're suggesting that no one ever takes honey at all?
In case you don't reply, Kath, I'm answering so that anyone who may feel similarly is able to read this also.
I ought to leave it be (leave it 🐝😄) but feel too strongly about the matter not to. It's quite a thing to be accused of cruelty when one lives their whole life so as to avoid it in all its forms. I feel I have failed in the video to explain that the honey is only a byproduct of the way by which this type of hive is healthily and sustainably managed. I by no means 'keep' bees (they can't be artificially kept with this method) purely for honey (which incidentally isn't just a sweeter, it's one of the world's best medicines and should be treated as such, with the appropriate respect) but for the sake of helping to repopulate the country with healthy and genetically diverse honeybees. Or at least to keep them alive until the countryside is a safe place for them repopulate again. In an ideal world no-one would have to be a beekeeper and the woods and rooftops would be abundant with wild honeybees that need no help from people to thrive, as was the case in centuries past. This however is not the case and beekeeping has become necessary (in the UK at least) to keep the populations alive. That's not to say there aren't wild bees about. There are. In fact some of my colonies now have darker hairier bodies after having successfully bred with the native British black bee (apis mellifera mellifera). No method is perfect (besides the bees own) but we must do what we can to help them. Being a natural beekeeper means that interference in the natural lives of bees ia kept to an absolute minimum. Nothing is put into the hive that is known to be, or likely to be harmful either to the bees, or to the wider environment and nothing is taken out that the bees cannot afford to lose. The bees know what they are doing and our job is to listen to them and provide the optimum conditions for their wellbeing. I hope that's a thorough enough answer! 😄
@@robsdiscovery i have been watching and enjoying your garden, i recently watched this ruclips.net/video/clMNw_VO1xo/видео.html&feature=share
it put me off eating honey.
Thanks, Kath. I'm so glad you've been enjoying the videos :-) I hope I've not offended you by expressing my thoughts/feelings on beekeeping! :-D Thanks for the link. I knew commercial beekeeping was bad but I didn't know it was that horrific! :-o
I can totally understand why you wouldn't want to eat honey. It makes me even more glad than ever not to buy or advocate buying mass produced honey. As to the wild UK bee population some of that came as news to me though I'd like to think that natural beekeeping helps rather than hinders. It's difficult to say for certain without conducting a proper survey but it certainly seems to have helped in my area as the bees in the various hives/boxes/logs at my place are all but a wild species and becoming more so with each passing generation. I'll need to do more research though. In the meantime let's keep planting more trees and flowers and restoring the wild bees' habitat! 🌳🌻🤗