Tools of the Trade: Essential Equipment for Honey Harvesting

Honey harvesting is an age-old practice that humans have developed and mastered to extract that sweet, rich, and amber treasure from the buzzing beehives.

As honey harvesting can only occur once or twice a year, it is a must to have specialized tools by your side to ensure high yield and increased overall efficiency of the extraction process.

Honey harvesting is a process that can at times be dangerous especially when you are a novice in this area. Using appropriate gear when harvesting honey can prove to be a game changer. It can not only give you the much-needed protection but it can also ensure you are able to do it faster and with fewer errors.

Here is what the CEO of BA Barry group and the founder of GEOHONEY Mr. Basem Barry has to say about owning the right honey harvesting tools

“If you possess the necessary equipment for monofloral honey harvesting, it can save you so much time and trouble. And not to mention the amazing quality and quantity of honey that you get as a result of it.”

Following are some essential tools that you need to own for successful honey harvesting

• The Beekeeping suit
• The Smoker
• The Queen Excluder
• The Bee Brush
• The Hive Tool
• The Uncapping Knife
• Honey Extractor
• Buckets and Strainers
• Beyond Essentials: Some Additional Useful Honey Harvesting Tools

Essential Honey Harvesting Equipment

Here is a list of essential equipment that can help you with your ethical honey harvesting practices making this process successful and risk-free

1. The Beekeeping suit

First and foremost, you need a quality bee suit made from breathable fabric. You can either wear a full-body bee suit that comes with protective veil, boots, and gloves, or you can buy all these pieces separately.

Wearing a protective suit allows you to move freely near the hive and protects you from the painful stings during the harvesting process.

1. The Smoker

This stainless-steel object features a nozzle to guide smoke into the hive and a metal guard that protects your hands while you do so. The smoke disrupts bees’ capacity for pheromone communication. 

In other words, it calms the bees down making them less belligerent leading to a less stressful and risk-free monofloral raw honey harvesting. 

1. The Queen Excluder

This is a simple metal rack with small slits. These slits allow the worker and drone bees passage but keep the queen bee confined to a single place. This gives the beekeeper full control over where the queen bee lays eggs.

1. The Bee Brush

This essential monofloral honey harvesting instrument is about 14 inches in length with soft bristles attached to it. This brush is used to gently remove the bees from the frames or other hive components before honey extraction.

A bee brush gives you a safe, gentle, and efficient way to remove bees from the frames which can save bee lives while you work with crowded hives.

1. The Hive Tool

It is a metal bar that is about 1/4 inches thick, 7 inches long, and 2 inches wide and it features a flat blade on one end. This versatile tool is used for breaking the wax or propolis seals from the hive. It is also used for cutting open honeycombs and removing hive beetles.

1. The Uncapping Knife

Also known as a scratcher, this serrated blade is used to remove wax cappings from the honeycomb. This leads to a smooth flow of monofloral honey making the harvesting process faster. 

You can also use an electric uncapping knife for this purpose which melts the wax allowing it to slide down easily from the frames.

1. Honey Extractor

This useful device consists of a cylindrical drum which is used to place the frames. This drum spins around generating centrifugal force to extract the maximum amount of monofloral honey from the wax cells.

The main benefit of an extractor is that it allows for faster honey harvesting without causing any damage to the honeycombs. 

The honey moves to the sides of the drum and flows directly in jars via a spigot. Honey extractors are available both in mechanical and electrical version and they are among the most expensive bee harvesting tools out there.

1. Buckets and Stainers

After extraction, you need buckets with built-in strainers or standalone strainers and buckets to make sure the honey you collect is free from debris and wax residue.

This also ensures you are able to transport honey from the place of extraction to some other location without spillage.

Beyond Essentials: Some Additional Useful Honey Harvesting Tools

The tools we have mentioned so far are a must if you wish to make your monofloral honey harvesting process faster and more efficient.

However, if you are looking to make things even more streamlined and error-free, you can also invest in the following gear

• The Uncapping Fork

You can use the uncapping fork to remove wax capping from tough to reach and challenging nooks and crannies. This tool comes quite in handy when your uncapping knife is not able to perform properly.

• The Frame Holder

A frame holder keeps your frames from moving while you work on them. This frees your hands and eliminates the risk of dropping the frame while you use them for monofloral honey harvesting.

• The Bee Escape

This useful tool gives bees a one-way exit from the honey super. Once the bees are out, the design of this tool blocks their return. This leads to a safe evacuation of bees from the honeycomb pre-harvest. 

Conclusion

Proper monofloral honey harvesting requires a lot of practice and the use of specialized tools. Having the right equipment not only ensures complete safety of the beekeeper but it also gives them more freedom to handle the honeycombs and frames better.

If you possess the essential honey harvesting tools, you can not only increase your yield but also ensure neither bees nor the honeycombs are put at any risk. So, make it a top priority to gather these essential tools to make your honey harvesting process more productive, risk-free, and rewarding.   

Geohoney is the leading honey brand based in Dubai with over 130 farms equipped with the latest new-tech monofloral initiatives. Our 100% pure, raw, and natural monofloral honey is carefully prepared using single nectar sources which ensures both a high concentration of nutrients and enzymes.

Working with worldwide beekeepers from more than 53 countries Goehoney strives to produce monofloral honey that meets the highest global quality control standards while using environmentally sustainable resources and adhering to socially responsible policies.

Visit GEOHONEY today to order from our wide range of pure rare honey gathered from farms around the world.