Cassette Sections

Filtering Honey

Homogenising Honey

Creaming Honey

"A-Z" INDEX & SEARCH

Production of Honey

Comb honey requires no extraction equipment and its production is often practiced by newcomers to the craft, for the first few seasons of operation. It can be done with any type of hive including Top Bar Hives. There may be no equipment required, but the beekeeper is selling his comb along with his honey crop which may be a disadvantage if beeswax is required as a crop or useful by-product.

Squeezing and straining... Is where the comb is cut up into chunks, placed in a cloth bag and the contents squeezed so that the honey passes through the cloth and drains into a suitable container. This may be the only way to harvest some types of thixotropic honey like heather.

Sections whether round, square or rectangular can be very profitable, provided that your customers are educated enough and understand the value of good quality sections. Cassette sections also come into this category and are gaining in popularity among both beekeepers and their customers.

The majority of honey in the western world is 'extracted honey' that is put into various containers and jars. The combs are reusable and can be considered a capital resource. I have heard stories of extracting combs that are fifty years old and still going strong.

The 'extractors' page covers wax extractors as well as honey extractors and various methods of extraction.

The treatment of extracted honey to remove foreign bodies is dealt with under filtration.

Creaming and homogenising are methods of dealing with crystalised or granulated honey.

Generated... 18 January 2002, Written... 24 June 2002