Many beginner beekeepers wonder: how to extract honey from honeycombs at home. In this material, we will consider how to do it manually and with the help of a honey extractor, as well as storage features and useful properties of the product.

How to get honey from honeycombs

Getting nectar from honeycombs is a painstaking business. At home, you can use a sieve or a pressing method. If the amount of work is large, it is better to use a honey extractor.

Honeycomb collection

Beekeepers begin the honey collection process on a sunny day in the morning. At this time, the bees fly out of the hive in search of nectar. There is a very true and error-free sign that allows you to know for sure that it is time to collect honey: the bees begin to seal the honeycombs with wax.

During the process, beekeepers use a smoker - a device for calming bees with smoke. In addition, a wet, soft brush is used to brush the bees off the frame. After all this, the frames are placed in a wooden box with a lid. Otherwise, the bees will urgently open their cells and eat up their stocks.

Honey extracting

Honey extractor significantly facilitates pumping and saves time. It is important that pumping is carried out on time. If the product has just been extracted, then it is easily pumped out by the honey extractor, but if it has stood for a long time not pumped out and cooled, it becomes thick and malleable. This greatly complicates the pumping. If the frames continued to be outside the hive for several days and became very cold, then before evacuation it is necessary to heat these frames in a well-heated room and then proceed to work.

Video: Pumping honey in the honey extractor

Manual separation

If there is no honey extractor, the pressing method can be applied. Separating honey and wax in this way will take a lot of time. It is necessary to cut honeycombs from wooden frames, grind, put in a container. Using a wooden crush, they should be kneaded and placed on a sieve. After this, the nectar will flow into the container, and the wax that remains after this can be washed and dried. It can make good home candles.

Separation of honey from wax

It happens that honey has succeeded in sugaring, in which case the question arises: how can it be separated from wax? When the nectar has crystallized, it will not be easy to do this, you will need a water bath. The container with the product is placed in a water bath and heated to + 60 ° C. At this temperature, the wax melts and rises to the surface. After that, it is removed using a wooden spatula.

Important! Heating honey to +60°C and above lowers the content of vitamins and minerals in it.

Straining

At the end of the reheating, small particles of wax remain in the product. Nectar is filtered through a fine sieve. After that, it becomes clean and transparent.

Pure Honey Storage

The container for storing the honey product must be dry and clean. Best suited aluminum, clay, ceramic, stainless steel or glass container. The optimum temperature for storage is + 10 ° С, air humidity - 60%. It is forbidden to store in the refrigerator due to the high humidity inside.

Honey storage in honeycombs

Many beekeepers keep honeycombs in plastic containers at home. The main condition is that the container must be tightly closed so as not to absorb extraneous odors. The maximum storage temperature is + 22 ° C. When this indicator increases, the cells will begin to break down.

The use and consumption of honey in honeycombs

In the cells of the cells are particles of pollen, bee bread, propolis. Pollen and bee pollen are natural multivitamins, and propolis is a natural antibiotic.

Did you know? Cleopatra was the first woman to start using a beekeeping product as a cosmetic.

• Other useful properties of the product:
• boosts immunity;
• normalizes the digestive tract;
• useful in the treatment of respiratory diseases;
• increases hemoglobin;
• lowers blood cholesterol;
• helps with flu and colds.

The presence of a honey separator makes the process of pumping honey quick and effective, but if you have the necessary knowledge and patience, you can easily complete this task manually and provide your family with a tasty, and most important: useful food product.