Harvesting spring honey: when, how and what's involved

Late May is the moment for many Dutch beekeepers: the first honey harvest of the year is just around the corner. The oilseed rape bloom is largely past, the fruit trees have finished flowering, and a fine layer of ripe spring honey is sitting in the upper supers. Time to extract.

But when is the truly right moment? And how do you go about it without running into honey problems later? An overview.

When is honey ripe to harvest

Honey is a liquid that your bees slowly dehydrate to about 17-18% water. Only then is it stable enough not to ferment in the jar. Two signs it is time:

• The cells are capped. Bees place a wax cap on a cell as soon as the honey is ripe. If at least 70% of the cells in a frame are capped, the frame can be harvested.
• The shake test works. Hold a frame horizontally and shake briefly. If nothing drips out, the honey is sufficiently thickened. If a thin stream flows from the uncapped cells, it is still too watery.

If you want more certainty, use a refractometer - a small optical device that measures water content. Available from around 35 euros, and worth it if you are serious about harvesting.

The right moment in the season

In the Netherlands, many beekeepers work with two harvests:

• Spring harvest - late May to early June, after the oilseed rape and fruit bloom. This honey is usually light in colour, mild in flavour, and crystallises fairly quickly.
• Summer harvest - late July to early August, after the summer bloom of lime, clover and rosebay willowherb. Often darker and stronger in flavour.

Some beekeepers also harvest heather honey in September, but that requires moving your colonies to the heath and is not standard for the average hobby beekeeper.

What you need

Before you start, lay out:

• A honey extractor, manual or electric. For 1-2 colonies a two-frame manual extractor is enough; from 3 colonies an electric one pays off.
• An uncapping fork or knife to remove the wax caps from the cells.
• An uncapping tray with grid where the wax remnants fall.
• A double sieve, coarse and fine, to filter the honey.
• Settling tanks or buckets with tap to let the honey settle.
• Honey jars with lids, and labels. Do not forget your name and harvest year.

Cleaning works best with warm water without soap. Honey and water mix fine, but soap residues cause flavour problems.

The harvest itself, step by step

1.Remove the honey supers from the colony. Best done early in the morning, when the bees are still calm. Many beekeepers use a bee escape (a panel with one-way valves) a day in advance. Then there are hardly any bees left in the honey chamber by harvest time.

2.Uncap the frames above the uncapping tray with your uncapping fork. Work calmly, frame by frame.

3.Place the frames in the extractor and spin. Start slowly, build up gradually. Starting too fast can break combs.

4.Sieve the honey directly through the double sieve into a settling tank. The sooner, the less chance of caking in the sieve.

5.Let the honey settle 1 to 3 days in the settling tank. Foam, small wax bits and air bubbles rise on their own. Skim off that layer before bottling.

6.Tap into jars, close tightly, label.

Common beginner mistakes

• Harvesting too early. Unripe honey with too much water will ferment after a few weeks. Really wait until the cells are capped.
• Processing too warm. Honey above 40°C loses enzymes and aroma. Work in a room between 18 and 25°C.
• Insufficient sieving. Nothing more annoying than small wax pieces or bee legs in your honey jar.
• Forgetting to label with harvest year. In two years you genuinely will not remember which jar came from which harvest.

What to do with the leftovers

Wax caps and wax remnants you do not throw away. Wax can be melted in a wax melter and recast into blocks. Many beekeepers exchange that wax at a wax exchange for new foundation - the bees get clean, young comb back without any wax being lost.

The uncapping honey (from the tray with caps) is by the way perfectly fine to eat yourself. It tastes exactly the same as the extracted honey. Many beekeepers keep this jar as their "own jar" for home.

To close

Extracting honey is not rocket science, but it does require preparation and patience. A well-organised extraction space (a kitchen is fine, if properly cleaned), the right timing, and working calmly are half the harvest.

Do you have questions or your own tip to share? Post it on the forum under Honey Harvest & Extraction - fellow beekeepers will gladly help.