Jun 195 min read

The Sweet Journey of Honey Extraction: From Our Hives to Your Home

Dear Honey Enthusiasts,

This week is a scorcher here in the Fingerlakes. Hopefully, you are staying cool and hydrated. We decided to harvest our honey frames last week, and the weather was perfect for it. It was a successful harvest, so we thought we would continue our blog with this week's task on our honey farm—honey extraction! We are thrilled to share the fascinating process behind the honey you enjoy from our hives. At Fingerlakes Honey Company, we take great pride in the journey that transforms nature’s nectar into the sweet treat you savor. Let us take you on a behind-the-scenes tour of how we extract honey, ensuring each jar is filled with the purest, most delicious honey possible. So grab your iced tea (sweetened with our honey of course!), sit in front of a fan or air conditioner, and read on.

A Peek into the World of Bees

Everything begins with our hardworking honeybees. These incredible creatures travel from flower to flower, collecting nectar that they bring back to our hives. Inside the hive, they convert the nectar into honey through a meticulous process involving regurgitation and evaporation. The honey is then carefully stored in hexagonal wax cells and sealed with a beeswax capping to maintain its freshness.

When is Honey Ready?

Timing is essential in honey harvesting. We typically harvest honey in late spring and then again in late summer when the frames are filled and the honey is capped with wax. This capping signifies that the moisture content is just right, ensuring the honey will remain fresh and won’t ferment. If you'd like to find out more about our honey harvesting process, check out last week's blog, where we gave a bee's-eye view into the process of collecting our honey frames.

The Tools of Honey Extraction

To ensure we provide you with the highest quality honey, we use a variety of tools for extraction, including:

**Totes of Capped Honeycomb Frames: What we collected last week from the hives.

**Uncapping Knives and Forks: To carefully remove the wax cappings.

**Uncapping Tank: Used to catch the wax cappings and honey drips from the uncapping process.

**Honey extractor: Centrifugal device that extracts honey from the combs.

**Strainers: To filter out any impurities.

**Refractometer: A tool used to check the moisture content of honey.

**Storage containers: Clean buckets and bottles for storing the honey.

The Extraction Process

1. Preparation

** We gather and clean all the tools we will be using in the extraction process.

2. Removing the Frames

**Taking Out the Frames: We gently lift out the frames from the protective tote and ensure they are fully capped and ready for extraction.

3. Uncapping the Honeycomb

**Uncapping the Cells: Using specialized uncapping knives and forks, we carefully remove the wax cappings, revealing the honey within. This is done over an uncapping tank that collects these cappings and any honey that drips out of the honeycomb. Uncapping the honey removes only a tiny amount of wax from the top of the honeycomb, so our honeycomb is preserved for the bees to use again in the future.

**Checking the Moisture: We use a refractometer to check the moisture content of our honey. Too much moisture, and the honey would ferment. This handy device uses a dab of honey, the sun, and our eyesight to see if our honey is at the quality moisture level we need for our bee-licious products.

4. Extracting the Honey

**Loading the Frames: The uncapped frames are then placed into our honey extractor. When our business first started, we used a hand-cranked extractor. Now, we are using an electric (and larger) extractor to make the job a little easier.

**Spinning the Extractor: The extractor spins the frames, using centrifugal force to pull the honey out of the combs.

**Collecting the Honey: The extracted honey collects at the bottom of the extractor, ready to be drained.

5. Filtering the Honey

**Straining the Honey: The honey leaves the extractor through a "honey gate" which is like a door and is filtered through strainers over food-grade buckets to remove any residual wax or impurities and collect the honey. We also strain any honey and wax from the uncapping tank. Any beeswax collected during the straining process will be used for our beeswax items. We will have a future blog post talking about making beeswax items.

6. Bottling the Honey

**Storing the Honey: The filtered honey is now in clean, airtight buckets, which are labeled with the extraction date and type of honey.

**Bottling Honey: When it's time to bottle, we use our bottling machine to pour our honey into our glass bottles. Some is also used to make our creamed honey and infused honey products. Then they are ready for our wonderful customers to buy and enjoy .

From Our Hive to Your Home

After extraction, we return the empty frames to the empty hive boxes and set them out in the bee yard for the bees to clean off any remaining honey and then we reuse the frames for the next harvest. The bees also clean off all of our extraction equipment and any beeswax collected. They do an extremely thorough job for us (plus they can use the honey to help the hive). After the bees finish cleaning, all of the equipment is thoroughly cleaned by us and stored, ready for the next harvest. We also store the freshly extracted honey buckets until we need them.

Enjoying the Sweet Rewards

Knowing the journey from hive to jar makes our honey even more special. We invite you to enjoy our honey in countless ways—drizzled over toast, stirred into tea, or used in your favorite recipes. Each spoonful is a testament to the dedication and care we put into every jar.

At Fingerlakes Honey Company, the process of extracting honey is more than just a task—it’s a passion. We are committed to delivering the highest quality honey while respecting the bees and the natural world. Thank you for being a part of our honey-loving community. The next time you enjoy our honey, you can savor it knowing the care and effort that goes into every jar.

Until Next Time- Stay Sweet!

Tom and Stacie

Our Beekeepers, Tom and Stacie, are co-owners of Fingerlakes Honey Company located in the bee-utiful Fingerlakes region of New York State. When they are not tending to all things bees, they enjoy spending time with their grown children, their dog, and lots of chickens on their homestead. They love learning more about the bees they foster and helping others to learn more about them as well.