Honey Collection!!

The summer was a good one for the Lab Bees. The workers were out there every day collecting nectar and pollen. Back in the hive they worked hard and produced a decent amount of honey. With such nice weather and good flowering times, the bees are well provisioned with honey stores for the coming winter.

But one of the great things about raising bees is that there is some extra honey that we can collect! In order to collect honey, frames - those rectangular structures the bees build their wax comb on - are removed. Any bees are brushed off and the frames are placed in a plastic box for transport.

Our bees are raised in traditional Langstroth hives and therefore equipment exists to help extract the honey.

The first step is to cut the 'caps' off the comb. The bees seal each cell up once the honey is ready. In order to do this easily a knife dipped in hot water was used. This allows the caps to be removed without damaging the cells underneath.

The second step is to place the gooey frames into the 'extractor'.  This hand powered machine spins the frames like a washing machine spins wet clothes. The honey collects in the bottom and can be removed with the yellow gate.

A strainer helps to catch bits of wax.

After the honey is strained, the sticky, golden goodness can be poured into sterile jars.























Once the honey is in jars, the empty frames can be given back to the bees to clean up. The workers will take the remaining honey back for storage leaving relatively clean frames. To do this, we simply leave the frames outside near the hives.

















So now that we have some honey, we need some reason to get it to students! So anybody with great ideas about projects or curriculum with the bees is welcome to email me (dcalleri@ucls.uchicago.edu)! The golden elixir won't last long!