Honey Harvest for Chunk Honey

[Tillie]

I know a number of you went and looked at my little video on Crush and Strain Honey. Today I posted a video on how to harvest honey for chunk honey (honeycomb in a jar filled with liquid honey). Here it is, if it would be useful for you to see it:

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2...unk-honey.html

Linda T in Atlanta with a camera covered with honey

[cdanderson]

Linda.. I loved your video.. I would love to see info regarding the crushing and straining part of those process. I didnt realize that you could or should actually freeze those jars of honey ?

[Tillie]

Here's the link for the crush and strain video (I had posted it on this forum in reply to someone's question about harvesting honey):
http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2...nd-strain.html

If you don't freeze the jars of honey, you run the risk of wax moth worms hatching in the jars you pass on to others. Personally I don't want to find them in my honey! They freeze just fine.

When one of my daughters came back from Semester at Sea (they go all around the world for a college semester on a ship), she brought all kinds of wooden sculpture etc. from Africa and Cambodia. We were told to put all of it in a freezer for at least 24 hours to keep African bugs from hatching out and destroying what she had brought home....who knew? But I suppose 24 hours in a freezer would be lethal to a number of insects.

Linda T in Atlanta (and thanks for watching)

[cdanderson]

Do you freeze and thaw the racks of comb before bottling or do you freeze the filled, sealed jars with comb and liquid honey for 24 hours then store as normal ?

I'm amazed it does no harm to the consistency etc of the honey !

[Tillie]

I freeze the filled, sealed jars and then store as normal. It apparently has no effect on the honey's consistency. I'll let you know - my jars are in the freezer as we speak and I'll take them out tonight.

You can freeze the frames of comb. I regularly freeze mine from last year before putting on the hive to deal with the wax moth. The comb is VERY fragile while frozen and breaks easily. Seems like the bottled honey is the best way to go for preservation of the comb.

Last year I had no problem, but I put them in the freezer of my refrigerator. During this last year I replaced my 32 year old broken chest freezer with a new smaller one just for beekeeping needs and it now houses the chunk honey I harvested - so it may be different. I'll let you know.

Linda T in Atlanta

[honeyman46408]

""I freeze the filled, sealed jars and then store as normal. It apparently has no effect on the honey's consistency. I'll let you know - my jars are in the freezer as we speak and I'll take them out tonight.""

I dont sell a lot of "chunk" honey so I store mine in the freezer, keeps it from granulating, I also store my "cut comb" in the freezer.

[Michael Bush]

Nice video. Thanks.

[Jesus_the_only_way]

Yes, very nice! Linda, you are doing a great job.
I'll bet your camera is sticky
Tom

[tbb39]

good video I saved it to try latter VARY GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Scut Farkas]

Is there any particular reason why people would buy chunk honey over liquid honey? It seems like you get less honey and you have a lot of wax to deal with - I don't see the appeal.

[Tillie]

I like the wax. There's actually some research out of Cuba that says eating beeswax helps cholesterol! But I like to chew the comb and most people who want chunk honey like to chew the wax and get the honey that way.

It's like sugar cane - fun to chew for the same reasons! Although you can swallow wax and I've never swallowed cane.

At this point, I don't sell honey - I give it away, and people ask me for the "kind with the comb in it."

Linda T in Atlanta

[aidah]

Hi Just saw the video and loved it!! Thanks for taking the time to teach and share. My foundation has wires I will have to change to something Else.I was worried about having to purchase an extractor, Now I don't have to.Thanks again. Aidah

[Tillie]

Many people (including Michael Bush, my beekeeping hero) have done crush and strain for years before moving to an extractor because the number of hives prevented their continuing.

Personally I think the honey tastes much better...no air, no heat.

Linda T in Atlanta

[Troy]

aidah,

I've never tried this, but an old beek friend of mine said that if you are careful you can heat the wires using an electric current and once the wax has melted you can pull them from the comb and they won't even leak.

I don't know if it is worth the trouble, just thought I'd share that info.

If you are going to crush and strain anyway, just crush it and grab and pull out the wires, it's no big deal. I'd try to be careful not to put the wires in the strainer basket, as they could rip the nylon filter though.

[bksss]

Thanks for the great video, it answered a number of questions that a new beekeeper like me has. I have two hives that were purchase in April. I purchased eight supers with comb built on permadent plastic foundation. Is it possible to scrape the comb off of the plastic sheets and then strain the honey? I do not want to purchase an extractor for such a small two hive operation like mine. The nearest honey club is 1.5 hours away which makes using their equipment expensive. We have had 3.8 inches of rain in the last 48 hours so I am not sure how much honey I will get from my two hives. One is rather weak and the other one looks good.
Kim

[Tillie]

I think Michael Bush has posted maybe here and on Beemaster that you can scrape the comb off of plastic foundation for crush and strain....

Linda T in Atlanta

[Michael Bush]

>I think Michael Bush has posted maybe here and on Beemaster that you can scrape the comb off of plastic foundation for crush and strain....

I've never tried it, but others have.

[Tillie]

I said that I would report on the results of freezing the honey in a real chest freezer - the jars all did fine - no cracks - they look quite happy and delicious.

Linda T in Atlanta