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Beekeeper Honey - An Introduction For The Novice
The wax cappings that cover the combs exterior can be removed with a steam knife before placing the combs into an extractor. An extractor, either electric or hand wound, is simply a centrifugal camber where the spinning motion throws out the honey from the combs by centrifugal force. Once the honey is extracted and strained, it’s left to stand while air bubbles come to the surface. By the time any excess bits of wax and bubbles are skimmed off the surface, the honey is ready bottle. That’s really all that’s needed to harvest the honey. The really hard work begins with the honey bee itself. If we were able to get a birdseye view of the bee in actual flight from the hive to the flower and back again, this is what will happen. Before take off, bees communicate the distance and direction to the nectar source by doing a “bee dance”. Once the bee dance directions are understood, she’ll head off, knowing exactly where to go. Once she finds the nectar source, and navigates to a flower, she’ll draw the nectar out of the flower with her long tongue “proboscis”. She’ll store as much as she can hold (nearly her own body weight ), in her “honey stomach” (honeybees have 2 stomachs, a honey and regular stomach). Once her honey stomach is full she’ll mark the flowers with her pheromone (scent), then she’ll return to the hive. Flying back with a full load of nectar is a feat in itself, when you consider that a 747 weighs 900,000 lbs,(lbs=pounds) its maximum take off weight is 975,000 lbs. The difference being 75,000lbs. If a bee weighed 900,000 lbs it could take off with 1800,000lbs, phew! Back at the hive she’ll pass the nectar on to worker bees through regurgitation. Now that she’s passed on her load of nectar to the worker bees, she goes back to her job. But before she returns to the flower again for more nectar, she combs, cleans and cares for herself - so that she can work as efficiently as possible. Throughout her entire life she’ll work tirelessly collecting nectar and bringing it back to the hive, cleaning herself, then setting out for more nectar. That’s her role in the continuous honey making lifecycle. Lets turn our attention now to the worker bees that have ingested her regurgitated nectar. They will do this a number of times because enzymes in their stomachs help break down the complex sugars of the nectar down to simple sugars. Worker bees process this nectar in this way a number of times until it reaches the desired quality. Finally, the worker bees fill the cells of the comb with this mixture, and evaporate the rest of the moisture from it by fanning their wings to help in the evaporation process. Nectar is 80% water and by the time it has evaporated down to 20% of concentrated sugars, it is now honey and the worker bees can now place wax cappings over the combs to seal in the honey ready for long-term storage. This is where you the beginner beekeeper comes back into the cycle. Inspection of your hives regularly, is recommended to see whether or not the honeycombs are ready to be removed. The way that you can tell whether honey is ready, is, as soon as the honeycomb is filled with honey and capped with beeswax they are ready to be harvested. The wax cappings that cover the combs exterior can be removed with a steam knife before placing the combs into an extractor. An extractor, either electric or hand wound, is simply a centrifugal camber where the spinning motion throws out the honey from the combs by centrifugal force… Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Visit my website for more information on The Benefits of Beekeeper Honey, or Follow other beekeeping enthusiasts, hobbyists and beginner beekeepers to quickstartbeekeeping.com for a FREE 10-Part mini-course |
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