The first error: For some reason, it is believed that the best honey is May!   But in fact, May is a rarity. It occurs in the southern regions, mainly during the flowering of spring honey plants, for example, a white stock. In the central regions and Siberia, May is even less common.
  For one reason: in spring, the hives are literally clogged with brood of different ages, and this hungry "horde" requires a lot of flower nectar and pollen for the full development. One brood frame requires a full honey frame. And not a single one rooting for his bees will take honey in the spring, and lead the bee family to a half-starved existence. One kilogram of honey taken from bees in the spring will turn into dozens of lost during the summer.

Unfortunately, more often than not what sellers usually give for fresh May honey is last year’s old honey, warmed up to give it a liquid state. It is possible to recognize that old honey is sold in honey sold by demanding documents from the seller confirming the quality of honey and checking, as a rule, that honey has less heat. This is due to the fact that heating destroys the enzyme diastase.

May honey is called, usually honey varieties collected in the first half of June, and the name "May" itself remains from the old reckoning in Russia, when June began two weeks later than according to the modern calendar. So all honey collected by bees in the first half of June can be considered May.

The second error:Honey obtained by bees from one species of plant (monoflora) is more useful than honey collected from herbs.
  True monoflora honey is rare. It can be when in the apiary area there are huge areas (hundreds of hectares) of seeded melliferous plants: buckwheat, sweet clover, sunflower, or, as in the Far East, where the vast majority (more than 50%) is one very strong honey plant such as linden. Monofloral can be with two types of acacia: white acacia and yellow acacia. Yellow acacia is widespread in our pritazhnoy zone, but it is a pity that the commodity with it is very rare. Over the past 30 years, honey has been pumped from acacia only 3 times, the last time in 2012.

If there are not such strong honey plants in large numbers nearby, then we can’t talk about monoflorism, honey is not necessary. Bees will actively visit all the honey plants. Colza, sow thistle, feathery cornflower, rapeseed, burdock ...
  And so it’s more correct to say: buckwheat honey with herbs, linden honey with herbs, and the like. And I must say that such honey is no worse than monoflora varieties ...

The third error:If the honey is “sugared” (it’s more correct to say, it crystallized) - this means that it is old and has lost its valuable properties.   I would like to add right away that honey crystallization (sugaring)
  one of the most important indicators of honey quality. Natural honey always crystallizes, one kind of honey, for example, rapeseed for a month, other honey much later, but all crystallize .... Any honey that has not crystallized over 4-6 months can be safely attributed to low-quality honey. With no big exceptions ... Or is it a heated crystallized honey that has lost almost all of its beneficial properties.

For some reason, it is believed that if the honey is “sugared”, then it means sugar was added to it ... But if the bees are given sugar syrup for processing, then such “honey”, on the contrary, will not be “sugared” for a very long time.

Honey does not have any restrictions on the shelf life, since it practically does not deteriorate. Honey found in the Egyptian pyramids, for 3000 years has not lost its nutritional qualities and is suitable for consumption. It is also important that the quality of honey does not change after the crystallization process - only physical properties change: its consistency and color. The crystallization process is associated with the presence of glucose in honey, the more it is, the faster honey crystallizes. So in rapeseed honey, glucose is more than 51%, and crystallization begins already a week after pumping.

In Soviet times, there was even a ban on the sale of liquid honey on collective farm markets from the first days of October. It was believed, and quite justifiably, that by this time almost all varieties of Russian honey should already crystallize. If this did not happen, then it means that the honey is fake and of poor quality.

Good day. I don’t know for sure if you are just interested or already are, but sooner or later the time for pumping out honey comes. If you have never done this before, then it is very difficult to imagine such a laborious process. It is for this that this article is needed, in which we consider where, how and when it is necessary to pump honey. All of this is below, so let's get started.

You can start pumping honey after the frames are sealed for a quarter - in this case, excess moisture has already evaporated and the pumped out honey will not sour. Undoubtedly, you can download sealed frames, but in this case you will spend a lot of time trimming them.

Process description

It is necessary to pump honey indoors so that the bees do not interfere with you in this process, but the room should be well ventilated. If you swing in a tent, then be sure to make windows, and cover them with gauze or a mosquito net.

It is necessary to adhere to such a technology: we install removers under the honey hulls, pull out the frames from the hive, print the resulting frames, pump the honey in the honey extractor and then safely return the empty frames back.

If your hives are not single hull and do not have extensions, then in this case you will need: a smoker, a brush, a chisel, water, a honey extractor, a table for trimming frames, a container for honey. If there are multihull hives, then it is necessary to use removers together with the Ganiman grid.

But, as you understand, the general techniques that the beekeeper will perform after the formation of a certain amount of honey in the hive are described above, then I propose to consider the pumping process of honey in more detail.

Removers should be delivered the day before pumping, they should not be placed if there is bee brood in the honey case. When you get out the frames, first brush the bees into the hive, and remove the bees that remain with a brush dipped in water. Now the frame must be installed in the ramonos and cover.

After removing the framework from the hive, you need to close. Next, with a knife, remove the tops of the sealed cells. Cut off honeycomb lids are named, it is better to put them in the cassette of the table so that honey flows from them. Putting the frames in the chordal honey separator is necessary with the lower bar in the direction of movement, because the cells are tilted up.

For honey racers with an even number of frames, you must observe the load symmetry to prevent strong vibration. To combat vibrations, do not keep the honey extractor tap open all the time, but open it when honey begins to reach the lower parts of the frames. The time required for pumping one side of the frames can be determined in the process, because it depends on the speed of the honey separator, the temperature and viscosity of the honey. When the honey on one side of the frame ends, the frame is turned over and they begin to swing on the other side. Please note - do not spin up the honey extractor very much, because you risk breaking the honeycomb, and will not happen in the future. Carefully pump out those frames from which there was no brood, because they are very fragile.

In order to prevent, it is necessary to return the evacuated frames to the families from which they were selected.

All this is good, but it seems to me that you have already fallen asleep while reading the text. I understand very well that not everyone likes to read, especially for those below is a video that shows in detail the process of pumping honey.

When to download honey, when they start to download honey, when you can download honey   - You can get an answer to all these questions today on our blog site dedicated to beekeeping products and everything related to them.
Honey is a very unique product in its healing and bactericidal properties. Legends make up its medicinal possibilities. They can cure most common diseases before which official medicine is powerless. But the quality of honey is very important, and it depends directly on moisture or maturity.
Humidity of honey - the percentage of honey in water. Also, the moisture of honey can be judged on its quality. In mature honey, the moisture content of the water should not be more than 18-20%.
When to download honey - the question is very controversial, but the correct answer is as follows. When the frame with honey is sealed with 2/3 of wax caps (from which the bees are made in the future), the beekeeper can begin to select frames for subsequent rolling and obtaining honey. This is the most important rule that every beekeeper must adhere to !!! Otherwise, if we violate the technology, you, dear customers, get honey with excess moisture, and as a result, honey in bottles and jars sour and has an unpleasant specific smell. So the product can’t be eaten, as it is a POISON! You need to throw it away or take it to the seller who sold it to you.
Cases of souring of honey also come from the illiteracy of the beekeeper, who does not wonder when you can download honey, but does it when it is convenient for him. Especially illiterate bee lovers make a mistake during a strong long bribe. there is no nectar and no free space. It takes time for the bees to evaporate moisture, and only then begin to pump out. And here the beekeeper makes the biggest mistake - in the hope of pumping out and collecting more honey, the beekeeper has an immature low-quality product.
   Spring honey lovers often ask: When they start to download honey   beekeepers in spring?
This happens at different times. Depending on the area, the strength of the family.
Usually, commodity first honey begins to be pumped with white acacia. There are cases when the beekeeper has strong families and he shakes willow honey or from other spring nectaroses.
At the end of the article I want to repeat myself and draw a conclusion when to download honey.
Dear novice beekeepers and interested buyers. Honey should be pumped when you have a frame with honey that will be sealed 2/3 of their size with wax caps secreted by bees. At this point, honey has 18-20% moisture and is considered mature, which means high quality.
Therefore, do not chase quantity, but strive for Quality.

The selection of honey in the apiary is the most difficult work of the beekeeper, but also the most pleasant. Communicating with many beekeepers, I asked them: “What do you like and don’t like about your work?” So, there are beekeepers who don’t like to pump honey.

I also belong to them. The only thing that pleases in these moments is that your apiary is not just a hobby, but also a considerable source of income or business.

Beekeepers have several different opinions regarding the selection of honey in the apiary.

Some say that honey should be pumped once a season. With this method of beekeeping, an additional store setting is put on the hives every 7 to 10 days. And then at the end of the season they pump honey.

This method is not suitable in places where there are large bribes. Since the size of the hive will be very large.

I read that in the USA and Canada, beekeepers practice pumping out immature honey. Other honeycombs, more often artificial ones, are put in bee colonies.

And honeycombs with immature honey are placed in a special chamber for ripening. In this way, the amount of marketable honey from the apiary is increased. But such technologies have not yet reached us.

In central and eastern Ukraine, the event is held several times. With this method of beekeeping, you do not need to keep extra stores and a large number of spare honeycombs in the apiary.

The number of qualities per season in each apiary is different. I do it in my apiary 3-4 times a season.

During my practice, only once did this work 5 times.

Printed honey in a half frame.

Before selecting honey in the apiary, the beekeeper must make sure that:

1. Honey is ripe.
  2. The amount of honey in families exceeds the untouchable reserve of 10 kilograms in spring or mid-summer, 20-30 kilograms in autumn.

Regarding the maturity of honey, there are different opinions. Some believe that mature honey should be fully printed.

And others think, when the bees are just starting the signet, it’s worth turning the frame horizontally and shaking it off. If honey did not run, then it is mature.

Determining the maturity of honey by the beginning of its signet before the selection of honey.

I belong to the latter. Because if you have a large apiary, then until you get to the last from the first hive, then in the last all honey will be printed and the uterus will have nowhere to sow. What then is reflected in the strength of the family.

You should not postpone the event for several days, unless bad weather interferes.

If you don’t pump honey in time, then your bees will fill them with all possible honeycombs, not caring for the uterus, and they will also clog all possible voids in the hive.

And this will then add additional work on cutting languages. As you do not push the store settings to the hives, and the bees still build up the transitions between the buildings.

If you use regular hives, sun loungers, then you should not debug the event all the more.

In such hives, there are cases that there is no seeding at all. And novice beekeepers will think that in such a family there is no uterus. But where can she sow if all the honeycombs are covered in honey?

Honey should not be pumped if families do not have an intact supply of 10 kg in spring or summer, and 20-30 kg in autumn. But this is just my opinion.

If you want to put your bees to a survival test, then they will probably survive. But what kind of families will these be?

A family that has been left with 10 kg of honey does not lose optimism, and the uterus in such a family does not stop to lay eggs.

At home or in the country it is easy to find the right room. But on a nomadic apiary, special tents or other devices and buildings are used to pump out honey.

To print honeycombs use special knives, forks or rollers. Some beekeepers heat the tools for opening honeycombs with hot water for better wax cutting.

There are steam knives for printing honeycombs in beekeeping shops.

Honeycombs are printed and trimmed over special cutting tables. Trimming yet, which is very useful as a product.

You can also cut the overhead over large bowls if there are no such tables.

I begin to carry out this work in the morning, as soon as the bees begin. All works last several days.

Many people write that you should start pumping honey only after lunch. But when you finish it then, if you work half a day.

Honey is taken from stores completely, and therefore they shake out all half-frames, sweeping away the rest of the bees with a quill pen, a special brush or a bunch of grass.

Semi-frames are placed in portable boxes and manually or on a trolley delivered to the room for pumping honey.

At least one assistant should be involved in the apiary for this event.

But if one person selects frames, and then puts them in place, the other carries them, and two more people work on printing honeycombs and pumping honey, then a conveyor is formed.

In this case, the work is done much faster, which will give your bees a chance to apply honey again.

The whole family is attracted to the house for rolling honey. In a nomadic apiary, beekeepers help each other.

The next day after pumping stores, I look around. To do this, remove the store and marked the frame with honey in the winter.

Frame sowing also should not be selected. Since, unsealed sowing while rotating in the honey extractor, the whole will fall out of the cells and die in the honey.

Printed sowing can also suffer with the rapid rotation of the honey extractor.

I take honey from the nests only extra. This can only be from the framework going this year.

But there are cases that at the time of the bribe there was no fetal uterus in the family. In such a family in the nest of honey can be much more.

Selected frames are printed and inserted into the honey extractor.

Medogonka are radial and chordial. In small apiaries, 4 frame honey extractors with manual drive are used. But in industrial apiaries, 20 or more electrically driven frame honey extractors are used.

In the radial honey extractor frame are inserted with the top plate to the axis of the cassette. Rotate the honey extractor so that the top slats of the frames go forward. Then unwrap the cassette and rotate the honey extractor in the other direction.

In the chordial honey extractor is not provided for turning the cassettes. In such a honey extractor, the frame must be turned over manually, by pumping out one side.

All honey extractors need to be rotated, starting at low revs, gradually increasing the speed of rotation. But also it is necessary to rotate not very quickly, as the frame can be broken, especially in very hot weather.

Then all pumped-out frames are put back in portable boxes and put back to bee colonies.

On large apiaries, you can put a spare frame in the family where honey is taken. A pumped frame then put in another family. Thus, if 3-4 people work, the work time decreases.

During the main bribe period, the selection of honey in my apiary is done every 10-14 days. It all depends on temperature and humidity.

When I first started beekeeping, the event was held every 14 days. But now the summer has become much hotter with very low humidity. Therefore, I spend rolling every 10 to 12 days.

Each family keeps a record of how much honey it gives. The store guide fits 15 to 20 liters of honey, which is controlled by eye in the honey extractor. Usually in a honey extractor fits 30 liters of honey.

When you drain the honey from the honey extractor the first batch of honey.

To drain the honey used various devices. This may be a regular table, which is higher than your container for honey or a special pit for containers. And a combined installation of honey extractor is possible.

Honey is drained by passing it through a special strainer. If the stream of honey that runs from the honey extractor forms a tubercle, then honey is mature.

In the main bribe I take from one family 15 - 20 liters of honey from the store and 5 to 10 liters from the nest. That in general is 20-30 liters, which in terms of kilograms is 30-45 kilograms per family at a time.