Honey Processing

Honey processing involves the removal of wax and any other foreign materials from honey.

These can be either electrically or manually driven machines which operate on the principle of centrifugal force.
Extractors vary in size ranging from small two- frame units to big ones holding up to 85 frames.
Manual extractors are equipped with either a hand crank or a bicycle chain while the electrical ones are motor driven.

Hand crank manual extractor

This method is suitable for freshly harvested honey.
Uncap (remove the thin wax layer that seals the honey cells) the honey and allow it to pass through a straining cloth or net into a clean and dry suitable container.
Folded the straining net (nylon mostly) once, to form two layers and tie over the mouth of the container.
Use a wide mouth container to collect the strained honey
Allow the liquid honey to settle overnight.
Remove the scum (cream) from the surface of the honey using a spoon before the honey is packed.

Simple straining method

This is also referred to as batch processing. This method is suitable for semi-processed honey which has been stored for some time and possibly crystallized.
Honey is first heated in a water-bath (indirect heating), up to about 45°C – 50°C.
Honey is heated to facilitate both straining and fast handling, secondly, to destroy yeast that may be present and may cause fermentation particularly if the moisture content is above 17%.
The indirect heating method involves the use of two ‘sufurias’; the smaller one containing honey is placed inside a bigger one containing some water and a piece of wood placed at the bottom so that the smaller one does not touch the bottom of the bigger sufuria.
The honey that is being warmed must be stirred to distribute the heat evenly.
A straining cloth is then folded twice (forms four layers) and firmly tied onto a clean, dry suitable container as in the case of simple straining method above.
Once all the warm honey has passed through the cloth, cover the bucket with a lid, and allow it to settle for a minimum of 3 days to allow the scum to collect at the top of the strained honey.

Honey straining through a cloth

It is used for large quantities of honey.
In this method, honey is made to flow through a series of sieves of various sizes.
The sieves are arranged in a concentric form, the finest mesh being on the outside and coarser on the inside.
The semi-refined honey is heated to 45-50°C in a sump tank and then flows by gravity through the sieves usually referred to as strainers; into a settling tank and is left there for at least 3 days.
The scum collects on top of the strained honey, it is then removed and the honey packed.

Honey is forced out of the comb by pressing it out using a honey press.
This should be done as soon as possible after harvesting.
After pressing out the honey, it is then warmed using a water-bath and strained.

Honey from different sources will have different characteristics.
In order to bring uniformity, different honeys have to be blended.
This involves mixing the honeys during processing so that the final product becomes homogeneous and have the same physical and chemical properties.

This method is used to extract honey from combs without the destroying of the combs
It use especially where honey has been produced using the langstroth hives
Some extractors can be used to with combs from the KTBH and even from the log hives

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