How To Extract & Bottle Honey - Bramblestone Farm

Every beekeeper may use a bit different process for “How To Extract & Bottle Honey”, but this is the process we use at Bramblestone Farm, and it’s produced award winning honey (see Bramblestone Blue Ribbon Honey) at the Medina County Fair every year:

1st Step – Clean Up

The first step is to get everything cleaned and set-up for extracting the honey from the comb. The process isn’t hard, but it does take a bit of time.

We extract the honey in the garage with all the doors and windows closed, because otherwise the bees would join us and try to take back all the honey we removed from their hives. Since all the doors and windows are closed, it can get pretty warm in the garage – so it’s not an easy job.

Extracting Equipment Set-up & Ready

2nd Step – Uncapping Honey Cells

Below are the tools we use for uncapping the honey cells – an electric knife and scratcher.

Electric Knife & Scratcher

This is the centrifuge that spins the honey out of the comb cells.

Honey Centrifuge

Here’s what the centrifuge looks like, on the inside. It has slots to hold the frames while spinning.

Inside Honey Centrifuge

This is what the capped comb looks like coming out of the hive in a “super” (the box holding the frames).

Frames Filled With Capped Honey

Here’s an individual frame ready for uncapping the honey cells.

Honey Frame Ready for Uncapping

This is how the electric knife is used to remove the caps from the honey cells.

Electric Knife Removing Honey Caps

This is how the scratching tool is used to open up any cells that the electric knife missed.

Scratching Tool Removing Honey Caps

3rd Step – Spinning Honey

Once the cells have been uncapped, the honey frames are loaded into a stainless steel centrifuge designed specifically for spinning honey. Our centrifuge holds 18 frames of honey. As the centrifuge spins, the honey is forced out of the frames by gravity and collects in the bottom of the centrifuge tank.

Honey Frames Loaded in Centrifuge Ready for Spinning

4th Step – Straining

After spinning, the honey is drained into buckets fitted with a coarse filter to begin straining. The honey is strained to remove bits of wax and other “non-honey” items that remain after centrifuging.

Honey Emptying Into Straining Bucket

After straining, the honey is poured into a bucket for bottling. The bottling bucket has a heating band around it that provides a small amount of heat so that the honey flows well for bottling but that stays below 90° F so that none of the beneficial properties of the honey are destroyed.