Beekeeping Principles

Introduction
Honey has a long and distinguished history in the human diet. For thousands of years
honey hunters have plundered the hives of wild bees for their precious honey and beeswax -
a practice still common today.
The most widely used honey bees are the European Apis mellifera, which have now been
introduced worldwide. Tropical Africa has a native Apis mellifera, which is slightly smaller than
the European Apis mellifera, and is more likely to fly off the comb and to sting. They are also
more likely to abandon their hives if disturbed, and in some areas the colonies migrate
seasonally.

In Asia there are three main native tropical species, Apis cerana, Apis dorsata, and Apis florea;
cerana is the only species that can be managed in hives, but the single combs of the other two are
collected by honey hunters.

There are three different kinds of bees in every colony: a queen, the drones, and the workers. The
queen's job is to lay eggs, as many as several hundred in a day. These larva develop into drones,
workers, or new queens, depending on how the workers treat them. Drones are the only male
bees in the hive, and their main function is to mate with a virgin queen outside the hive. They die
after mating. They have no sting, do not carry pollen, are unable to produce wax, and when
resources are scarce they can be driven out of the hive to die. The all-female worker bees, make
up about 98 per cent of the colony, and they do almost all the work. They bring water, pollen,
nectar, and propolis (bee glue) back to the hive, while some remain to guard the hive, and some
clean it, build the wax comb, nurse the young, and control the temperature of the hive. Workers
eat honey to produce heat in cold weather and fan their wings to keep the hive cool in hot
weather. Their legs are specially equipped with pollen baskets, and they have glands that produce
wax on their abdomens. The worker has a sting, but usually dies after stinging anything.

How to Process Honey

Introduction

Problem: Honey Processing

Difficulty: Medium

Many species of bees collect nectar which they convert into honey and store as a food source. However,
only bees that live together in large colonies store appreciable quantities of honey. These are bees of the
genus Apis and some of the Meliponinae (stingless bees).
Bees make honey mainly from the nectar of flowers, but they also use other plant saps and honeydew. As
a bee sucks the liquid up through its proboscis and into its honey sac, it adds a small amount of enzymes,
and some of the water in the nectar is evaporated. The enzymes convert sugars in the nectar into
different types of sugars; honeys always contain a wide range of sugars that vary according to the nectar
source. The bees then place the liquid nectar into cells in the honeycomb. The temperature inside the
hive is usually around 35C and, together with ventilation caused by bees fanning their wings, this
temperature causes further evaporation of water from the nectar. When the water content is less than
20%, the bees seal the cell with a wax capping. The honey is now 'ripe' and will not ferment.

Honey consists of a mixture of sugars, mostly glucose and fructose. In addition to water (usually 17-20%)
it also contains very small amounts of other substances, including minerals, vitamins, proteins and amino
acids. A minor, but important component of most types of honey is pollen. These components contribute
to the different flavours that honey can have, and make honey a nutritious food that has a high demand in
many regions of the world.

Processing
Cut-comb honey

The simplest processing is to remove the honeycomb from frame hives, top-bar hives or traditional hives
and sell or consume it as "cut-comb" honey. When producing this from frame hives it is necessary to use
a wax foundation that does not contain strengthening wires and is thinner than that normally used in wired
frames. The process involves collecting pieces of sealed and undamaged honeycomb, cutting them into
uniform sized pieces and packaging them carefully in bags or cartons to avoid damaging the honeycomb.
Because the honeycomb is unopened, it is readily seen to be pure, and it has a finer flavour than honey
that is exposed to air or processed further. Cut-comb honey can therefore have a high local demand and
fetch a higher price than processed honey. However, the honeycomb is easily damaged by handling and
transport, which makes distribution for retail sale more difficult. It requires protection by packaging
materials that will absorb shocks or vibration (e.g. cushioning plastics such as "bubble-wrap" and/or
corrugated cardboard cartons) and packs should be carried carefully and not stacked, thrown or dropped
to avoid damage to the honeycombs.

Strained honey

This is honey that is processed to a minimal extent and is usually sold locally. It is prepared by removing
the wax cappings of the honeycomb using a long sharp knife that has been heated by standing it in warm
water. (unsealed combs containing unripe honey should not be used). The honeycombs are then broken
into pieces and the honey is strained to remove wax and other debris. A fairly coarse strainer is used at
first to remove large particles, and the honey is then strained through successively finer strainers such as
cotton or muslin cloths. The clear honey is collected in a clean, dry container. When most of the honey
has drained (often over many hours depending on the temperature) the combs are squeezed inside a
cloth bag to remove as much of the remaining honey as possible. The wax is collected and formed into a
block by melting it gently in a warm waterbath or solar wax extractor. This beeswax byproduct often has a
high value as a wax polish or for candle-making. The strained honey can either be dispensed from the
collection pan into customers's own containers or packed into glass jars or plastic bags for sale.

Packaged Honey
The wax cappings are removed from the honeycombs as for strained honey. At larger scales of
production, electrically heated honey knives or "planes" may be used:

When extracting honey from top-bar frames, the frame is placed over a dish, and the thin layer of wax
capping is cut from the bottom to the top of the frame and allowed to fall into the dish below. The frame is
then turned and the capping on the other side is removed. Honey that is stuck to the wax cappings is
strained using cloth bags as above. The frame is then placed in a honey extractor. Honey extractors can
be manually or electrically operated, depending on the scale of production, and can be either "tangential"
or "radial" type machines. They extract the honey by spinning the frames at high speed. In a tangential
machine, the frames lie against the barrel of a drum and the outer side of the frame empties when the
drum is spinning. The frames are then turned so that the other face of the honeycomb faces outwards,
and the machine spun until this side is empty. This prevents the inner part from bursting through the
empty outer combs and so prevents the combs from breaking. Although each frame has to be handled
four times to load, turn and unload them, more complete extraction can be achieved and this design is
more compact and cheaper than radial types. In a radial machine, the frames sit between rings, arranged
like the spokes of a wheel and honey is extracted from both sides simultaneously. Radial machines are
larger then tangential machines to ensure that the frames are far enough from the centre to extract
properly, but they can hold more frames than a tangential machine (e.g. a 20-frame radial extractor
compared to an 8-frame tangential machine).

The honey is collected in a pan, preferably made from food grade plastic or stainless steel, and filtered
through a nylon or stainless steel filter unit that has progressively finer filters as the honey moves to the
outside of the filter unit. Some filters are fitted with heaters to make the honey flow faster, but these are
not necessary in tropical climates and any increase in temperature risks a reduction in the quality of the
honey (see below). The clear honey is then collected and packaged into glass or plastic containers and
labelled. The package should be moistureproof to prevent the honey picking up moisture from the air
during storage.

Because customers regard the colour of honey as an important quality characteristic, the containers
should preferably be transparent so that customers can see the product. Glass jars with screw-on lids or
plastic pots with heat-sealed foil or plastic lids may be used. In countries where glass or plastic containers
are difficult to obtain, heat-sealed plastic sachets are an alternative. The label on the container is
important for attracting customers and a professionally designed label that describes the source of the
honey (e.g. sunflower, mixed blossom, tree honey etc.), its purity, and the district it was produced in, can
give a marketing advantage. Legally, in most countries the label should have the following information:

The name of the product (i.e. pure honey)

The name and address of the producer.
The weight of honey in the container (the net weight).
Other information may be included to benefit the customer: for example, the label on comb honey may
indicate that the whole comb including the wax is edible, or strained honey may have a note to explain
granulation (see below).

Quality Assurance
Honey is preserved because of its high sugar content (or conversely its low moisture content), which
prevents micro-organisms (bacteria, yeasts and moulds) from growing in it. Despite this, it must be
handled hygienically, and all equipment must be properly cleaned (see below). The aroma and taste of
honey are its most important quality characteristics, but honey is often judged according to its colour. The
colour of honey depends mainly on the source of the nectar. Usually dark-coloured honeys have a strong
flavour whereas pale honeys have a more delicate flavour. Generally light-coloured honeys are more
highly valued than dark products. Some honeys have a high pollen content, which makes them appear
cloudy, and this may be considered as lower quality by some customers. The main causes of loss in
quality of honey are:

1. An increase in moisture content - too much water in honey (greater than 19-20%) causes it to ferment.
Honey is "hygroscopic", meaning that it will absorb moisture, and all honey processing equipment must
therefore be completely dry. Honey should also be processed as soon as possible after removal from the
hive to prevent it absorbing moisture from the air, especially in humid climates. In areas with a very high
humidity it can be difficult to produce honey of sufficiently low water content.

2. Development of HMF (Hydroxymethylfurfural). This is a break-down product of fructose (one of the

main sugars in honey) that is formed slowly during storage but very quickly when honey is heated. Colour
can also be an indicator of quality because honey becomes darker during storage and heating. The
amount of HMF present in honey is used as a guide to the age of the honey and/or the amount of heating
that has taken place. Some countries set an HMF limit for imported honey. HMF is measured by
laboratory tests and technical advice from a Bureau of Standards should be sought if export is being
considered. 3. Contamination by insects. Honey processing is a sticky operation, and the sugar in honey
attracts ants, cockroaches and flying insects. Careful protection is needed at all stages of processing,
including insect screens on doors and windows to prevent contamination by insects. All honey residues
on equipment should be removed by proper cleaning to prevent them attracting insects. The presence of
any other contaminations (e.g. particles of wax, parts of bees, splinters of wood, dust etc.) make the
honey very low value.

A note on granulation

Glucose is one of the main sugars in honey and when it crystallises (i.e. it changes from a liquid to a
solid), the liquid honey also becomes solid (or granulated). Depending on the source of the nectar
collected by bees, some types of honey are more likely to granulate than others, but almost all honey will
granulate if its temperature falls sufficiently. Granulation is a natural process and there is no difference in
nutritional value between solid and liquid honey. Although there is obviously a difference in the texture
between liquid and granulated honey, there is no difference in the flavour or other quality characteristics.
Some customers prefer granulated honey, and if liquid honey is slow to granulate, the addition of 20%
finely granulated honey will cause it to granulate.

Quality Checks
The routine quality checks on honey are a visual inspection to detect clarity, any contamination by insects
or other materials such as particles of beeswax, and checking that the pack contains the correct weight of
honey. In humid climates, or if a batch of honey is suspected of containing high a level of water (e.g.
honey that is returned because it has started to ferment), it can be checked for moisture content. Because
honey is mostly sugar (around 80%) and water (19-20%) the sugar content can be measured using a
refractometer, and the value subtracted from 100 to measure the moisture content. However,
refractometers are expensive and it may be more affordable to send samples to a laboratory for checking
if a problem with the moisture content is suspected. If during production, the level of moisture is too high,
it can be reduced by blowing air for several hours over a pan of honey using an electric fan. Honey should
never be heated to remove water because this will increase the amount of HMF and significantly reduce
its quality. Cleaning The other important quality assurance check is to ensure that the correct cleaning
procedure is in place and is being properly followed by production staff. All equipment, floors and work
surfaces should be washed daily with hot water and detergent, and rinsed with clean water. They should
be allowed to dry completely in the air before production starts again. Cloths should not be used to dry
surfaces and equipment because they can contain sugar residues that recontaminate cleaned surfaces.

Figure 1: Equipment and protective clothing

A honey bee nest consists of a series of parallel beeswax combs. Each comb contains rows of
wax with hexagonal compartments containing honey stores, pollen, or developing bee larvae
(brood). To thrive and produce honey the bees need adequate supplies of nectar, pollen, and
water. The combs are evenly spaced and are attached to the ceiling of the nest. The space
between the faces of the combs is known as the 'bee space'; it is usually between 6 and 9mm and
is critical in maintaining optimal conditions within the nest, with just enough space for bees to
walk and work on the surface of the combs while maintaining the optimum nest temperature.
Bee-space, dimensions of combs, and nest volume all vary with the race and species of honey
bee. The bee-space is a crucial factor in the use of bee equipment, and honey bees cannot be
managed efficiently using equipment of inappropriate size. Be careful! Most equipment is
manufactured to the specifications of European bees.

Bees need a supply of food and water to live, and during dry periods the beekeeper may have to
supplement natural sources. As a general rule, attempts to begin beekeeping should start with the
area's existing bees, techniques, and equipment, which will all have been adapted for the local
circumstances.

Equipment
Most of the equipment needed for small-scale beekeeping can be made at village level. It can be
helpful to import basic equipment to serve as prototypes for local manufacturers. For practising
on a large scale, some specialised equipment will probably need to be bought, such as honey
gates, special filtering gauze, and gauges to determine honey quality.

Smoker
A beekeeper uses a smoker to produce cool smoke to calm the bees. The smoker consists of a
fuel box containing smouldering fuel (for example dried cow dung, hessian, or cardboard) with a
bellows attached. The beekeeper puffs a little smoke near the entrance of the hive before it is
opened, and gently smokes the bees to move them from one part of the hive to another.

Protective clothing
Adequate protective clothing gives beginner beekeepers confidence, but more experienced
beekeepers find that too much protective clothing makes it difficult to work sufficiently gently
with the bees, and it is very hot. Always wear white or light-coloured clothing when working
with bees - they are much more likely to sting dark-coloured clothing. It is most important to
protect the face, especially the eyes and mouth; a broad-rimmed hat with some veiling will
suffice. Individual items of clothing must be impermeable to bee stings, and every joint between
them must be bee-tight; rubber bands can prevent bees from crawling up trouser legs or
shirtsleeves. Some people find that a good way to protect their hands is to put a plastic bag over
each hand, secured at the wrist with a rubber band.

Hive tools
The hive tool is a handy piece of metal which is used to prise boxes apart, scrape off odd bits of
beeswax, separate frame-ends from their supports, and so on. They can be made from pieces of
flat steel, and screwdrivers are often used. It is possible to use an old knife for this job, but knife
blades tend to be too flexible and give insufficient leverage.
 Figure 2: A Kenya top-bar hive
This hive is suitable for African bees, but may need adjusting for Asian or European use. Any
wood that is resistant to sun and rain and will not warp is suitable. (Drawing from Beekeeping for
Beginners (1989) courtesy of GRATIS)

The 27 top bars should fit without any gaps or spaces

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Beehives
A beehive is any container provided for honey bees to nest in. The idea is to encourage the bees to build
their nest in such a way that it is easy for the beekeeper to manage and exploit them.

Traditional hives

These are made from whatever materials are available locally: typically hollowed-out logs, bark formed
into a cylinder, clay pots, woven grass, or cane. They are used to encourage bees to nest in a site that is
accessible by the beekeeper.

Movable frames can be spun in a radial (a) or tangential (b) extractor Both of these can be adapted to
take comb from the top bar hives by making wire mesh cages that sit where the frames normally would A
third option (not shown) is for flat, round mesh trays that stack inside the cylinder.

The bees build their nest inside the container, just as they would build it in a naturally occurring cavity.
Eventually the beekeeper plunders the nest to obtain crops of honey and beeswax. Bees may or may not
be killed during this process, depending on the skill of the beekeeper. If the colony is destroyed, the hive
will remain empty for a while. If there are plenty of honey bee colonies in the area, then eventually a
swarm may settle in the empty hive and start building a new nest. Traditional beekeepers often own 200
hives, and expect only a proportion of these to be occupied by bees at any time.
 Figure 3: Honey extractors

All the requirements for traditional beekeepers will be available locally, but beekeepers can be helped by
the provision of protective clothing, smokers, and containers for the honey, and with help in locating
markets for their products.

Movable frame hives

These are the hives used in industrialised countries and in some countries in the South where
beekeeping is a major industry, such as Mexico and Brazil. The objective of movable-frame hive
beekeeping is to obtain the maximum honey crop, season after season, with the least disruption of the
colony. These rectangular wooden or plastic frames have two major advantages:

They allow easy inspection and manipulation of colonies.

They allow very efficient honey harvesting because the honeycombs, within their frames, can
be emptied of honey and then returned to the hive.

Frame hives must be constructed with precision. Frames are contained within boxes and each hive
consists of a number of boxes placed on top of each other. Often a 'queen excluder', a metal grid with
holes that allows only the smaller worker bees to pass through, is used to isolate the brood in the bottom-
most boxes. The rest of the boxes will contain only honey.

Intermediate technology hives

Intermediate technology hives combine the advantages of frame hives with low cost and the ability to
manufacture locally. The hive consists of a container with a series of 'top bars', on which the bees are
encouraged to build their combs. These top bars then allow individual combs to be lifted from the hive by
the beekeeper. The containers for the hives may, like traditional hives, be built from whatever materials
are locally available. Top-bar hives can also be kept near the home and moved between flowering crops,
enabling women to keep bees.

The only items in the top-bar hive which need to be built with precision are the top bars themselves; they
must provide the same spacing of combs within the hive as the bees would use in their natural nest. The
natural comb spacing is the distance between the centres of adjoining combs, and this spacing will
depend upon the species and race of honey bees which are being used. As a very general guide, Apis
mellifera of European origin need top bars 35mm wide, Apis mellifera in Africa need 32mm, and Apis
cerana in Asia need 30mm. The best way to determine the optimum width is to measure the spacing
between combs in a wild nest of the same bees. The volume of the brood box should equate roughly with
the volume of the cavity occupied by wild-nesting honey bees.

Making a start

A good way to begin beekeeping, especially in Africa, is to bait an empty hive to attract a swarm. Set up a
hive and either rub it inside with some beeswax or lavender to give it an attractive smell, or leave some
attractive food for the bees: granulated sugar or cassava powder will work. You could also put some
honey on the tops of the top bars. The bees will not be able to get at it and take it away to another hive,
but the scent will still remain to attract them. This will only be successful in areas where there are still
plenty of honey bee colonies. Another option is to transfer a colony from the wild into the hive. The wild
colony will already have a number of combs and these can be carefully tied on to the top bars of the hive,
making sure that you include the brood combs and the queen. One of the best ways to get started in
beekeeping is with the assistance of a practising, local beekeeper.

Harvesting honey and beeswax

Honey is harvested at the end of a flowering season. The beekeeper selects those combs which contain
ripe honey, covered with a fine layer of white beeswax. These combs are usually the outside-most ones.
Combs containing any pollen or developing bees should be left undisturbed. Honey will keep a long time
if it is clean and sealed in an airtight container, but will deteriorate rapidly and ferment if it has absorbed
water. Preventing this from happening is crucial in honey harvesting.

Harvesting the combs

Harvesting should be carried out in the evening or the early morning. Gentleness is the key to successful
colony manipulation, so learn to carry out this process swiftly but calmly to avoid upsetting your bees.

Put on your protective clothing.

Get your smoker, brush or quill, knife or hive tool, and a rust- proof container in which to put the
honeycomb.

Load your smoker, and puff some smoke gently around the hive for a few minutes. Wait a few more
minutes, then puff smoke around the entrance holes.

After puffing the smoke, open the lid.

Knock the top bars to see which of them have combs; they will sound heavier than empty ones.

Use the knife or hive tool to remove the first bar from one end of the hive.

Puff smoke gently into the gap to drive the bees to the other side of the hive.

Start removing the bars one by one, until you get to the first comb, which will be white and new. It
may be empty or it may contain some unripened honey. Replace it and leave the comb for the bees
to develop.

Remove only the capped or partly capped combs, which will be quite heavy. Use a brush or feather to
sweep any bees back into the hive.

Cut the comb off, leaving about 2cm for the bees to start building on again. Put the comb in a
container and replace the top bar.

Carryon harvesting until you come across a brood comb, which will be dark in colour and contain
pollen too. Leave this honey for the bees.

Start the process again at the other end of the hive.

Close the hive carefully, replacing the lid.

Honey extraction

The honeycomb can be simply cut into pieces and sold as fresh, cut comb honey. Alternatively, the honey
and comb can be separated and sold as fresh honey and beeswax. It is important when processing
honey to remember that it is hygroscopic and will absorb moisture, so all honey processing equipment
must be perfectly dry.
The most common traditional methods of honey extraction are squeezing or burning the combs. Burning
the honeycomb is wasteful and makes the quality of both the wax and the honey inferior; it should be
avoided at all costs. If your quantity of honey or financial resources are small, then squeezing the honey
out by hand is probably the most viable option. The honey extracted by this method will have to be
strained through several increasingly finer meshes to remove any bits of wax or debris, ending with
something like muslin cloth. It is very important that this procedure be carried out hygienically, and that
the honey is not left exposed to the air, where it will pick up moisture and deteriorate. Another good way
of extracting honey from top-bar or movable frame hives is a radial or tangential extractor. This is a
cylindrical container with a centrally-mounted fitting to support combs or frames of uncapped honey, and
a mechanism to rotate the fitting (and the combs) at speed. The honey is thrown out against the side of
the container and runs down to the bottom, where it is collected and then drained off with a tap. Most
manufactured extractors are made to hold frames and have to be adapted to take comb from top bar
hives. This is usually done by making wire baskets to hold the comb. The baskets can either lie flat
horizontally, or be attached to the vertical frames and sit tangentially within the container. Top-bar combs
in tangential extractors have to be spun twice, once on each side, to extract all the honey.

The honey must be stored in airtight, non-tainting containers to prevent water absorption and consequent
fermentation. If you want to sell your honey it would be helpful to add a label describing the source of the
honey (for example sunflower, mixed blossom, tree honey), the country and district it was produced in,
the weight or amount of honey in the container, and your name and address.

Beeswax extraction

The comb from which bees build their nest is made of beeswax. After as much honey as possible is
separated from the combs, the beeswax can be melted gently over moderately warm water (boiling water
will ruin the wax) and moulded into a block.

Another option for processing the wax is a solar wax melter (Figure 4). This appliance is easy to make
and consists of a wooden box with a galvanised metal shelf with a spout, a bowl or container that sits
under the spout, and a glass or plastic cover. When placed in the sun the temperature inside the box will
melt down a comb and the wax will flow into a container inside the box. Any honey that was left in the
combs will sink to the bottom; it is usually used for cooking or beer making as its taste is spoiled
somewhat by this process. Beeswax does not deteriorate with age and therefore beekeepers often save
their scraps of beeswax until they have a sufficiently large amount to sell. Many beekeepers still discard
beeswax, unaware of its value. Beeswax is a valuable commodity with many uses in traditional societies:
it is used in the lost-wax method of brass casting, as a waterproofing agent for strengthening leather and
cotton strings, in batik, in the manufacture of candles, and in various hair and skin ointments. Beeswax is
also in demand on the world market. Beeswax for export should be clean and have been re-heated as
little as possible.

Bee stings

Bee stings can be avoided by wearing protective clothing, but if you are stung, you should remove the
sting as soon as possible by scraping it off with a fingernail or knife. Do not try to pick it off as you may
squeeze poison into your flesh.

Some steps to help avoid bee stings are:

Wash yourself to make sure you are free of odours.

 Do not use any cosmetics, perfume, etc.

Approach the hive from the side or behind the entrance.

Do not wear dark clothing.

Approach the hive quietly.

Provide bees with water during the dry season.

Be careful not to crush a bee, as it gives off an alarm scent. If you are stung, you should
move away and remove the sting, as other bees will be attracted by the powerful smell that
the bee leaves on the spot where you have been stung. As soon as the sting is out, the site
should be smoked to disguise the alarm pheromone.

If you are allergic to bee stings, you should not take up beekeeping.

Disease and pests

During the last two decades there has been a tremendous increase in the spread of bee disease around
the world. This has been brought about by the movement of honey bee colonies and used beekeeping
equipment by people. There are few remaining regions without introduced honey bee diseases, and as a
rule used beekeeping equipment should not be imported.

Honey bee colonies, or even single queen bees, must never be moved from one area to another without
expert consideration of the consequences.

Figure 4: A solar was melter can be built by the beekeeper

There are numerous pests that will disrupt a beehive and prey on your bees. Wax moths are almost
universal, ants a very common and persistent hazard, and honey badgers a serious nuisance in Africa. It
is best to talk to other local beekeepers about what the most common problems are and take their advice
about appropriate defences.

Introduction

Problem: Honey Processing

Difficulty: Medium

Many species of bees collect nectar which they convert into honey and store as a food source. However,
only bees that live together in large colonies store appreciable quantities of honey. These are bees of the
genus Apis and some of the Meliponinae (stingless bees).

Bees make honey mainly from the nectar of flowers, but they also use other plant saps and honeydew. As
a bee sucks the liquid up through its proboscis and into its honey sac, it adds a small amount of enzymes,
and some of the water in the nectar is evaporated. The enzymes convert sugars in the nectar into
different types of sugars; honeys always contain a wide range of sugars that vary according to the nectar
source. The bees then place the liquid nectar into cells in the honeycomb. The temperature inside the
hive is usually around 35C and, together with ventilation caused by bees fanning their wings, this
temperature causes further evaporation of water from the nectar. When the water content is less than
20%, the bees seal the cell with a wax capping. The honey is now 'ripe' and will not ferment.

Honey consists of a mixture of sugars, mostly glucose and fructose. In addition to water (usually 17-20%)
it also contains very small amounts of other substances, including minerals, vitamins, proteins and amino
acids. A minor, but important component of most types of honey is pollen. These components contribute
to the different flavours that honey can have, and make honey a nutritious food that has a high demand in
many regions of the world.

Processing
Cut-comb honey

The simplest processing is to remove the honeycomb from frame hives, top-bar hives or traditional hives
and sell or consume it as "cut-comb" honey. When producing this from frame hives it is necessary to use
a wax foundation that does not contain strengthening wires and is thinner than that normally used in wired
frames. The process involves collecting pieces of sealed and undamaged honeycomb, cutting them into
uniform sized pieces and packaging them carefully in bags or cartons to avoid damaging the honeycomb.
Because the honeycomb is unopened, it is readily seen to be pure, and it has a finer flavour than honey
that is exposed to air or processed further. Cut-comb honey can therefore have a high local demand and
fetch a higher price than processed honey. However, the honeycomb is easily damaged by handling and
transport, which makes distribution for retail sale more difficult. It requires protection by packaging
materials that will absorb shocks or vibration (e.g. cushioning plastics such as "bubble-wrap" and/or
corrugated cardboard cartons) and packs should be carried carefully and not stacked, thrown or dropped
to avoid damage to the honeycombs.

Strained honey
This is honey that is processed to a minimal extent and is usually sold locally. It is prepared by removing
the wax cappings of the honeycomb using a long sharp knife that has been heated by standing it in warm
water. (unsealed combs containing unripe honey should not be used). The honeycombs are then broken
into pieces and the honey is strained to remove wax and other debris. A fairly coarse strainer is used at
first to remove large particles, and the honey is then strained through successively finer strainers such as
cotton or muslin cloths. The clear honey is collected in a clean, dry container. When most of the honey
has drained (often over many hours depending on the temperature) the combs are squeezed inside a
cloth bag to remove as much of the remaining honey as possible. The wax is collected and formed into a
block by melting it gently in a warm waterbath or solar wax extractor. This beeswax byproduct often has a
high value as a wax polish or for candle-making. The strained honey can either be dispensed from the
collection pan into customers's own containers or packed into glass jars or plastic bags for sale.

Packaged Honey
The wax cappings are removed from the honeycombs as for strained honey. At larger scales of
production, electrically heated honey knives or "planes" may be used:

When extracting honey from top-bar frames, the frame is placed over a dish, and the thin layer of wax
capping is cut from the bottom to the top of the frame and allowed to fall into the dish below. The frame is
then turned and the capping on the other side is removed. Honey that is stuck to the wax cappings is
strained using cloth bags as above. The frame is then placed in a honey extractor. Honey extractors can
be manually or electrically operated, depending on the scale of production, and can be either "tangential"
or "radial" type machines. They extract the honey by spinning the frames at high speed. In a tangential
machine, the frames lie against the barrel of a drum and the outer side of the frame empties when the
drum is spinning. The frames are then turned so that the other face of the honeycomb faces outwards,
and the machine spun until this side is empty. This prevents the inner part from bursting through the
empty outer combs and so prevents the combs from breaking. Although each frame has to be handled
four times to load, turn and unload them, more complete extraction can be achieved and this design is
more compact and cheaper than radial types. In a radial machine, the frames sit between rings, arranged
like the spokes of a wheel and honey is extracted from both sides simultaneously. Radial machines are
larger then tangential machines to ensure that the frames are far enough from the centre to extract
properly, but they can hold more frames than a tangential machine (e.g. a 20-frame radial extractor
compared to an 8-frame tangential machine).

The honey is collected in a pan, preferably made from food grade plastic or stainless steel, and filtered
through a nylon or stainless steel filter unit that has progressively finer filters as the honey moves to the
outside of the filter unit. Some filters are fitted with heaters to make the honey flow faster, but these are
not necessary in tropical climates and any increase in temperature risks a reduction in the quality of the
honey (see below). The clear honey is then collected and packaged into glass or plastic containers and
labelled. The package should be moistureproof to prevent the honey picking up moisture from the air
during storage.

Because customers regard the colour of honey as an important quality characteristic, the containers
should preferably be transparent so that customers can see the product. Glass jars with screw-on lids or
plastic pots with heat-sealed foil or plastic lids may be used. In countries where glass or plastic containers
are difficult to obtain, heat-sealed plastic sachets are an alternative. The label on the container is
important for attracting customers and a professionally designed label that describes the source of the
honey (e.g. sunflower, mixed blossom, tree honey etc.), its purity, and the district it was produced in, can
give a marketing advantage. Legally, in most countries the label should have the following information:

The name of the product (i.e. pure honey)

The name and address of the producer.
The weight of honey in the container (the net weight).
Other information may be included to benefit the customer: for example, the label on comb honey may
indicate that the whole comb including the wax is edible, or strained honey may have a note to explain
granulation (see below).

Quality Assurance
Honey is preserved because of its high sugar content (or conversely its low moisture content), which
prevents micro-organisms (bacteria, yeasts and moulds) from growing in it. Despite this, it must be
handled hygienically, and all equipment must be properly cleaned (see below). The aroma and taste of
honey are its most important quality characteristics, but honey is often judged according to its colour. The
colour of honey depends mainly on the source of the nectar. Usually dark-coloured honeys have a strong
flavour whereas pale honeys have a more delicate flavour. Generally light-coloured honeys are more
highly valued than dark products. Some honeys have a high pollen content, which makes them appear
cloudy, and this may be considered as lower quality by some customers. The main causes of loss in
quality of honey are:

1. An increase in moisture content - too much water in honey (greater than 19-20%) causes it to ferment.
Honey is "hygroscopic", meaning that it will absorb moisture, and all honey processing equipment must
therefore be completely dry. Honey should also be processed as soon as possible after removal from the
hive to prevent it absorbing moisture from the air, especially in humid climates. In areas with a very high
humidity it can be difficult to produce honey of sufficiently low water content.

2. Development of HMF (Hydroxymethylfurfural). This is a break-down product of fructose (one of the

main sugars in honey) that is formed slowly during storage but very quickly when honey is heated. Colour
can also be an indicator of quality because honey becomes darker during storage and heating. The
amount of HMF present in honey is used as a guide to the age of the honey and/or the amount of heating
that has taken place. Some countries set an HMF limit for imported honey. HMF is measured by
laboratory tests and technical advice from a Bureau of Standards should be sought if export is being
considered. 3. Contamination by insects. Honey processing is a sticky operation, and the sugar in honey
attracts ants, cockroaches and flying insects. Careful protection is needed at all stages of processing,
including insect screens on doors and windows to prevent contamination by insects. All honey residues
on equipment should be removed by proper cleaning to prevent them attracting insects. The presence of
any other contaminations (e.g. particles of wax, parts of bees, splinters of wood, dust etc.) make the
honey very low value.

A note on granulation

Glucose is one of the main sugars in honey and when it crystallises (i.e. it changes from a liquid to a
solid), the liquid honey also becomes solid (or granulated). Depending on the source of the nectar
collected by bees, some types of honey are more likely to granulate than others, but almost all honey will
granulate if its temperature falls sufficiently. Granulation is a natural process and there is no difference in
nutritional value between solid and liquid honey. Although there is obviously a difference in the texture
between liquid and granulated honey, there is no difference in the flavour or other quality characteristics.
Some customers prefer granulated honey, and if liquid honey is slow to granulate, the addition of 20%
finely granulated honey will cause it to granulate.

Quality Checks
The routine quality checks on honey are a visual inspection to detect clarity, any contamination by insects
or other materials such as particles of beeswax, and checking that the pack contains the correct weight of
honey. In humid climates, or if a batch of honey is suspected of containing high a level of water (e.g.
honey that is returned because it has started to ferment), it can be checked for moisture content. Because
honey is mostly sugar (around 80%) and water (19-20%) the sugar content can be measured using a
refractometer, and the value subtracted from 100 to measure the moisture content. However,
refractometers are expensive and it may be more affordable to send samples to a laboratory for checking
if a problem with the moisture content is suspected. If during production, the level of moisture is too high,
it can be reduced by blowing air for several hours over a pan of honey using an electric fan. Honey should
never be heated to remove water because this will increase the amount of HMF and significantly reduce
its quality. Cleaning The other important quality assurance check is to ensure that the correct cleaning
procedure is in place and is being properly followed by production staff. All equipment, floors and work
surfaces should be washed daily with hot water and detergent, and rinsed with clean water. They should
be allowed to dry completely in the air before production starts again. Cloths should not be used to dry
surfaces and equipment because they can contain sugar residues that recontaminate cleaned surfaces.