Bee Blog Harvesting Honey
Here is a description of harvesting honey. Remember in the summer time when the days are really hot, you’ll want to work the hive in the cool hours in the morning or evening as the comb is fragile in the heat. Morning hours are best as the comb has cooled down over night. We have to start at the back of the hive and detach the brace comb one comb at a time. To begin, remove the false back from the back of the hive. If the bees have attached comb to the false back we will need to slide the top bar hive tool in-between the false back and the last comb to remove the attachments. When the false back is free we will have full access to the combs and can now detach the next comb with the top bar hive tool. 
The first comb from the back of the hive is now in full view. We can lightly touch the bees with the tool, moving the tool along the location of the brace comb, usually the bees will move out of the way, clearing a path for you to slide the hive tool along the sides of the hive. When the brace comb has been detached from the sides of the hive we will gently pry the bar from the top of the hive. The bar will be held in place with propolis and may need a bit of steady force. Here we are careful not to vibrate or jar the hive, which will alarm the bees.
Once the bar seems free we will do a test by gently sliding the bar back and watching to see that the comb is coming with the bar. If the comb seems to be tilting at an angle or there appears to be some resistance, stop and check the perimeter of the comb and loosen any unseen attachments. Sometimes the comb is attached at the bottom, slide the hive tool along the bottom to loosen the attachment. Now slowly lift the comb out. You can set the comb in a milk crate with the bees on it. Then close up the hive and and walk away with the comb you harvested and brush off the bees.
Thanks for the helpful harvesting info! After having been in my hive 2 times in July to harvest a bar or two to keep the hive from filling up completely, I have a couple questions about the harvesting process that are not covered here yet.
How do you put the bars from which you’ve harvested comb back into the hive without squishing bees? I’ve found that I can brush them out of the way with grass as I set each end of the bar down in the hive but it’s a real bugger trying to slide the bar up flush to the neighboring bar with a constant stream of bees climbing up between the bars. The best method I’ve come up with so far is brushing grass between the bars while at the same time moving the bar laterally up against its neighbor… but it’s not been without fatalities. Any suggestions?
Is it possible to go through the harvesting process without a smoker and not kill any of the bees? The second time I harvested, things went more smoothly and a bit more quickly but there were still fatalities.
Is the false back supposed to remain in the hive at all times? I may have misunderstood its purpose, but took it out when the weather got hot and thought it was to be put back in only in preparation for winter, if the hive wasn’t full of comb, to create a more compact space for heating.
Thanks for the blog!!
Hi Mary,
You are doing the right thing moving the bars laterally up against the bar next to it. Just move slowly and eventually you will get most of the bees out of the way with maybe just a few in the way then move it closer and those few will move as well. It’s just a process and being patient for them to move out of the way. And there are times when there are a few that get injured in the process. I’ll be posting a video of Corwin working the hive and he demos this in the video.
Thank you so much for posting those videos! I tried your gentle “bounce” motion and it was very effective at communicating to the bees that they needed to move - BIG hooray!!
Two more questions:
#1 False Back - Help! I see now that I goofed by taking the false back out in late spring. Whenever I open the hive, there are LOTS of bees in the rear space of the hive and the area between the lid and tops of the bars. Plus, I’ve worried that it exposes the hive too much when I have the lid off. Any suggestions on how to return the false back into the hive without trapping bees where they’ll have no escape? Maybe I could bait them with a dish of honey laid on top of the bars while I try sliding the false back into the hive…?
#2 Honey Production - when do the bees start to lay off on making comb? I very much want to leave as much honey as possible for my hive’s first winter and I’m sure they’d like me to leave them alone too but they keep filling up the hive!! At this point in the year, should I just harvest the comb off the last bar as needed so they don’t lock up the hive but they have all the honey on the full bars? They seem very keen on locking down the lid - putting in the false back may help this.
Thanks again for the videos… really helpful for those of us far away!!