Honey Harvesting

Getting the bees out of your supers prior to harvesting honey is an easy process with these tools. Three common methods for getting bees out ahead of harvest are:

• Use a bee brush to simply brush the bees out of the way when harvesting honey.
• Place an escape board on the hive between the supers and the brood chamber, which allows bees to exit the super, but does not allow them back in. This clears all the bees out of the hive in about 24 hours.
• Spray the cloth insert of a fume board with a bee repellent like Bee-Go or Bee Quick, then place it above the honey supers. Bees will retreat within a few moments into the brood chambers, leaving the supers bee-free and ready to harvest.

We've used all the honey equipment included below and, for our small-scale commercial honey operation, we like using a fume board with Bee-Go to clear our supers.