By Joshua Kato
By the eighth month of setting up the hives and colonization, there’s honey to harvest in the hives. However, a farmer should take at least 12 months before the first harvest.
This helps the honey to mature. Thereafter the first harvest, you need to follow the flowering period of crops and trees in your area. Bees stock a lot of honey during the flowering period which means that you need to harvest soon after the flowering period. You can harvest twice or three times a year.
-For proper harvesting, you need a bee-keepers suit, which prevents bees from stinging you. This includes a suit and gloves. A set costs sh80,000-sh150,000.
– You need a smoker to scare off the bees, and a bee knife to help pull out the combs. It is advisable to harvest in the evening because bees are less aggressive at that time. Smoke the entrance and sides of the hive before opening and harvest only sealed /capped combs. All these cost sh150,000
-However, do not remove a comb that is mixed with young bees (broods) or pollen because this means that you are killing young bees and besides, that honey is not good.
-After harvesting, put the combs in a clean bucket (s).
-You can either use a honey press to get honey from the combs. Honey presses are sold in agri-inputs shops starting from sh400,000 onwards, depending on capacity.
– Or, let the honey drip slowly from the combs into the bucket, though this may take some days, it is the best way to get the purest honey. After this, the honey should be ready for consumption.
– You can also process the beeswax and sell it separately. Heat a clean saucepan and then add the beeswax and watch carefully as the wax melts down Remove it from the fire immediately after the last lump of wax has melted.
– Pour melted beeswax into the mould and place it in a cool, dry place to cool.
– Remove the cakes of beeswax the next morning.
-The dark material collected at the bottom can be removed with a knife and can be sold to a shoemaker/shiner for enriching the shoe polish. The clean raw beeswax is ready for the market.
