Blog – Left Sidebar

Extracting Local Honey From St. Augustine Hives

We started this endeavor to produce local honey from St. Augustine in August of 2018. As we learned more about honey bees and how to best care for them (while staying out of their way) we made the decision not to pull any honey from the hives last Fall. It was a tough decision, but one that we knew was right for our honey bees. As a result, we did not lose any of the seven colonies that we had coming out of Winter. All of the honey bee hives were strong and active heading in to Spring, which has created a milestone for Bee Augustine Honey Co. … OUR FIRST HONEY HARVEST!

Interactive Slideshow

What’s Involved In Extracting Honey?

Inspect hives for frames of honey
FIND THE HONEY
Finding frames of honey to pull for extraction can be a little challenging. Take into consideration that we live in Florida and it is June. Add a heavy bee suit and gloves to the mix and now you start to feel a sense of urgency about accomplishing your tasks as quickly as possible in the Summer heat. It is important to find the Queen and ensure that she is not removed from the hive with the frame(s) of honey that you pull for extraction.




REMOVE THE FRAMES
Pull the frames
with honey
Once you have identified the frames with honey that you want to pull it is time to prep the frame(s) for extraction. The frame shown in this picture is a deep frame (larger than a super frame) and weighs around 10 pounds. We utilize the frame grip to get a good handle on this frame because of its weight.




BRUSH OFF BEES
Store the honey
for extraction
The next step is to get the honey bees off of the frame, which requires a little patience. There are many methods of accomplishing this but we use a bee brush to remove them. Once the frame is clean of honey bees we place the frames of honey in a plastic storage bin and cover the top.





Uncap wax from
the frames
PREPARE FOR EXTRACTION
The wax capping needs to be removed in order to get the honey out of the combs. In this video, we use an electric carving knife to remove a thin layer of the wax capping before placing it in the extractor. These frames are then cleaned up by the honey bees and placed back into the hives for the bees to continue to use.




EXTRACTION
Spin and strain
the honey
The frames are now placed into the extractor where centrifugal force is used to spin the honey out of the cells. A strainer and a food grade container are placed under the extractor spigot to strain and catch the honey.




BOTTLE THE HONEY
Bottle the honey
for consumption
The honey needs to rest until all of the air bubbles have escaped. After the honey has rested for about twelve hours it is time to place it into the jars. We then place our label on the jar and make sure that it is clean and ready to go.




LOCAL HONEY FROM ST. AUGUSTINE
Share with friends and family.
Bee Augustine Honey Co. is dedicated to producing healthy local honey from St. Augustine. All of our honey is straight from our hives. Our apiaries produce delicious St. Augustine honey with three distinctive tastes and characteristics to choose from, each one representing the location and neighborhood where it was created.

We are passionate about being beekeepers in St. Augustine and we take great pride in the care that we provide for our honey bees. Local residents and neighbors are excited, too! While their gardens increase in productivity, their flowers and trees are directly contributing to the flavors of our local honey from St. Augustine.

Want Some Local Honey?

The Shores

Alpha and Bravo hives are located in The St. Augustine Shores and feature lots of pollinators and flowers.

Buy Local Honey

The South

Charlie hive is located in The South and has access to incredible native Florida plants and flowers.

Buy Local Honey

The Nursery

Our Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet and Kilo hives are located on a 45 acre nursery.

Buy Local Honey