Here is the low down on my honey extraction. Today, I got to extract the honey I had pulled 7 days ago. Let me tell you, I am real disappointed with myself. I have been told over and over and over again to extract within three days of pulling honey. I was even told why. Now I know for a fact.

The Small Hive Beetle (SHB) has probably laid eggs in the honey. When the eggs hatch, the larva starts eating the wax and some honey. The wax is protein and the honey is carbohydrate. The larva has to poop and it does that where it is at - in the honey. At first there is very little poop. But as the larva gets larger, then the poop gets to be more and more.

If you extract when you first pull the honey, up to three days, then when you strain the honey, you strain the SHB eggs out and the honey is still clean and it can be bottled. If you wait for more than three days, then the larva has a chance to defect in a lot of honey making it uneatable. You lose; honey, time and fuel. You gain a lot of work for nothing.

Now I have to clean the supers, frames, wax, and extracting equipment. And also I have to put up with my wife and beekeeping friends’ “I TOLD YOU SO” commits .

The way to clean the supers and kill the SHB larva is to either put all of the super, frames, and honey in a 1) solar wax melter to kill all the bugs and to melt the wax, or 2) place the super, frames, wax, and honey in a barrel of water mixed with a little dish soap and maybe mixing  some liquid chlorine in at the same time.

A solar wax melter will heat to about 190 -210 and melt all the wax and kill the bugs at the same time. As the wax melts, the honey will flow down the ramp into a catch container. After the wax solidifies, it will be on the top and you can throw the honey away. The wax melter will hold the larva and let the wax flow on down.

I will make a solar wax melter and post how I do it, explaining the steps and hopefully having some pictures to show at the same time. That is my next project. I have enough wax on hand to justify making one at this time.

Until then, enjoy your bees and hopefully you have already extracted some honey and can share it with some of your family and friends. By the way, I did collect about 5+ gallons about 70 lbs. of honey that I can use.