Bee Wednesday Ep. 10 Honey Processing Day: How We Harvested Over 6 Pounds of Raw Honey Without an Extractor!

Harvest day is officially here! In this week’s episode of Bee Wednesday (Ep. 10), I took three full honey frames from our hive to see how much liquid gold we could collect.

Since I don’t own a honey spinner/extractor yet, we did things the old-school way—scraping and crushing the comb by hand using simple kitchen tools. If you’ve ever wondered if you can harvest honey on a budget without fancy equipment, the answer is a resounding yes!

Here is how our harvest went, what we learned along the way, and our final jar count.

Watch the Full Video: Honey Processing Time!! (Bee Wednesday Ep. 10)

Step 1: Bringing the Frames Indoors & Scraping

I harvested three honey supers from the hive and brought them inside to keep drips to a minimum.

Using a long knife and a hand tool, I carefully scraped and crushed the capped honeycomb down into a deep bowl.

• Pro Tip: Watch the angle of your knife! My knife was a bit long for these super frames, so adjusting the scraping angle helped avoid catching on the frame edges.

Step 2: The Double Strain Method

To get a clean, golden pour free of large wax debris, straining is key:

1. First Pass: After scraping all three frames, I pressed the honey down and let it drip through into a collecting bowl overnight. That first pass yielded 6 lbs 7.4 oz of rich, raw honey!
2. Second Pass: To clear out smaller wax chunks, I set up a second filtration. I initially tried using a thick tea towel, but it was too dense and slowed the pour down to a crawl. I ran to the store for proper cheesecloth, which made the liquid flow smoothly into a beautiful golden ribbon.

Step 3: Giving Back to the Bees (Clean-Up Duty)

Never let leftover honey go to waste! After scraping, the frames were still sticky. I mounted the scraped frames on holders right outside the chicken run near the hive.

Within minutes, the bees found the frames and spent the afternoon cleaning up every last drop of leftover honey to bring back to the colony. It gives them extra food and leaves the frames completely clean and dry for storage.

Final Yield: 12 Jars of Raw Honey!

By the end of the process, we ended up with 12 small jars of pure, raw, backyard honey—plus a double batch of fresh sourdough bread baking in the kitchen while waiting for the final strain!

Do you use a honey extractor or do you prefer the old-school crush and strain method? Drop a comment below and share your favorite harvest tip!

Happy Beekeeping!