How to extract raw honey from honeycomb?
We recently had to get a swarm of bees removed from our house and moved to an appropriate lodging. We have been left with about 2kg of honeycomb - some of it clean, some of it with old honey/larvae/debris in it.
How do you extract the honey with the following restrictions:
- No heating, the honey must remain raw
- All items need to be common household items
- End product needs to be filtered and clean of any debris or bee leftovers
Best Answer
Ok so this is what I did, and it worked :)
- Gently cut/scrape the outer caps with knife
- Mashed the comb with a fork and moved it into a fine sieve, placed over a bowl
- Put it in the oven on a very low heat <35 degrees Celsius for 30 min
This happened over 2 days, I would gently warm it, then mash it a little and move it around so that it kept seeping out. It's not 100% efficient but I would say I probably got 90% yield.
My dogs were very happy to take the leftover mash as "treats"! (as an side note, it's really really good for them).
Thank you @GdH and @EugenePetrov for the input!
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How do you extract honey from a honeycomb?
To crush the comb you can use a potato masher, which works well in a flat-bottomed bowl, or a pestle, which works well in a round-bottomed bowl. You can also use a heavy wooden spoon or a smooth stone. Crushing comb is the heartbreaking part, but once you get started it's not so bad.How do you extract honey from honeycomb without an extractor?
But is honeycomb edible? The answer is also yes. Honeycomb is nature's great delicacy. It is perfectly safe (and delicious) to consume both the honey and the waxy hexagonal containers of the comb.How to Extract Honey from Honeycomb
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