My Summer at ICIPE in Kenya: Sticky Hands

So today I helped with step one of honey extraction! Different from back home, it is done in daily steps instead of all at once. Today I helped uncap the honey frames and spin them. For those of you less experienced in the art of honey extraction, I shall explain what I did today.

Going back to the hive, the bees store their honey in the smaller boxes of the Langstroth style hive. The bees store the honey in a cell and then “cap” it when the cell is completely full. This keeps the honey sterile and pure and it also keeps it from dripping on hot days. Capped frames of honey are what the beekeepers pull from the hives.

At extraction, these capping must be removed so the honey will be pulled out by centrifugal force in the extractor. To remove the capping, a cap scratcher is used. You glide this gently under the cappings and pop them off. You want to try to get all the cells uncapped. You do this to both sides of the frame, and then put it in the extractor.

The extractor I used today was a hand crank, 3 compartment extractor. Once all three compartments have a frame to pull the honey from, you put the lid on and spin out the honey. The faster you spin, the faster the honey is pulled out. While I was spinning some customers came in wanting to buy some honey. I ended up spinning the honey for a while. But that’s okay. Honey extraction is all about patience.

After spinning the frames, you drain the honey into a dry bucket. This is then stored to be heated and strained on a different day. (Which I will tell you about as it happens) I am also hoping to assist with the wax process. I've never done anything with wax and it would be a new experience. It just depends how my schedule pans out.

I hope I have explained the first stages of honey extraction well for you all. It is a very sticky, slow process, but in the end the reward is worth the effort and time you put into it. The honey here is sold for 300 shillings and I will definitely be investing in some to take home with me. It is absolutely delicious!

Here I am scratching off the cappings of some honey.

More cap scratching. You can also see the three types of extractors icipe has. I was using the smallest one. There is another beside that is slightly larger, and the other holds... too many frames to count. It is electric and I could probably spin all my frames back home at once in it.