Whatever you do with your honey, don’t give it away.
That was the message from veteran Blount County beekeeper Coley O’Dell, who talked to the Blount County Beekeepers Association on June 8 and harvesting and marketing honey. Honey is too valuable, and it takes too much work to get it, O’Dell said.
O’Dell also discussed several ways in which honey could be taken from the hive, including escape boards and fume boards. In his experience, he said, most escape boards do not work. Fume boards are better if you have a large number of hives.
If you have a small number of hives and you harvest honey frame by frame, O’Dell said that all you need is a bee brush and a smoker.
Two of the slideshows that Coley used in his presentation are available for downloading by clicking on the links below. (Thanks much to Coley for sending these along.)
Equipment For Harvesting Honey Final Slides
Marketing Honey 6615 Final Back Up
In the second part of the meeting John Gee demonstrated how to use a honey extractor to get honey off the comb.
Blount County Beekeepers Association 