A beginner’s guide to beekeeping and honey harvesting

Last Saturday morning we processed 19kg of golden deliciousness.

Hinterland Homesteading with Racheal Pascoe

It has been super-exciting here at home over the last 12 months as we have invested in three beehives and are up to the stage of harvesting our own honey. Last Saturday morning we processed 19kg of golden deliciousness! I encourage you to consider having a beehive at your place and learning all about it. Bees are such amazing insects and they need our help. 

Where to start?

We knew we wanted beehives at home here and reached out to the Sunshine Coast Beekeepers Club at Yandina for direction in how to start. The bee club has many members who have been involved in beekeeping for decades and they are very happy to help newcomers establish their hives. 

There is a lot to organise when setting up a new hive. You will need hive boxes, frames, a queen excluder, beetle traps, a queen bee, worker bees and of course a bee suit/jacket to wear. 

We actually inherited 3 hives which were in poor repair, so the bees were already there, but there was much work to be done refurbishing the hives. Beehives need to be checked every few weeks and unfortunately there are predators to watch out for too. Beetles want to set up camp in the hives and the varroa mite is now in Australia. The Sunshine Coast Beekeepers Club will help you identify and manage these pests. 

Overcoming the fear 

I personally found it very confronting to stand close to the hives initially, with thousands of bees bumping into my bee suit. In fact, the very first time I could only stand within about 10 feet of the hives. Over the next few times of being with the bees, I found I could stand there and help out, lifting out frames to check for brood and honey etc. It is really fascinating to see all the work the bees do. How they can fill a new empty frame with wax cells and then decide to either fill it with honey or brood. Brood cells are the ones the queen lays her eggs in. The worker bees then care for these cells until the new bees emerge. What a team they all are. Working together for the good of the hive. 

Honey harvesting 

Do you know that a bee might only live for about a month and in that time travels hundreds of kilometres and takes 12 bees their entire life to produce only a teaspoon of honey. That’s right, all that work for a mere teaspoon! I bet you will think about that the next time you are having honey on toast for brekkie! Harvesting honey is done in a honey spinner, which spins the frames and draws the honey out of the cells using centrifugal force. A tap at the bottom allows you to fill a jar or bucket with fresh golden honey. Honey spinners can be either electric or manual. We have just invested in a manual one and cancelled our gym memberships as it is a real arm workout! Ha. 

Do you get stung?

Yes, it happens. Even with a fabulous bee suit on, it is possible for a bee to find a way. After one of our hive checking sessions, I removed my suit too soon and a bee got caught in my hair. I panicked, the bee panicked, I squealed and brushed my hair while jumping around like a mad person trying to get it out. The poor bee crawled up to my scalp and stung me. I don’t know how it is inbuilt, to fear bees but most of us seem to have it. Looking after a bee hive does help you look at it all differently. You certainly appreciate them more. The trick to working with bees is to move slowly and calmly I have been told. (Thank you Alby and Tom, our Bee Mentors!)  I am still trying to master remaining calm. 

10,000 year old task 

It is very rewarding to harvest honey. Throughout history beekeeping has been a skill passed down for around 10 000 years. A long time ago wild hives had to be destroyed to harvest the honey, but now we have developed a system of housing the bees and being able to manage the honey harvesting without so much destruction. If you would like to enquire about setting up a hive at your place, please contact the Sunshine Coast Beekeepers for more information. There is a lot to know about wonderful bees and how they are so important to us all. 

How you can help the bees

If you can’t have a hive at your place, you can still help. Please only buy honey from roadside stalls. This is because you are supporting local beekeepers and not the big companies who tamper with the honey before sale, diminishing the good properties of the honey.  Plus, you have the added bonus of taking in local pollens safely through honey, if you suffer from hayfever, you should always buy local honey.  Buying local when possible is always best.