Top Bar Hive Honey Harvest With Sam Comfort
At the 2012 Treatment Free Beekeeper’s Conference in Leominster, MA, one of the things shown was a top bar hive honey harvest. After seeing this I was sold on top bar hives and had to have my own. Watch as Sam Comfort from Anarchy Apiaries demonstrates how easy it is to harvest honey. Notice his tattoos? Nothing screams beekeeper like a giant queen bee tattoo on your arm! My favorite part is seeing the tools Sam uses. Does he have a hive tool? No, it’s a pocket knife. Does he have a smoker? No, it’s a lighter, a leaf and his breath. Does he have a bee brush? No, it’s a twig with leaves and then later a feather (which is what I use). Does he have a bee suit and veil? No, of course not, it’s Sam Comfort after all.
He does however use a bucket with a lid to collect the honey. That is something definitely needed.
Here is the honey he harvested off the bar.
After the honey was cut into the bucket, Sam shows what is left on the top bar.
Then he merely walked over and put the bar back onto the hive. The honey in the bucket can be used as cut comb honey or processed via crush and strain. Sam usually uses one of the top bars from the hive to do the crushing. Sam is an icon for what little is actually needed to be a successful beekeeper. He keeps around 500 hives in New York, Florida, Hawaii and a few other places and is successfully breeding treatment free bees. Here are a few more pictures from the demonstration. Just click on a picture to open the gallery. Then click on the arrow to scroll through the pictures.
Other Posts You May Enjoy:
- My Swarm Hive, Milkweed Plus Spot The Queen
- Top Bar Hive – A New Member In My Bee Family
- Bee Swarm Call 1 – “There’s A Bee Swarm On The Power Lines”
- Swarm Call 2 – “There’s Another Bee Swarm Near The Power Lines”
- Flame Duct Tape, A Rock, Orange String And Debbie’s Bee Swarm
This post was linked to Homestead Revival.