Livestock: Fish and Bees

Lessons

Senior 3 · Agriculture

Livestock: Fish and Bees

4 lessons

Lesson 4 of 4

Managing a Hive and Harvesting Honey

25 min

Let's begin

The beekeeper in the photo below is dressed for work: a veil over the face, a sealed suit, gloves, and a smoker in hand. African honeybees defend their home hard, and a careless visit can mean hundreds of stings, an angry apiary for days, and a colony that leaves. Yet a hive that is never opened cannot be managed. This lesson covers how to work with bees safely, how to keep a colony strong and healthy, and how to harvest and process honey and beeswax.

Definition

Smoker: a can with bellows that puffs cool smoke; smoke masks the bees' alarm scent and makes them fill up on honey, which calms them.

Hive tool: a flat steel lever for prising apart bars and frames stuck together with propolis.

Capped (sealed) honey: honey in cells the bees have closed with wax after drying it; it is ripe, with a low water content, and keeps without fermenting.

Dearth: a period when few plants are flowering and bees cannot collect enough food.

Absconding: the whole colony abandoning its hive, often after disturbance, attacks by pests, or hunger.

Robbing: bees from other colonies stealing honey from a weak hive or from honey left open.

1. Working safely

Protective clothing: a veil, a light-coloured suit or overall, gloves and boots, with trousers tucked in so bees cannot crawl inside.
Tools: smoker (fuelled with dry grass, sacking or dry cow dung, giving cool smoke), hive tool, a soft brush or feather, a sharp knife, and clean buckets with tight lids.
Work on a calm, warm day, and approach the hive from the side or back, never across the entrance. Puff smoke gently at the entrance, wait a minute, then open the hive slowly.
Never go alone to a large apiary; keep children, livestock and onlookers well away.
If you are stung, scrape the sting out with a fingernail or blade at once rather than squeezing it, and move away from the hive. Anyone with swelling of the face or throat, or difficulty breathing, needs emergency medical help.

2. Inspecting and managing a colony

Inspect every two to four weeks in the flowering season. Lift one bar or frame at a time, keep them in order, and look for:

a laying queen: eggs and young larvae in a compact brood pattern;
food: enough honey and pollen;
space: a crowded hive prepares to swarm; give it empty bars or another super in good time;
pests and diseases (table below).

In a dearth, leave enough honey in the hive. A starving colony may be fed sugar syrup inside the hive (sugar dissolved in an equal mass of water), but never honey of unknown origin, which can carry disease. Unite weak colonies, keep grass and weeds cut round the stands, repair hives, and keep records of every visit.

Enemy or pest	Damage	Control
Honey badger (ratel)	tears hives open at night to eat honey and brood	hang hives on wires or high stands; fasten lids firmly
Ants	steal honey and brood; colonies abscond	grease stand legs or stand them in tins of water or oil; keep grass short
Wax moth	larvae tunnel through combs of weak colonies, leaving webs	keep colonies strong; remove spare, unguarded combs
Small hive beetle	larvae spoil honey and combs	strong colonies; clean apiary; no spilled honey
Varroa mite	feeds on brood and adult bees; spreads viruses	regular checks; strong colonies; treat only as advised by an expert
Birds, lizards, toads, spiders, mice	eat bees or nest in hives	raised stands; small entrances; closed hives
Pesticides	kill foragers; residues in honey	site hives away from sprayed fields; buffer zones (MINAGRI, 2025)

3. Harvesting honey

When: after the main flowering season, when most of the cells in the honey combs are capped. Uncapped honey holds too much water and ferments.
Time of day: many East African beekeepers harvest in the evening or early morning, when the bees are calmer and fewer are flying.
Which combs: take only combs of capped honey, usually those farthest from the entrance (Figure 12). Leave all brood combs and enough honey for the colony.
Brush the bees gently back into the hive, cut the comb from the bar (top-bar hive) or remove the frame (Langstroth), and put the honey at once into a clean bucket with a lid. Close the hive properly.
Never leave honey or wax lying open in the apiary: it sets off robbing and fighting.

Figure 12. A top-bar hive seen from the side: brood near the entrance, honey at the far end.

4. Processing honey and beeswax

Work in a clean room that bees cannot enter, with clean, dry equipment.
Sell some comb honey as it is, or extract the honey: crush the comb and strain it through a fine sieve or cloth (top-bar combs), or slice off the cappings and spin the frames in an extractor (Langstroth combs, which go back into the hive).
Let the honey settle for a day or two so that air bubbles and bits of wax rise; skim them off.
Pour it into clean, dry jars; seal and label them; store them in a cool, dark place. Honey takes up water from damp air, so keep jars closed. Do not boil honey: strong heat spoils its taste and quality.
Beeswax: melt the cappings and strained comb in hot water (never in a pan directly over a flame, because wax catches fire), strain it, and let it set in a mould. Scrape the dirt off the bottom of the block.

MINAGRI's honey residue assessment found that beekeepers need more training and equipment, and recommends regular quality testing of honey for export (Annual Report 2024–2025).

Worked example 1: how much honey to take?

Problem. A top-bar hive has 8 combs of capped honey, each holding about 2 kg. The beekeeper leaves 2 honey combs for the colony. How much honey does she harvest, and what is it worth at 5,000 Frw per kg (illustrative price)?

Solution.

Combs harvested $= 8 - 2 = 6$ .
Honey $= 6 \times 2 = 12\,\mathrm{kg}$ .
Value $= 12 \times 5\,000 = 60\,000$ Frw.

Answer: 12 kg, worth about 60,000 Frw. The 4 kg left behind keeps the colony alive until the next flowering.

Worked example 2: yields from processing

Problem. A cooperative crushes and strains 20 kg of comb and obtains 14 kg of honey and 1.5 kg of beeswax. What percentage of the comb's mass became honey, and what percentage wax?

Solution.

Honey $= \frac{14}{20} \times 100 = 70\%$ .
Wax $= \frac{1.5}{20} \times 100 = 7.5\%$ .

Answer: 70% honey and 7.5% wax; the rest is mostly honey left in the residue, pollen and impurities. Both products are worth selling.

Warning

Common mistakes. (1) Harvesting uncapped honey: it ferments in the jar. (2) Taking every comb, or the brood combs: the colony starves or absconds. (3) Using hot, flaming smoke or too much of it: it burns and enrages bees. (4) Leaving spilled honey or wax near the apiary: it causes robbing. (5) Storing honey in open or dirty containers: it absorbs water and spoils.

Tip

Exam technique: for "describe how honey is harvested", use the order prepare → smoke → open → select capped combs → brush off bees → cut and cover → close → process, and add one safety point.

TUNADO: "How to Harvest Honey From A KTB Hive - All The Process!". Watch which combs are taken and which are left, how smoke is used, and how the honey is kept covered.

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Practice

List the protective clothing and tools a beekeeper needs, and give the use of the smoker and the hive tool.
Give four things a beekeeper checks during an inspection.
Name three enemies of bees and give one control for each.
How does a beekeeper know that honey is ready for harvest?
Why must brood combs be left in the hive at harvest?
A hive has 10 combs of capped honey of about 1.8 kg each; 3 are left for the colony. How much honey is harvested?
Describe how beeswax is recovered from cappings and comb residue, with one safety point.
A new beekeeper harvests every comb in the hive at midday, without smoke, and leaves the combs in an open basin under a tree while he fetches jars. Evaluate each of his decisions.

Show answersHide answers

Veil, light-coloured suit or overall, gloves, boots; smoker, hive tool, brush, knife, clean lidded buckets. The smoker calms bees with cool smoke; the hive tool prises apart bars or frames stuck with propolis.
Any four: a laying queen (eggs, young larvae, brood pattern); food stores; space; pests and diseases; the general strength and temper of the colony.
Any three: honey badger (hang hives on wires, fasten lids); ants (grease legs or stand them in water); wax moth (keep colonies strong, remove spare combs); small hive beetle (strong colonies, clean apiary); varroa (checks, expert advice); pesticides (site away from sprayed fields).
When most cells in the honey combs are capped with wax, showing the honey is ripe.
They hold the eggs, larvae and pupae that become the next workers; removing them weakens or kills the colony.
$(10 - 3) \times 1.8 = 12.6\,\mathrm{kg}$ .
Melt them in hot water, not directly over a flame, strain the melt through a cloth, let it set in a mould, then scrape the dirt off the block. Safety: wax catches fire if overheated, so never heat it directly over a flame.
Taking every comb starves the colony and destroys brood, so it may abscond. Working at midday without smoke means more flying bees and many stings. Leaving honey open sets off robbing and fighting and dirties the honey. He should harvest only capped honey combs, with smoke, in the evening or early morning, and put honey straight into lidded containers.

Key points

Wear a veil, suit, gloves and boots; use cool smoke; approach from the side; inspect for queen, food, space and pests.
Protect colonies from honey badgers, ants, wax moth, beetles, varroa and pesticides; feed sugar syrup only in a dearth.
Harvest only capped honey combs, leave brood and enough honey; strain, settle and bottle honey in clean, dry jars; render wax in hot water, never over a naked flame.

11. Working safely

22. Inspecting and managing a colony

33. Harvesting honey

44. Processing honey and beeswax

1. Working safely

2. Inspecting and managing a colony

3. Harvesting honey

4. Processing honey and beeswax