Harvesting honey from Australian Native Stingless Bee Hive

Being able to harvest your very own honey from your Australian Native Stingless Bee Hive is one of the many rewards associated with keeping stingless bees. Stingless bees produce small amounts of the most delicious, tangy, citrusy honey. It's so good you'll just want to eat it by the spoonful!

Historically prized by Australian Aborigines and referred to as sugarbag honey, stingless bee honey is a rare delicacy that is packed full of nutrients and known for various healing properties. Native bees store their pollen and honey in honey pots created from propolis. Propolis is created from a mixture of native bee wax and plant resins and it is these properties which is believed to infuse the delicate and aromatic flavours into their honey.

A strong boxed colony of native bees can produce anywhere between half a kilogram to two kilograms of honey per year. Much of this depends on the strength of the colony, location and environmental conditions.

Harvesting or robbing honey from your honey is a simple process but there are a few key things we do (and don't do) to ensure we don't put our colony at risk of pests and we minimise the loss of our precious bees.

What you will need: 

Two plastic containers,

A metal sieve or strainer

A couple of forks or other clean, sharp implements for bursting honey pots

Small spray bottle filled with water (or a hose close by)

Wet tea towel and paper towel (for cleaning up)

Masking tape

Clean, sterile jars to store your honey

 

Where to rob honey from:

We only ever rob honey from a honey super, honey box or honey jar which is separated from the brood (baby bees) by a separator. We never, ever take honey from near the brood or from anywhere in the brood chamber as this is the vital food stores of our colony.

All of our boxed colonies are housed in OATH designed hives with a honey super, making it easy to harvest honey.

Remove bees: 

When you remove your honey super or honey box from your hive there is likely to still be lots of bees working in and around the honey pots. Gently tap or vibrate the outside of the honey box with a hammer or hive tool to remove as many bees as possible.

Burst the honey pots: 

Using a fork or something similar, gently burst the honey pots in your honey super. You will note that there will be pollen pots on one or both sides of your honey super. We recommend trying to avoid bursting pollen pots during this process otherwise your honey will be bitter.

Invert the honey super over one of your plastic containers and walk away while it drains. It will take quite a while for your honey super to completely drain. Ensure all drips have stopped before you return your honey super back to the hive box.

Strain your honey

Strain your honey through a metal sieve or something similar into your second plastic container then pour into your jars and seal.

Look after your bees

Any stray bees covered in honey on your work surface can be sprayed with a fine mist of water to remove the honey from them. They will recover quicker if they aren't covered in honey.

Return honey super to hive

You may choose to remove all of the propolis from your honey super for other uses or alternatively, leave the broken pots in your honey super. Your bees will refill your honey super quicker as they will reuse all of this material.

Ensure there is no excess honey dripping before returning the super to the top of the hive box. Native bees can drown in spilt honey not to mention the scent is a massive invitation for pests.

Once your hive is back together, clean the outside really well with the wet towel and dry it with the paper towel. Following this, tape all the seams to prevent pests from laying eggs in the cracks.

Native bee honey has a high water content and will also contain a range of pollens. We recommend storing your honey in the fridge to prevent fermentation.

Check our our You Tube clip of one of our honey harvests below: