# Harvesting honey by hand?



## cervus (May 8, 2016)

You can crush and strain, but you can't reuse the wax because, well, it was crushed. Just cut the comb off around the wires. You can also google gravity honey extraction, but it's terribly inefficient. How much honey depends on what size frames you have. Shallow, medium, or deep?


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## Duncan151 (Aug 3, 2013)

Deep, Medium, or Shallow frames?
You can just cut it off the frame, leaving the wires, and then crush and strain the comb to get the honey. Or, are you talking about using a hand cranked extractor?


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

I extract, so had no motive to try Don, The Fat Beeman's method of scraping off the honey and cells down close to the midrib so the bees could still rebuild it. 

In the video of him doing it, it looked like getting the greater part of the honey off without destroying the frame. I think it would be worth a try. It certainly is a dirty big job to pull out all the old crosswiring, the wedge, etc., and install new foundation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuO_BdmvJsg&list=PLdVmuwxOQbuS5xPwvaAThIdozRxwFeoFP&index=55

Called extracting honey on the cheap!


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Here is another cheap option for a limited number of frames, see posts #10 & #11 ...
http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...p=1444239&highlight=rubermaid+tub#post1444239

... that method retains most of the comb intact, as you just need to uncap the cells the same as if you were using a commercial extractor.


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