Taking honey from Japanese traditional beehive

Taking honey is took place in summer to autumn.

The how to taking honey is differ from one of Apis mellifera.

Centrifugal is not used.

Combs full of honey are compressed.

重箱式巣箱の採蜜の様子

Because honey is saved at the upper side of hive, I detach the top box to take honey.
After taking honey, I add a new box under all of boxes.In this way, I can keep honeybees withchangingbox.

However, because the top box must be full of honey, I can't take honey frequently.
I can take honey once or twice a year.

5 kg honey can be saved in a box and I can take 5kg to 10kg(1～2 boxes) of honey a year.

Honey of Japanese Honeybee is more brown and much more expensive than that ofWesternHoneybee．

Please watch folloing movies about taking honey from traditional bee hive in Japan.

You may think this honey is like a water.(In Part 4)

However, there are two reason.

First, it was warm. This movie was recorded in July. In Japan, it is warm in july.

Second, the sugar content of honey of Japanese honeybees is lower than one of western honeybees.

Smoke is not necessary because Japanese hoenybees are not offensive.

I only chew mint gum to pacify bees.

I can touch them by bare hand.

Following movie is another way of taking honey, cutting combs to taking honey.

In following movie, bees collect honey on kitchen knife.

After taking honey, I derive bee-wax.

Bee-wax is materials of hand cream, and used to attract swarms.

ニホンミツバチのはちみつ

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Traditional keeping of Japanese honeybee

Taking honey from Japanese traditional beehive