Firefighter's Beekeeping Kit Cuts Harvest Time by 90%

Backyard beekeepers have been wrestling with 50-pound frames and garage-sized honey extractors for generations, but Simon Mildren just shrunk the entire process down to something smaller than a coffee maker.

The Australian firefighter spent six years designing a system that lets hobbyist beekeepers harvest honey right in their kitchen in about 10 minutes per frame. Traditional methods can take hours, require a dedicated extraction room, and often result in sticky floors and stressed-out bees.

Mildren's Hivekeepers Micro Honey Harvester uses small cassettes instead of heavy frames. Each cassette holds about one cup of honey and snaps apart into two pieces that slide into a battery-powered spinner. Push a button, wait 20 seconds, and the honey pours out clean.

The cassettes fit into standard beehives without any expensive upgrades. Beekeepers can harvest just one cassette at a time or all eight from a frame, making it easy to collect small batches without disturbing the entire colony.

The device weighs just over six pounds and runs on a rechargeable battery that handles about 20 cassettes per charge. A quick rinse with warm water is all the cleanup required.

When Mildren launched his Kickstarter campaign in 2025, he hit his funding goal in five minutes and ended up with 437% of what he asked for. The response came from beekeepers worldwide who had shared their frustrations about traditional honey harvesting being physically demanding, time-consuming, and stressful for both humans and bees.

The Ripple Effect

Small-scale beekeeping has surged in recent years as people recognize the critical role bees play in pollinating crops and gardens. But the barrier to entry has remained high because of expensive, bulky extraction equipment.

This compact system could help more people maintain backyard hives, which means more pollinator populations in neighborhoods and communities. The Australian Agritech Awards recognized Hivekeepers as a 2025 finalist for redefining agriculture through innovation.

The starter kit includes the harvester, two frames with cassettes, and two extras for about $424. Mildren designed the system to be expandable so beekeepers can add more frames as their operations grow.

The first shipments are heading out to backers early this year, bringing garage-free honey harvesting to hobbyists who just want to enjoy what their bees create without the traditional hassle.