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Author Topic: equipment for extracting  (Read 3432 times)

Offline paulh

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equipment for extracting
« on: September 02, 2008, 01:49:48 am »
I plan to borrow an extractor for my first run this fall. Aside from that, what equipment should I buy and have on hand? Capping scratcher or knife, uncapping tub, bottling bucket, a couple of 5-gallon buckets with lids, various jugs and jars... what else?   

Offline TwT

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Re: equipment for extracting
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2008, 06:03:21 am »
you forgot Filters , the bucket filters fits top of 5 gallon and work great
THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 MONTHS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!

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Amateurs built the ark,
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Offline Scadsobees

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Re: equipment for extracting
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2008, 03:04:05 pm »
Aside from the bottling bucket and jars (mason qt jars will do fine)....

Bakery buckets with lids (free from your local bakery), a paint strainer, a large serrated bread knife, and a dishpan.

Cut out the centers of two of the bucket lids (all except for maybe a 1 or 2 inch rim), drill holes in the bottom of one of the buckets, then put the paint strainer inside the holey bucket, secured with one of the holey bucket lids and put that on top of another bucket(preferable the bottling bucket) that has the other holey lid on it.

Uncap the frames with the serrated knife (it takes a bit of practice but works great) into the dishpan.  Not ideal but works great considering the cost.

Dump your honey into the top paint strainer bucket, it will strain through to the bottling bucket where you can drain it out to a different bucket.  Then dump the cappings into the strainer bucket and let drain.  After they drain you can put them out away from the beehives and away from people for the bees to clean up.

Capping scratcher is nice but not indispensable....if you are ordering stuff anyway get one.

Price: Bottling bucket, $20  Dishpan,$5  Paint strainer, $2  Bakery buckets, $0  Bread knife, (existing)

Filters work but are a bit of a pain compared to the cheap way :).  If you want to filter it after running it through the quick strainer that is fine, but I find that it isn't really necessary most of the time.
Rick

Offline rast

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Re: equipment for extracting
« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2008, 10:45:22 pm »
 Now my 1 1/2 cent worth. I did 160+ lbs this weekend.
"(mason qt jars will do fine).... "put some in pints, everybody you know will ask for some free.
"Bakery buckets with lids (free from your local bakery)", Winn Dixie and Publix were great for saving them for me.
 Dishpan for cappings is great, get a piece of wood (1x2) to lay across it to support the frame while you uncap it.
 I used a capping scratcher to open the comb. I tried the water heated serrated knifes and went back to the scratcher. Due to inexperience I'm sure, I did less damage to the comb with the scratcher.
 I used prewashed cheesecloth held to the top of the buckets with closepins (per Johnnybigfish), above that I had a piece of #8 hardware cloth. Filtering it was my bottleneck.
 Oh yeah, don't walk upwind of the hives afterwards with the honey splattered clothes on. :-D
 
Fools argue; wise men discuss.
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Offline rast

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Re: equipment for extracting
« Reply #4 on: September 02, 2008, 10:54:24 pm »
 Seriously, if your hives are anywhere near where you are extracting, do make sure the bees can't get to where you are extracting or storing the supers while extracting, they are more persistant and determined to get to that honey smell than you think if you have never done it before.
Fools argue; wise men discuss.
    --Paramahansa Yogananda

Offline paulh

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Re: equipment for extracting
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2008, 12:30:24 am »
Seriously, if your hives are anywhere near where you are extracting, do make sure the bees can't get to where you are extracting or storing the supers while extracting, they are more persistant and determined to get to that honey smell than you think if you have never done it before.

Thanks for the heads-up.  Due to a lack of any other place to extract, I was thinking of doing this in my kitchen. *waitsforlaughter*
My one hive is 150' west (upwind) of the house, but about 60' right out the back (kitchen) door are two ferral hives in two separate tree trunks.
I'll keep both doors and windows closed.

Offline paulh

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Re: equipment for extracting
« Reply #6 on: September 03, 2008, 12:43:55 am »
Thanks for the replies, everone.  All great advice. :)

As for the filtering:  I've read (as rast replied) filtering is the bottleneck and can be a real pain. 

To overcome this, I've heard that if you go right from the extractor into a bottling bucket and let it rest over night, all the wax and parts will float to the top.   Then, just open the gate valve at the bottom and fill from there.

Does this method work well?

BTW: I'm not looking for crystal clear honey that sells well.  Mine will be 5% home use, 5% gifts, 90% mead.

Offline TwT

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Re: equipment for extracting
« Reply #7 on: September 04, 2008, 07:24:31 am »
you could do that but it takes about 24 hours I would think, never waited that long, well then you could do as I mostly do, slide a NEW pair of pantie hose or leggings over the valve on the extractor and tie off, let the honey drain from the extractor through the pantie hose and consider it filtered fine, it flows through fine.
THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 MONTHS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!

Never be afraid to try something new.
Amateurs built the ark,
Professionals built the Titanic