Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Mason on May 10, 2011, 12:39:16 pm
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Well I did it. I talked myself into pulling the trigger on an extractor and harvesting supplies from Brushy Mountain.
This is my 3rd year of beekeeping and I have one very successful hive, another producer to a lessor extent and a new package hive.
By the time I got bottle, caps, an extractor, capping bucket etc etc plus shipping it was over $600. I'm cheap. I don't like spending money so I had to mentally come up with a justification to get the equipment. Here's how I did it.
I could rent the extractor from the local bee club for $15 a day. I estimate two days per use at $30 per harvest. Add to that 25 miles one way to get the extractor. 100 miles total, 15mpg, $4 per gallon is an additional $44 per harvest. So the hard cost of renting the extractor would be $74 per harvest. Not counting disposable costs like bottles and caps.
If I harvest the honey off my giant hive now I can reuse the boxes this year. Now I don't have to go purchase additional boxes which is also a 50 mile round trip.
Now for the clincher. I estimate those mediums to be at least 40 lbs. 3X40 120lbs less waste and wax we'll call it 100lbs of honey. $8 per pound equals $800....extractor justified. Right?
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LMAO. Are you trying to justify the expense to yourself or your wife?
Thats sounds exactly like a financial diagram I lay out to the wife whenever I want something.
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yes it works for me.... enjoy the new equipment
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I just wrote all that down so I would have it to show my wife in a couple of years. :-D I hope it works out well for you.
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Yea, I think the "stuff" is going to hit the fan when this order arrives.
I'm just practicing on you guys.
Pretty good huh?
Any suggestions on how to handle the completely wrecked kitchen after my first harvest? I have been told you will only extract and bottle honey in your wives kitchen once. I'm going to make the most of it.
Should be a "sticky" situation...........HA!
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To further justify the expense of purchasing an extractor to your wife, you now own a piece of equipment that you can rent out for $15.00/day.
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I paid a hundred bucks for a used stainless extractor and 25 bucks for a used electric knife. One dollar each for food grade buckets with lids. 8 dollars a dozen for pints, 9 for quarts, with lids. Sure glad I didn't use your math. :D
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I paid a hundred bucks for a used stainless extractor
Glad you got a good deal. I saw a few on ebay for over $200 plus shipping, no warranty and they only held 2 frames. The Brushy Mountain starter extractor will fit 4 mediums. I have been looking for used but nothing has turned up and as always I'm on the bees schedule.
The extractor, capping tray, a bucket with honey gate, knife and scratcher for $415. I could have done without the knife and scratcher and food grade buckets are easy to find. The extractor separately was $295. The capping tub (which really looks like a nice thing to have was $95 alone. So I would have spent $390 for the capping bucket and extractor. The package got me a bucket, honey gate, scratcher and knife for $25. Shipping was also cheaper getting the starter kit.
I ran the bill up another $200 getting some gloves, bottles, caps, fume board, Bee Go and a couple of capping bags. $90 shipping was the only thing I think I really got hosed on.
This is what I am calling a "capping bucket". It really looks like a nice piece of equipment. Sure, I could have done it another way but a job is always easier if you have the right tools.
http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Multi-Use-Straining-System/productinfo/295/ (http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Multi-Use-Straining-System/productinfo/295/)
I can always fall back on "I can sell it anytime I want" line
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yes the shipping out of brushy really sux... I am not sure nut it looks like as most companies, they make a profit even on the shipping.... I will have to find the no shipping deals or a supplier with better shipping deals..
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Brushy Mt. late December. I make a list and add to all year, then put my order in when the free shipping is announced. The free shipping is a real blessing. I did have to order Mite Away Quick Strips and pay for the shipping, couldn't wait until Dec.
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Just having frames of drawn comb after extracting is worth it to me! I love the fact that my bees do not have to pull comb during the honey flow. This is a waste of valuable time since the honey flow is typically only a month or so two times a year.
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Sounds to me like you have a career in politics if you wish!
Scott
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I ran the bill up another $200 getting some gloves, bottles, caps, fume board, Bee Go and a couple of capping bags. $90 shipping was the only thing I think I really got hosed on.
I can always fall back on "I can sell it anytime I want" line
You will be thankful you went ahead and got the Bee Go...all that type stuff seems to disappear around June.
I tell my wife ..'You have your nails done which is a dead expense and with this I can make a profit' (So far, Im still in the red though)
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Any suggestions on how to handle the completely wrecked kitchen after my first harvest? I have been told you will only extract and bottle honey in your wives kitchen once. I'm going to make the most of it.
Should be a "sticky" situation...........HA!
My husband compained about the sticky kitchen...right up until I caught him in this position:
(http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/6185/honeystealinghusband.th.jpg) (http://img850.imageshack.us/i/honeystealinghusband.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
That's peanut butter toast he's holding under that line of honey!
He hasn't said a word since! :-D
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It's like buying a new car. You can't justify it with only a few hives. But if you want to spend the money, go for it.
"All this seems obvious enough, and yet time after time I have seen novice beekeepers, as soon as they had built their apiaries up to a half dozen or so hives, begin to look around for an extractor. It is as if one were to establish a small garden by the kitchen door, and then at once begin looking for a tractor to till it with. Unless then, you have, or plan eventually to have, perhaps fifty or more colonies of bees, you should try to resist looking in bee catalogs at the extractors and other enchanting and tempting tools that are offered and instead look with renewed fondness at your little pocket knife, so symbolic of the simplicity that is the mark of every truly good life." --Richard Taylor, The Comb Honey Book
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Alicia - that is priceless! HA!
love,
ziffa
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Keep ALL of your receipts and you can take it off of next year's taxes.
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I just think you are so far ahead of the game with drawn comb to reuse than if you crushed and strained every year.
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Richard Taylor is right, but I do have an 8 X 16 foot garden, a small ford gas tractor, and a large ford diesel tractor. :roll: :roll: :-D :-D
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I do have an 8 X 16 foot garden, a small ford gas tractor, and a large ford diesel tractor
I'm so jealous. I'll need to work harder to justify a tractor let alone two of them but someday...
This is looking better and better as the buyers remorse wares. This weekend I can pull some honey and reuse my boxes and frames.
Brushy got the order out on the same day with Thursday delivery. This weekend I plan to pull a couple of supers and re-use the boxes and frames. Now I don't have to get more boxes AND get some honey. Hopefully.
I think the gambling aspect of beekeeping is what keeps me interested. Scared money never wins....it can't.
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Sounds more like you're now officially justified to expand your operation
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It's like buying a new car. You can't justify it with only a few hives. But if you want to spend the money, go for it.
"All this seems obvious enough, and yet time after time I have seen novice beekeepers, as soon as they had built their apiaries up to a half dozen or so hives, begin to look around for an extractor. It is as if one were to establish a small garden by the kitchen door, and then at once begin looking for a tractor to till it with. Unless then, you have, or plan eventually to have, perhaps fifty or more colonies of bees, you should try to resist looking in bee catalogs at the extractors and other enchanting and tempting tools that are offered and instead look with renewed fondness at your little pocket knife, so symbolic of the simplicity that is the mark of every truly good life." --Richard Taylor, The Comb Honey Book
It's very easy to justify with only a few hives. You may not agree with the justifications of others, but thankfully they don't control your wallet. We all put different values on the less cost quantifiable aspects of our lives. The convenience of owning an extractor, plus the actual current expenses from renting are enough for Mason to justify his purchase.
I only have 10 hives and still crush & strain. I'll probably get an extractor eventually, but my lack of storage space is a larger factor than the price or my relatively low number of hives.
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Mason, too bad, could've saved quite a bit:
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,29880.0.html (http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,29880.0.html)
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I looked at home built extractors. Decided against them. Even this guy admits his material cost alone was $200. It's not stainless steel, you have to scrounge up all the parts, it's harder to clean. It's a multi day project to pull one of those together.
The extractor from Brushy was only $95 more than the material costs of this homemade model.
I see why some people build their own. If I were retired or not as busy with work I might have considered it a better option but it just wasn't right for me at this time.
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I understand the cost factor and effort needed to build an extractor.
I just looked at the Brushy website and see that it's the hand-crank 4 frame extractor, unless I'm mistaken it's a tangential extractor. The homemade version is an 8-frame radial (no flipping) with a motor (drill).
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They are not hard to crank. I don't see a need for a motor on an extractor this small. It would be nice not to have to flip the frames but it only takes a few seconds to flip them and less than a minute to crank it up.
You don't want to spin the frames too fast or too long. It will cause the wax to separate from the foundation.
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I have been hand spinning for years. Last year I talked my wife into it because she wanted/ needed honey that night. She got through one side of the frames and she was done. You can do it, but 4 frames at a time takes a while to do and is hard on the arms, shoulders, and the elbow. One day I will get to upgrade.
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I got my stuff today. Nothing on back order and it went out quickly.
Brushy overcharged me for shipping. The credited me back $44. They have more than doubled the shipping weight. I matched it to the UPS shipping charts and called them out on it. There as no problem and they gave me my credit.
It's not a triangle shaped basket. It's a large rectangular basket that will hold 2 deeps or 4 medium frames.
Saturday is the day........ I'm so excited to get to play with my new toys.
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let us know the quality, and i like your reasoning.
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So Saturday you are starting extracting honey. You are going to love the exercise.
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can we count on a video being posted?
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congrats mason!
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SUCCESS!!!!!
60lbs off one hive. The other looks like it is producing too but we left it alone for now.
Everything worked as advertised. Turns out my plan was pretty solid and everything went far smoother than I expected. What a great day. I slept like a baby last night. Pheww! All really fun things are exhausting.
Time to cash in on the liquid gold and recoup my expenses....at least some of them anyway.
Capping bucket- invaluable piece of equipment. I could see how it could easily be homemade but would suggest looking at the Brushy model before trying reverse engineering one.
Extractor- Worked well no complaints. The better you have it anchored the easier it is to use.
It's ideally a 3 person job. One capping, one extracting and another bottling.
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congrats Mason, glad that everything went as planned and even better, that rarely happens....
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congrats Mason, glad that everything went as planned and even better, that rarely happens....
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
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Where da pics? On bottling, I always do it later after letting the honey sit for while to get the air out of it. It gives me an "excuse" to do it later. Bottling can be just as hard on your back and arms as spinning the extractor. I have 4 shallows in the freezer I pulled Saturday ready to go as soon as I wash out everything.
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I justify an extractor as saving the drawn comb is like saving gold opposed to destroying it after each season, plus I have never crushed and strained purchased an extractor my first season which was 10 years ago and what cost me 350 then would cost me 650 now so in my thought buy one as soon as you can. it will one save you time, two save you the inflation prices and two if you sell your honey, make you more money in the seasons to come because your bees can get right to filling ur frames with honey from the get go because they wont have to build so much wax before willing the combs, just my .02.
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Just and FYI follow up.
I sold almost all of my honey. $5 for 8oz and $10 for 16oz. I would have sold it all in one day if I had taken it to the local Farmers Market. It was not EASY money but paid for my extracting supplies.
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Extractor paid for? I have 6 supers in the freezer. Just can't get my butt up to extract with the old hand crank. Orders are piling up though. May have to go downstairs and wash everything up to start.