Honey House Floor Plan Suggestions

[Anonymous]

Here's a request for some of you bigger beekeepers.  Say you process anywhere from 100 to 1000 supers a year.  How is your honey house laid out?  What works best for you for work flow?  What materials did you choose to help with easy cleanup?

Thanks!

[imabkpr]

Here's a request for some of you bigger beekeepers.  Say you process anywhere from 100 to 1000 supers a year.  How is your honey house laid out?  What works best for you for work flow?  What materials did you choose to help with easy cleanup?

Thanks!

                                                                                                                                                                                                            "JOHN G "  It takes a lot of thought to lay out a honey house.  How large is your honey operation going to get? What are you going to use for an uncapper? Will you have a wax melter? Honey sump? Pumps? How large is your extractor going to be?  The list goes on and on.  My honey house was 24x32 with a 8x16 hot room and an 8x8 utility room. This gave me a 24x24 extracting room, a very efficient honey operation. I would use [ white ] steel barn siding to finish the interior of the building,will be easier to clean.  THERE IS NO EASY WAY TO CLEAN UP when working with honey and wax. hot water and lots of it.

[Anonymous]

How large is my operation going to get?  Well, that depends on how many cusomters I get.  Part of my plan is to provide extraction services for the greater central Ohio area.  Anywhere from 1 to 100 supers  per customer.

So far, the house is going to be laid out in two areas.  Staging for customer drop offs and actual processing.  Extracted supers will go right back into the staging area.  Larger customers will need to drop a trailer.

I have a Dadant 20 frame radial.  I still need an uncapper.  Haven't decided on which type yet.  Intially considered a chain uncapper, but I've heard from one other commercial beekeeper that he had constant problems with it.  I'm open for suggestions and  I've got some time to play with.  I don't think I'll be uncapping by hand much longer.   :roll:

As far as a "warm" room, I plan to keep temps high in the entire house.  I want honey flowing and I don't mind working where it's hot.

I want to keep my house to around 20 x 30, maybe 20 x 40, with most of that staging area.  I'll start with an unfinished loft that I can pop a couple dormers into and convert to office/storage if needed.  I figure I'll need room for buckets, both before and after.  Don't know if I'll need a sump, honey or wax.  I'm interested in a cappings spinner, but no decision there yet either.

Thanks for your input.  I hope to get more.  I see folks have been looking, but you're the only respondent so far.

PM's are welcome.

[leominsterbeeman]

JG -  I don't have my own place to do this,  but I have done a lot of organization planning.  This may seem obvious,  you need to have the process flow in one direction around your space - Clock-wise or counterclock-wise - it don't matter.   You don't want to spend seconds zig-zagging across your work area.But you want to have a place to store full supers next to where you will do your uncapping.   move from uncapping to loading the extractor.  from unloading to putting the wet frames back in the empty supers.  Honey storage next to that.  Wax processing next to that. Tool Storage, Running water is a essential.

 I am not a fan of hot water, since this can melt the wax and then the wax will cool down in the drain of the sink and solidfy.

[Anonymous]

I agree, LMB.  I hate wasted effort, and work flow is a big consideration.  I want to turn a profit here if I'm going to stick my neck out and spend the money on this project.

I will have hot and cold running water.  Sometimes really hot water comes in handy, but I'm really careful with the plumbing in the house now.  Big bills on clogged up plumbing isn't what I want!   :roll:  I wash my cappings in warm water now.  It works really well.

Thanks!