Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: bill on June 25, 2005, 02:07:44 am
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I have a huge extractor. I cant remember how many frames it takes but it will do a huge amount of frames. trouble is I only have one small super about full.. can I do just that much. and not lose half the honey trying to get it all out of there? I have no honey and you know how that is I guess. Anyway I have never used it before. It is not installed anywhere yet either,I don't want to destroy my drawn frames and I can't get the honey out without destroying the wax. I tried that with a couple of frames I removed last time. The size of this looks like it would hold about fifty or sixty gallons. I am hoping in the heat of the day( 100F) I should be able to drain most of it. Is that a reasonable assumption? thanx
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That is a big extractor!
I'd say.... even though you will have some loss, due to the wall space on the extractor, I think I'd still go for it. The benefit of giving back the wax is there. And you won't really lose too much. Maybe something like a quart? Michael might know better about how much stays on the walls of those big ones.
Any way you can reach in and scrap the sides with a spatula?
Beth
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Unfortunately Bill that extractor is way too big to extract just one super, you will lose qute a bit of honey, not only on the sides, but on the bottom and near the valve. But then again, some honey is better than no honey.
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I've never even seen one that big myself. Only trying to imagine it. So don't fully listen to me. :oops:
I tend to squeeze most of my wax for the honey. It's messy, but the bees do alright building the wax back up.
Beth
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>I tend to squeeze most of my wax for the honey. It's messy, but the bees do alright building the wax back up.
Trust me, extracting is every bit as messy.
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When I said It would hold about fiftyt gallons I was just comparing it to a fifty five gallon drum, it of course doesn.t hold that much honey I guess. I have the bee escape in and I will try to extract it in a couple of days. I will let you all know how it comes out. how much is in a small full super? it feels pretty heavy.. :D
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We bought a Walter Kelly 33 frame extractor this spring, used. It holds 33 Small, Med, or Large frames. It is about the same size as what you are describing. Ours has 3 settings on a manual clutch setup. We will be using it the first time the 9th of July. We have about 8 small honey supers capped to extract. We invited the whole family to help, and we made a picnic out of it. I was surprised, I have 8 siblings and when I started inviting a few of them, I started getting calls from the rest wanting to come out and help. Now they told their friends and some of them are coming too.. Should be fun...........
Tim :D
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I have decided to set mine up in the greenhouse and try it . I need to learn how to run it anyway and I do not want to crush my wax up I will post how it turns out