Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS => Topic started by: asleitch on August 10, 2004, 11:03:57 am

Title: Extracting
Post by: asleitch on August 10, 2004, 11:03:57 am

I'm extracting honey for the first time next weekend. Any tips, hints or suggestions?

Adam

Title: Extracting
Post by: Sting on August 10, 2004, 11:25:29 am

What kind of equipment are you going to be using?

Title: Extracting
Post by: asleitch on August 10, 2004, 11:28:32 am

I've only got 2 supers, so am renting (only costs a £1 or two = $3) for a few days a plastic manual extractor, as I only have 20 or so frames.

I have an uncapping knife, and a few plastic buckets of "food-grade". The manual extractor comes with coarse sieve thingy in a cone shape.

Adam

Title: Extracting
Post by: Robo on August 10, 2004, 12:30:18 pm

Find the hottest place possible and make sure it is not accessible to bees.  The warmer you can stand it, the better the honey will flow.  Keep plenty of warm water handy to clean up as you go,  otherwise everything (including you and the floor) will be stuck together by the time your done.

Good Luck!

Title: Extracting
Post by: golfpsycho on August 10, 2004, 12:33:19 pm

also try to figure a quick way to secure the extractor.  They kind of like to "walk" around a bit when you get them spinning.

Title: Extracting
Post by: Steve W (NY) on August 10, 2004, 03:27:08 pm

It is fun. I have a homemade extractor, but the procedure is the same. An uncapping knife helps, but I've had good luck with a sharp serated knife as wll. I believe those plastic extractors require that the frames be spun out a bit, flipped, and the second side spun empty, and then flipped and the first side emptied the rest of the way. Otherwise, the heavy honey on the inside tends to bow the wax out when spinning, and can damage the foundation. I've found waxed paper to be your friend, and hot water. My kids take "smackerals" of the dripping honey. If you don't have a filter, the honey can have a few "parts" floating around. I bought a set of cheap plastic filters from Dadant and have been very happy with them.  A gate valve on a plastic bucket works wonders for getting it into jars. We made labels on our inkjet printer and give it as gifts to friends, the kids teachers, neighbors, etc.

Have fun!
Steve

Title: Extracting
Post by: Robo on August 10, 2004, 03:55:27 pm

Quote from: Steve W (NY)

I bought a set of cheap plastic filters from Dadant and have been very happy with them.  

Good tip.  I too find these filters work really well for the price.  They fit nicely in a 5 gal bucket and are easy to clean.   I believe they are called E-Z plastic filters.

Title: Extracting
Post by: Sting on August 10, 2004, 06:10:39 pm

Lots of good advice for you in the above responses. The point Steve makes about spinning out only half the honey on the first side, reversing and then reversing again, is an excellent one. My only addition would be to make sure to drain the cut cappings as they can contain a fair bit of honey.  Good luck.