bottling honey

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I used to use this device for uncapping with.

Take a piece of reasonably strong wood and fix in at each end two short pieces so that they sit snugly down over the rim of the honey bucket.

Now you have a secure bar across the bucket.

Drive through roughly the middle of the wood a nail so that the point just protrudes out. The side bar of the frame you are uncapping is then secure for ease of working.

PH
 
I need to get a few more bits of equipment for honey extraction/storage.
I was thinking of buying 2 or 3, 30 or 40 lb honey buckets with taps.
can i then run the honey from the extractor, double filter into these buckets, leave for 24 hours or so to settle and then jar straight from the buckets?

I guess in essence, what i am asking is do i need a settling tank??
 
I don't use a separate settling tank. I pour the honey into my large bucket with tap and ideally leave it overnight in a warm room. This helps to reduce the bubbles. However, in pouring in to the bucket I give it a final filter through a cloth. The stainless steel fine sieves are not good enough in my experience to get rid of small bits and they will show up in the final honey as little dark specks.
 
I use an uncapping fork (also used for removing drone brood) Just scratch the surface of the cappings over a bucket with bits of wood similar in design to PH's above. Cappings are drained then given back to the bees to clean up as are the frames in the supers.

I have a 3 frame manual tangential extractor and each frame gets 2 x 30 second spins. 1 spin either side whilst there is a fair amount of honey in the frame so you don't burst the foundation, then 2 x longer spins to get the rest out.

Honey is filtered through a coarse and fine stainless filter into a honey bucket with a tap. This is then left a day or 2 in an old Hostess trolley with the inside ripped out. It maintains 30'C.

Bottled until the level in the bucket reaches the tap.

I have a back label which says something like "cold extracted and cold filtered to preserve the protein and enzyme activity"

I mention protein as it covers the remaining bits of bee which may be present :puke:
 
I use an uncapping fork (also used for removing drone brood) Just scratch the surface of the cappings over a bucket with bits of wood similar in design to PH's above. Cappings are drained then given back to the bees to clean up as are the frames in the supers.

I have a 3 frame manual tangential extractor and each frame gets 2 x 30 second spins. 1 spin either side whilst there is a fair amount of honey in the frame so you don't burst the foundation, then 2 x longer spins to get the rest out.

Honey is filtered through a coarse and fine stainless filter into a honey bucket with a tap.



I

Very similar here - I have a heated uncapping tray , dip the knife in the warm water, shake off, uncap both sides and extract once I have 3 frames. The cappings melt and pour into a collecting vessel, wax separates on the top which can be used almost immeditaely once set for polish etc as it is pretty clean. The honey I tend to use myself for cooking with or for mead (now and then).

Frames put back onto hives for the bees to dry out. Honey extracted run from the extractor into one of the settling tanks, being filtered with a muslin under a metal mesh filter as I find this creates a clear product. Honey then settles for 24-48 hours to remove air, then run into either jars, honey buckets or another honey tank for bottling at a later stage (although it sometimes sets and has to be scooped out and warmed gradually prior to bottling).

regards

S
 
For the beginners at this lark, just a few pointers.

Each bucket of honey bottled separately is technically a different batch (label batch number).

Always completely liquify each container, and use as an entity. Part-melting a container of honey can lead to fermentation of part of it! Maybe not often, but it can - I found that out in my second year! But now I have a refractometer, so no problems now.

I nearly always filter into a suitable plastic bucket and store. Remember they should be food grade buckets - there are significant differences to non food grade plastics - like tiny pieces of compressed cardboard (in the recycled stuff) and chemicals that can leach into the honey from some plastics.

Plastic bags, to line buckets, are available.

I do as some above, scratch my combs (mostly). It is not the best way to quickly clean up (cappings in spinner, honey needs passing through a coarse sieve to remove the cappings), but I scratch over the spinner, so a little less kit to clean up!

I never store wet frames for long, just my choice. I prefer to let the bees clean them up before storing.

I invariably filter and settle prior to bottling. It doesn't work without, for me, but ymmv.

My 9 frame radial (with tangential screens included) looks as good today as it did when new (10 years ago), excepting the plastic cage. Next time(?) I will go for all stainless. In fact it is now better - I found a second hand electric drive for it (at the right price) last year. Spinners, honey tanks, etc. all take up a lot of space! A bit like the farmer's combine harvester - big, expensive, and only used once or twice a year. So seriously consider hiring/sharing/alternatives if you just have one or two colonies (or even perhaps more).

Regards, RAB

Be warned: Be very careful if using the kitchen - propolis is a bear!
 
Each bucket of honey bottled separately is technically a different batch (label batch number).

If that is the case, and i dont doubt that it is! then displaying a use by date instead of a batch number could save a lot of wasted labels.
 
I detest porter bee escapes as they have a moving part.

My clearer boards have a run of bee of roughly 18 to 25 mm depending on what is to hand, and in two corners the escape. I either cut down a commercial one or make it from two bits of wood with mesh covering them and a gap of 8mm.

The beespace aspect is academic as they are on for 24 hours or less.

To strain honey you really need some sort of pressure and warmth.

Warmth is the easiest bit.

Pressure can be centrifugal ie spin drier, or a pump.

On a small scale a spinner is the easiest to set up.

PH
 

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