Difficult to uncap Supers

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BobsBees

House Bee
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
202
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Location
Rainham Kent
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
3 Apiaries. 17 Hives. 0 Nuc
The title is a bit misleading, its not difficult just a pain.
This years Supers, some new, some 'wet' from last year.
Did extraction of 3 Supers this afternoon, never taken much notice before but this year the cappings are below the frame sides and top and bottom bars.
Could this be the results from the Very WET weather this season, and has anyone else noticed this.
Ended up with 54.8 Lbs of honey so a bit less than I have had before from 3 supers. I do three at a time as its a manageable workload for me at 74. I did not finish until 2000 hrs after a start at 1400 hrs. Nice and hot in the garage though. Not too many girls inside and only stung once on the chest, outside the garage. Spinner and uncapping tray all cleaned up ready for the next 3 supers maybe next week.
Any comments?
Bob.
 
I had the same with mine this year. I think the weather has been so poor they just haven't been able to fill the supers properly.

I did notice some very deep frames that encroached on the neighbouring ones too:rolleyes:
 
Dry capping's I use a paint stripper to melt away the capping's quickly and with no mess, wet capping's or sunken capping's I scrap them with the de-capping tool to expose the honey.

Both methods are much quicker and far less messy then trying to trim the capping's off with a knife.
 
i use an uncapping fork, you can use a small one like that used in drone removal but i have a large lazer cut one the width of a super's depth

alternatives would be a spiked heather roller, seen it used to great effect or a paint hot air stripper
 

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