Extracting

[Poly Hive]

This is aimed at the guys with 20+ colonies or thereby.

If you have no heather in the area you do not want a tangential extractor.

Radial is your friend and a lot faster.

Filtering. this is the real blocker in any extraction system and it don't take much to choke it down does it?

My answer, which may suit you or not but is proven to work is warm the honey so that it is liquid. De-crystalised if you like.

Then run it through a spin dryer lined with a coarse mesh to act as a spacer, and a fine mesh bag which acts as the filter, and after debris builds up as a filter cake it gets better and better at filtering.

http://www.showmegold.org/news/Mesh.htm

I used a 400 micron bag which allowed the pollen through and gave very clean honey indeed.

Let your very clean honey set and what you do after that is up to you.

Gravity for filtering is for the amateurs. The bigger folks need power assistance.

PH

 

[thedeaddiplomat]

Hello all, Is it just me or does anyone else find extracting tedious, I mean, I like to see the honey buckets filling up and I get a sense that I must be doing something right but I find the uncapping and spinning a real pain, the first few supers, great, but after half a day I've had enough.

I love keeping bees but the extraction is the worst part of beekeeping for me,

So guess what I have been doing all day!! Rant Over

Enzo

Extracting is only tedious if you have anything to extract (he commented with feeling!).

 

[Midland Beek]

And a good extractor is a massive outlay. Well, for me it is.

 

[Poly Hive]

Does your local assoc not have one or two for hire?

PH

 

[Queens59]

I am a member of an assoc. BUT no one has told me where the apiary is - or when etc. I don't know what my assoc. possesses, where it is, how to book it etc...and so far not one of my emails has been returned...I know I joined for a reason...

 

[Silly Bee]

I am a member of an assoc. BUT no one has told me where the apiary is - or when etc. I don't know what my assoc. possesses, where it is, how to book it etc...and so far not one of my emails has been returned...I know I joined for a reason...

You must be "Billy no Mates"

 

[Skyhook]

I used a 400 micron bag which allowed the pollen through and gave very clean honey indeed.

Can anyone recommend a good place to get micron rated filter cloth/bags? T*****s list them, but at what looks to me like an eye-watering price.

 

[Poly Hive]

Phone these people for the mesh and sew your own bag.

http://www.plastok.co.uk/mesh-roll.php?gclid=CM_33KqesqMCFREslAod8jLh2g

Not the nylon but the polyester.

PH

 

[Lois]

I would love to have a bit of extraction tedium but instead I have extraction envy
I have no honey to take off. Well better luck next year

 

[Skyhook]

Phone these people for the mesh and sew your own bag.

http://www.plastok.co.uk/mesh-roll.php?gclid=CM_33KqesqMCFREslAod8jLh2g

Not the nylon but the polyester.

PH

Thanks Polyhive, I'll try them tomorrow.

 

[gregnut]

After reading this lot, I really need to refine my extraction methods- I'm going to try the hot air gun method, and putting a tap into a honey bucket. At the moment I use an electric heated knife to uncap, which is quick and works well, but produces a lot of cappings. I do the uncapping over a bucket into which I have inserted a piece of steel mesh, so the cappings stay on the mesh and most of the honey drips through.
One thing I have discovered is the importance of having the honey warm. I made my own warming cabinet from an old freezer, and it makes a huge difference. In one of the bee books, I saw a similar plan using an old fridge and a light bulb, so you don't need to spend a fortune.

 

[MJBee]

I tried the hot air gun method this year plus a quick "rake" with a drone comb. It worked a treat completely empty supers and about a pint of cappings that when washed looked like coarse bread crumbs.

4 supers this time, had to empty the extractor after 3, all strained into a 70kg bucket then nearly gave myself a coronary/double hernia lifting the bucket onto a chair so I could bottle -

 

[Dishmop]

Centrifugal force.

Spin the frames inside a drum and the honey deposits itself on the outer walls and drips down to the bottom.

I am sure we have all toyed with the idea of making our own extractor, and think in terms of the regular type as described above,,, but why?

Gears and handles. The gears I have seen on some have a striking resemblence to those on an old brace and bit drill.

Why does one bit have to spin one bit inside another? Why not use a drum and make some way to clip/clamp the frames inside and then spin the drum by some method.

 

[victor meldrew]

No need to reinvent the wheel

Home brew isn't too difficult

John Wilkinson

 

[Poly Hive]

Because it is the tried and tested method.

No doubt some one some where has tried what you suggest and it failed.

PH

 

[Dishmop]

As long as the drum spins the result is the same, just less complicated to make.

 

[victor meldrew]

How do you get the honey out of the drum .

A honey valve would unbalance the lot , even more so than badly stacked/arranged frames!

John Wilkinson
Simplicity equals cheap manufacture = greater profit . I'm sure your approach has been explored !

John Wilkinson

 

[Dishmop]

I'm going to sulk now. and finish the observation hive instead..

 

[Poly Hive]

I remember one hellish night when we were running 13. 3/8" casing on the North Alwyn. A really tough heavy job and this idiot of a trainee engineer (who must have hacked off his boss) stood in the gale and rain taking times on his clipboard. Paper dissolving as he scratched on it.

I asked him what he was doing? He replied looking for a better way.

I told him, if there was a better way we would be doing it...............

PH

 

[Skyhook]

Centrifugal force.
Why does one bit have to spin one bit inside another? Why not use a drum and make some way to clip/clamp the frames inside and then spin the drum by some method.

Because you then have to add a frame for it to spin in, and a housing to stop you getting caught on the drum- in other words, another drum. Gets complicated.