Extractor advice please

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BabyBee

House Bee
Joined
May 26, 2010
Messages
128
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Location
Fife, Scotland
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
2
myself and two neighbours are all new beeks. Between us there are 4 hives. Hopefully next year we'll have more hives and lots of honey, so we've decided to buy the best extractor that we can and to pool our resources to do so. so i suggested that i asked you knowledgeable lot what you'd recommend for us that is easy to use for novices!

many thanks
laura
 
One bowl, sharp knife, sieve.........:coolgleamA:

Total outlay - clutter all, raid the kitchen!
 
Let's narrow it down a bit.

New/secondhand?

Plastic/stainless steel?

Table-top/free-standing?

Manual/electric?

Radial/Tangential?

Frame format?

Budget?

How many hives/how much honey?

Honey type?

The one on the Th*rne site at £1058 looks good; not sure if the tangential screens are included or are extras, although at that price they should be included!

I have an 'electrificated' 9-frame Lega. It will have a frame fitted to the 3 legs (just below the drum) to help reduce loading (when out of balance) on the frame fixing points. It was a manual, but converted to electric drive recently (had to - the drive pinion was worn out (destroyed)). I would much prefer a cage with an even number of frames, but that fitted my budget about ten years ago.

Regards, RAB
 
I used a manual heavy duty polythene 10 frame extractor from Taylors (alas no longer trading) for 30 years without problems. A similar model now will cost you about £400. Reasonable (condition and price) 2nd hand extractors are as rare as hens teeth.

If you and your friends are totally addicted beeks I would say get the best you can afford, look after it and it will last a long time.:)
 
As there are a few of you to share the cost go for an electric extractor. Cant praise them enough after using a manual one. I bought mine a 9 frame from maisemores in their winter sale got about £150 off the price.
 
I think 'stainless steel' puts an extractor in the 'good' category. 'Electric motor' puts one in the 'excellent' category, but I can't help but think that a manual extractor would be a whole lot better for a collective. Thornes extractors are costly, but when they say 'Universal' the are, in as much as they will take all types of super frame found in the UK. And good supply of spares as well.
 
well, we've had a quick chat and kind of agreed that we dont want to tempt fate by buying anything before we've even managed to get a frame of honey yet! so i think we are each going to buy a £30 plastic bucket with a sieve on top and see how that goes.

once we've actually got a flow going, and maybe even sold a few jars, we can use our 'profits' to buy - will store all your suggestions so thanks for feedback.

Thornes is about 4 miles away so seeing what they have will be easy
 
we can use our 'profits' to buy

Profits? That'll be in about ten year's time, then? - by the time you 'write down' all the rest of the kit and have a saleable surplus!

Seriously, with 4 hives, and expecting more, the problem with 3 buckets and sieves will be time. You can split, for more hives, but lose honey crop, for a couple of years. Then, when no more splits, the crop could be HUGE.

Personally, I would think a cooperative with neighbours can be a dodgy affair as one is likely to move away, or stop keeping bees, or....

I would suggest you all pool resources with the local BKA, purchase, and have a hire-it-out system for the members and get an early pay-back on a spinner.

Regards, RAB
 
I have a stainless 4 frame electric job from park beekeeping. excellent build and way cheaper than thornes.
 
If your a member of an association - ask around to see if anyone is upgrading their extractor. Myself and friends in same position as you got a nine frame radial manual extractor for a very reasonable price and splitting the cost 4 ways made it seem a real bargain even though none of us have any honey this year! Heres to next year
 
When you say 'way cheaper' than Th*rne, is that taking into account delivery, which would be included with Th*rne? There may be small differences in metal guage used, too.

Park appear to be marketing the Lega extractors. Mine is of that brand and is going perfectly after best part of ten years use (apart from the nylon pinion stripping). It is now 'electrificated'.

The main weakness (IMO) is the leg attachment - one needs to balance the machine well each time or there is considerable stress around the bottom leg bolts if it tries to 'walk away'. I intend beefing mine up a little, in that area, next season but apart from that it is good enough (now it is electrified) for quite a few colonies.

I think the 'manual' part is very much the limiting factor with extracting, especially as one gets on in years!

Regards, RAB
 
personal i would forget the idea of a second hand extractor as they always go for more than they are worth on fleabay, so lets try a new one

so we are either going to buy a plastic or a stainless steel one so plastic first
this is from Thornes its £170 for a table top jobbie, i dont like it because it is small and exspensive for a bucket with a tap and a frame, but for a small producer this is also one of the better units on the market, but it is just a starting point

the next step up is bigger plastic universal Manual Lightweight Polythene Tangential at £250 now this is more like it large enough to handly any thing four beeks can throw at it at a sensible price (£60ish each) brilliant

next on line is the daddy extractors, these boys start from the simple stainless steel tub to the all signing and dancing .

so lets start at the bottom range at thornes at £500 its a lot of money and a very big investment but a four way split is still only a reasonble £125, it comes with out a motor but we can always buy one at a later date and they just bolt onto it, same with the leg kits and other stuff, worst case do as i do and unscrew the handle and put an electric on the spindle instead, lovely job and no outlay.

if you wanted to you can go to the £1,000 models if you want but i see that as a waste of time and money.

untill it was nicked i used to use a german made extractor, look on fleabay (germany) and they are better quality but vat free ( minus 17.5%) and cheaper some times to , ( mine was roughly 25% cheaper than the thornes version and we had a lovel long weekend in Berlin too)

i brought the elctric motor a year later when i could afford it, now i have less hives so i just a home butchered jobbie that does six frames at a time, each set of frames takes roughly 10 minutes to load , unload and natter and drink tea and empty honey from ( men are worse than woman)

one average i have five hives so thats roughly three supers average 30 frames a hive times five thats 300 frames, thirty spins, a days work once a year that if i have spent another £500 would still be a days work just slightly easier. another way to do it would be to split the honey collection over two weekends instead but with a smaller extractor.

the biggest thing to remember is that far to many beeks make there honey collection, proccessing a feat of endurance , were as i make mine a party, we have a honey based food going on, buckets of tea then buckets of booze, a bbq, depending on the weather, kids running round and just generaly a fun time as it makes the day easier to deal with, we do the same when we proccess apples for juice too.
i used to work with one beek that would barricade himself in his shed for the whole period until every frame was finished and it was just not fun and hard work,

use and buy what you can afford as when you sell it of it will not deappreciation that much , but most of all have fun doing it,
hedgey
 
forgot to say , yes most beek clubs have an extractor you can hire/borrow but where i live that means the birmingham lot and thanks but no thanks never in a millon years would i want to deal with that lot again, maybe you couls strike lucky with a proper club, or as a suggestion try to find someone near by that has a smallish commercial set up and see if you bring your supers to his site with a bottle or pictures of the queen he would allow you to use it
 
When you say 'way cheaper' than Th*rne, is that taking into account delivery, which would be included with Th*rne? There may be small differences in metal guage used, too.

Park appear to be marketing the Lega extractors. Mine is of that brand and is going perfectly after best part of ten years use (apart from the nylon pinion stripping). It is now 'electrificated'.

The main weakness (IMO) is the leg attachment - one needs to balance the machine well each time or there is considerable stress around the bottom leg bolts if it tries to 'walk away'. I intend beefing mine up a little, in that area, next season but apart from that it is good enough (now it is electrified) for quite a few colonies.

I think the 'manual' part is very much the limiting factor with extracting, especially as one gets on in years!

Regards, RAB

We collected the extractor as we have family down that way. To assist the balance we have it mounted onto a pallet.

Our slow down in extracting is not the extractor, its decapping before then.
 

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