Extractor Advice

[crevans]

Hi All,

I am new to this forum and have recently taken up bee keeping. I borrowed an extractor for my first batch of honey, but am now looking to buy one.

At the moment a 2 frame extractor will be sufficient. Does anyone have any advice on the best place to purchase an extractor from or does anyone have one which they are looking to sell?

Thanks in advance for your help and look forward to joining in the forum!!

 

[drstitson]

if you are handy at DIY you can knock one up using a blue 30 litre barrel (try local indian restaurant - they get through loads of chutney) - can either buy the gears from thornes or just use an electric drill direct.

 

[hedgerow pete]

the two best places to buy any thing are on the internet after looking at prices and thornes the equipment suppliers.
ineternet cheap but hard work where as thornes are just hard cash and big pile of it.
try looking at the two frame honey extractor video for an idea

 

[Rosti]

Cheapest of 'reasonable build quality' I found is this at £110 inc P&P, marketed by Fragile Planet. You do need your own power drill, but no big deal for most homes I suspect.

In the end I went for a 50/50 ownership of a larger 9 frame radial because I could see me out growwing this too quickly. Most spinning time is taken up with loading and unloading I think rather than the spin cycle itself. Are you sure that a 2 frame is what you want/need? If so this maybe the ticket? It is tangential rather than radial so you have the added 'slow down' associated with flipping frames over as well.

Link >>> Fragile Planet 2 frame electric extractor

 

[hedgerow pete]

the trick with only having a small extractor to use is to remove the frames when they are full as the season progressess rather than wait until you have three full supers to extract at once.

little and often is easiest