Heated uncapping trays

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Otleybee

House Bee
Joined
Jul 30, 2010
Messages
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Location
Otley, West Yorkshire
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
3
I saw these in the catalogue and thought they look like a great idea. Then I read Ted Hooper and he says not to get one as heating the honey bit will increase the HMF content.

Now I am confused. Are they a good idea or not and do they really spoil the honey that is extracted from the cappings?
 
Careful heating of honey is not hugely bad, like the gentle heating required to liquify crystallised honey. But heated trays are another kettle of fish because they get hot enough to melt the beeswax as well.
 
I would employ careful heating of the honey during prep for extraction, but not this way!

Chuck away your de-capping knife, dont waste your money on a heated de-capping tray either. Pop out, purchase a hot air gun for £10 and save your self time, mess and honey yield all in one.

.... and if you really want to pull the comb back in to allow it to be re-drawn then simply melt back to the depth you want after extraction. I've done this as well and the girls very succesfully re-dress the comb and start using it again. I try to run drawn supers on 9 frames so the mere act of melting to de-cap seems enough to maintain bee-space.

The only negative I can see is that you dont get wax to trade in - but who really saves money doing that ( Iam talking normal hobby beeks here not the 20+ semi serious boys & girls)? Especially when you consider the hassle of melting down and blocking up - life is too short!
 
Chuck away your de-capping knife, dont waste your money on a heated de-capping tray either. Pop out, purchase a hot air gun for £10 and save your self time, mess and honey yield all in one.!

Yep. Heat guns = no mess of cappings to handle.
 
Heat gun works well as long as the honey isnt touching the capping.
 
Combination of heat gun on "new honey" and fork scoring on the "old" works for me:)
 

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