Been thinking about how to make life easier with heather extraction next year.
Of the 25 supers I extracted this season 19 had heather in, ranging from either pure heather (5 supers) to a blend of various strengths in the rest. It’s been an awesome season for me, doubling my crop, it’s all sold and I’ve raised my prices following advice on this forum. But, it’s been hard work and I want to improve next year. I use 2 methods of extraction:
1. Scrape back to midrib with Smith cutter & Press out pure heather with an Apple press
2. For mixed crop I use a small hand held Mountain grey loosener, then spin v slowly in our association radial extractor. Use this for mixed heather / wildflower as usually a smaller section of heather vs the full comb and preserves the comb
Both the above take a long time and can result in damaged comb ( midrib damage in the former). There’s relatively high ‘wastage’ too when spinning & using a hand held loosener
I’d appreciate some advice on equipment upgrades I could make / recommend to my association, which is in a heather area but we’re not geared up to tackle it. Many members give up & feed the crop back to the bees.
I’m thinking along the lines of the following & would appreciate your feedback
1. Should we Invest in a tangential extractor? If so what type / make would you recommend?
2. Has anyone tried the Abelo swing cage radial extractor? Looking at a video on u-tube by Black mountain honey, this looks an excellent idea. It can take up to 24 frames radially then converts to 6 swing cages that can reverse at the touch of a button. It’s pricey though at £2.5k but would give a fantastic upgrade to our poorly designed 9 frame cranky radial extractor as well as provide a tangential type solution.
3. Would like to recommend a heather loosener to our association, for tackling mixed crops, but the only type I’ve seen on line are either top of the range £4K automatic which will be beyond our funds for equipment, or a plastic hand held device at c£100 or a cheap roller . Are there any other alternatives you know of?
Any ideas / recommendations of anything else we can consider to loosen heather, or make extracting easier?Appreciate any advice from experienced heather go-ers!
Elaine
Of the 25 supers I extracted this season 19 had heather in, ranging from either pure heather (5 supers) to a blend of various strengths in the rest. It’s been an awesome season for me, doubling my crop, it’s all sold and I’ve raised my prices following advice on this forum. But, it’s been hard work and I want to improve next year. I use 2 methods of extraction:
1. Scrape back to midrib with Smith cutter & Press out pure heather with an Apple press
2. For mixed crop I use a small hand held Mountain grey loosener, then spin v slowly in our association radial extractor. Use this for mixed heather / wildflower as usually a smaller section of heather vs the full comb and preserves the comb
Both the above take a long time and can result in damaged comb ( midrib damage in the former). There’s relatively high ‘wastage’ too when spinning & using a hand held loosener
I’d appreciate some advice on equipment upgrades I could make / recommend to my association, which is in a heather area but we’re not geared up to tackle it. Many members give up & feed the crop back to the bees.
I’m thinking along the lines of the following & would appreciate your feedback
1. Should we Invest in a tangential extractor? If so what type / make would you recommend?
2. Has anyone tried the Abelo swing cage radial extractor? Looking at a video on u-tube by Black mountain honey, this looks an excellent idea. It can take up to 24 frames radially then converts to 6 swing cages that can reverse at the touch of a button. It’s pricey though at £2.5k but would give a fantastic upgrade to our poorly designed 9 frame cranky radial extractor as well as provide a tangential type solution.
3. Would like to recommend a heather loosener to our association, for tackling mixed crops, but the only type I’ve seen on line are either top of the range £4K automatic which will be beyond our funds for equipment, or a plastic hand held device at c£100 or a cheap roller . Are there any other alternatives you know of?
Any ideas / recommendations of anything else we can consider to loosen heather, or make extracting easier?Appreciate any advice from experienced heather go-ers!
Elaine