Honey Press

[dto001]

Hi All,

Just a quick question do people use a filter bag in a honey press?
I have a few frames from last year I didn’t get a chance to extract and they are heather and won’t spin but the press seems to be leaving a lot of honey behind but I’ve put it in a net bag.

cheers

 

[nantmoel]

I use a wine filter bag, pressing is not very efficient to be honest. I pressed some heather last season and was not impressed with the amount of honey left in the wax. Its a good idea to cut the wax out of the frames and warm it before pressing.

 

[Curly green finger's]

I Agree getting the frames warm eg leaving the supers in a warm room for 24hrs if you can helps.
I used strong muslin bags with my Heather and cider press after scraping frames back to the mid rib which in itsself helped agitate the Heather honey being as its thixotropic.

 

[dto001]

I had the frames in a warming cabinet to 28degrees but there’s still a lot left in the wax

 

[elainemary]

According to a heather expert I know if the frames have been there a while needs to be much warmer. He warms to 42-44c for 48 hours. He agitates and tangentially spins out though. Higher temperature will make the honey much easier to filter as well as crushing out of the combs. So I think I would raise your temperature if a lot is left behind.

 

[Curly green finger's]

According to a heather expert I know if the frames have been there a while needs to be much warmer. He warms to 42-44c for 48 hours. He agitates and tangentially spins out though. Higher temperature will make the honey much easier to filter as well as crushing out of the combs. So I think I would raise your temperature if a lot is left behind.

 

[pargyle]

There you are Mark ... there's a topic you can add to your repertoire of after dinner talks ' Heather Honey Processing'; ... it's something a lot of people have trouble with.

 

[Poly Hive]

I notice that agitation is not being mentioned. To get the most out of the combs if extracting it needs agitation.

PH

 

[dto001]

Thanks for all the replies
what is the process for agitation?

 

[Wilco]

Thanks for all the replies
what is the process for agitation?

Generally a small device which contains many little pin like structures, one for each cell, to wiggle it around. Manual or mechanised versions exist at corresponding prices. If comb is crushed, stirring will will help improve flow for a bit as the process reverses.

I currently have a student looking into whether sound waves can be used for the agitation but initial results not looking hopeful. However, there has been some interesting behaviour of the supermarket 'heather' honeys- neither appears to be truly thixotropic- although we don't know if one may have been heat treated- so may not be pure heather honey.

 

[elainemary]

@dto001 Here’s a pic of the hand held metal spike device I use. I bought it at an auction and no longer available new. Abelo produce a plastic one which I’ve bought for our association but not sure if as effective as haven’t used it yet

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Abelo produce a plastic one which I’ve bought for our association but not sure if as effective as haven’t used it yet

perfectly serviceable, it's the same system used in the mechanical versions, I did have it's predecessor which had stainless steel needles but upgraded to the nylon version which is far lighter and in fact, if anything does a better job.

 

[blackcloud]

Asda sell fine nylon mesh fruit bags for pennies.
I use them in my press and also tie them inside the extractor with cappings in them.
I got a "proper" one off eBay for a couple of quid ( they have a red collar and wire hooks-thornes sell them for about two hundred pounds....) but found the mesh was too fine
All I could use it for was straining warm honey for softset

 

[Garry R]

Many moons ago when I was in Scotland and was lucky enough to get a good and regular crop of heather honey I used to do cut comb and remove the residual comb from the frame into a bucket and mash it . To get the honey from the wax many used a vertical spin drier which had been scrupulously cleaned and sterilised. The inside of the drier was lined with a stainless or aluminium mesh. The honey and wax was poured into a filter bag and popped into the drier and spun into a bucket and then transferred to a settling tank. It produced a lovely creamed type of honey which was really popular but also the wax came out of the filter bag in lovely almost bone dry flakes ready to make more foundation. The link is to what you can get currently on ebay. A cheap centrifuge!!


Spin Dryer - Vintage in good working order | eBay