Plastic heather honey loosener

[Poly Hive]

I had an add appear on my FB whilst away on holiday. I thought vaguely interesting I'll have a look at that on my return. Despite a fair bit of searching I can't find a mention.

Anyone else seen this or know anything about it?

PH

 

[Somerford]

Yes I saw that too

Can’t recall who was selling it but priced around £180 ish

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Do you mean this:

£128.00 with Abelo (they are a bit cheaper than the other suppliers)

 

[northbee]

I had an add appear on my FB whilst away on holiday. I thought vaguely interesting I'll have a look at that on my return. Despite a fair bit of searching I can't find a mention.

Anyone else seen this or know



PH

Could be this one


Hbhoney.com.

 

[Poly Hive]

Yes, northbee that's the one. Heather Loosener Uncapper | Humble Bee Farm

Now does anyone have any experience of this?

PH

 

[user 20297]

Yes, northbee that's the one. Heather Loosener Uncapper | Humble Bee Farm

Now does anyone have any experience of this?

PH

Bumpety, bump, bump.
Has anyone tried the loosener mentioned above? I assume it's pair of rollers that you push the frame through, but it's not very clear in the images.

 

[MillMeadow]

Bumpety, bump, bump.
Has anyone tried the loosener mentioned above? I assume it's pair of rollers that you push the frame through, but it's not very clear in the images.

I've seen videos of bee keepers in America using something similar but it was only marketed as an uncapper, rather than a loosener.

From what I can see in the photo's, I can't really tell how it would agitate heather honey to a greater degree than an uncapping roller

I am open to any solution that lies somewhere between the hand loosener and the £5k + type though

 

[Anduril]

Bumpety, bump, bump.
Has anyone tried the loosener mentioned above? I assume it's pair of rollers that you push the frame through, but it's not very clear in the images.

I haven't got one, but, you assume correctly and the only review of significance, used it on OSR.

 

[user 20297]

I haven't got one, but, you assume correctly and the only review of significance, used it on OSR.

It does seem a bit steep for a chunk of plastic, but I like the concept.

 

[Wilco]

Bumpety, bump, bump.
Has anyone tried the loosener mentioned above? I assume it's pair of rollers that you push the frame through, but it's not very clear in the images.

I spoke to the Humble Bee people about it and they report using it themselves last year, I forget whether they said 20 or 40 hives to the heather with one super each and the person said they were able to spin out heather honey tangentially after using it. They are the people selling it so make of that what you will. I have the possibility of getting one via work which I may do although sadly this year do not appear to have any heather honey to test it on if so (hoping for a miracle later this week).

 

[user 20297]

I spoke to the Humble Bee people about it and they report using it themselves last year, I forget whether they said 20 or 40 hives to the heather with one super each and the person said they were able to spin out heather honey tangentially after using it. They are the people selling it so make of that what you will. I have the possibility of getting one via work which I may do although sadly this year do not appear to have any heather honey to test it on if so (hoping for a miracle later this week).

Please do report back even if you only get the chance to see one of these gizmos.
Sadly, this year, I do seem to have a lot of heather-infested honey and the promise of maybe three more boxes of it if my game of brinksmanship succeeds when I finally strip them off next week.

 

[Wilco]

Please do report back even if you only get the chance to see one of these gizmos.
Sadly, this year, I do seem to have a lot of heather-infested honey and the promise of maybe three more boxes of it if my game of brinksmanship succeeds when I finally strip them off next week.

If I can get one through work I might be able to lend it to you via the postal system!

 

[user 20297]

If I can get one through work I might be able to lend it to you via the postal system!

That is very generous of you, as is frequently seen here. But have you seen the carriage charges to Highland's postcodes?
A semi-positive review by a respected contributor such as yourself would result in an immediate purchase by me.
SWMBO, the driving force in our quest for honey has already rubber-stamped the transaction.

 

[deemann1]

I could see it working but the cells would probably be destroyed in the process. You could imagine moving a frame up and down a few times to loosen the heather

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

if it's anything like the hand held rollers, be prepared for a godawful mess, and still not get much honey out

 

[elainemary]

I’ve tried several loosener methods together with a swing cage extractor.: hand held Mountain grey perfextractor with thin tightly spaced long metal pins- the most effective of everything I’ve tried, but no longer available unless lucky to see one at an auction; the Abelo one featured above ( works but messy as plastic pins are too thick, bees repair any damage to cell walls) ; a Swienty metal hand held roller a friend lent me (pins too widely spaced and makes a mess)
I saw the Humblebee one and also phoned the company like @Wilco . I suspect the roller ‘teeth’ are too short to loosen down to the midrib. Be interested in anyone trialling it.

Found overall loosening works if you have a blend of heather and other honey, but scraping back to the midrib (wired foundation best) or cutting comb out (unwired) and pressing, is the effective way to process purer heather

Also, if combs are newly drawn there is a high likelihood of comb damage after loosening with one of the devices, even if use a tangential or swing cage. New combs need a few seasons to toughen up to withstand the weight of honey and the spinning, unless it’s a good blend of honies and you take it very slowly and repeat loosening, then takes a long time to get out.

I harvested around 450lbs of heather / heather blend honey this year and it’s a pain in the butt!

 

[user 20297]

I’ve tried several loosener methods together with a swing cage extractor.: hand held Mountain grey perfextractor with thin tightly spaced long metal pins- the most effective of everything I’ve tried, but no longer available unless lucky to see one at an auction; the Abelo one featured above ( works but messy as plastic pins are too thick, bees repair any damage to cell walls) ; a Swienty metal hand held roller a friend lent me (pins too widely spaced and makes a mess)
I saw the Humblebee one and also phoned the company like @Wilco . I suspect the roller ‘teeth’ are too short to loosen down to the midrib. Be interested in anyone trialling it.

Found overall loosening works if you have a blend of heather and other honey, but scraping back to the midrib (wired foundation best) or cutting comb out (unwired) and pressing, is the effective way to process purer heather

Also, if combs are newly drawn there is a high likelihood of comb damage after loosening with one of the devices, even if use a tangential or swing cage. New combs need a few seasons to toughen up to withstand the weight of honey and the spinning, unless it’s a good blend of honies and you take it very slowly and repeat loosening, then takes a long time to get out.

I harvested around 450lbs of heather / heather blend honey this year and it’s a pain in the butt!

Thank-you for that comprehensive reply. Next year, I'll be putting in new clean frames at the start of August, so that I can harvest the honey in the comb. It all sounds too much hard work and mess to extract successfully, and seems to be a separate art in beekeeping.

 

[Hachi]

My 2 cents worth, grossly overpriced.

If you look at Randall Carter's yootube he uses a more robust [possibly] american version of a similar contraption but not on heather honey.

Surely someone can advise or help with telling you how to manage heather honey and getting it out of the combs? But at over £200 with no guarantee its going to work, if it were my hard earned wonga, it would stay on the shelf. Also, £200 buys a s**t load of super foundation. I'd be very tempted to warm up the honey and crush it out but I have no experience of heather so do what you choose with my comments chap.

One more thing, the SWMBO financial sanction....... your DW wont forget she gave the fiscal sign-off so if it doesn't work future financial sanctions will be infinitely harder to secure.

 

[user 20297]

My 2 cents worth, grossly overpriced.

If you look at Randall Carter's yootube he uses a more robust [possibly] american version of a similar contraption but not on heather honey.

Surely someone can advise or help with telling you how to manage heather honey and getting it out of the combs? But at over £200 with no guarantee its going to work, if it were my hard earned wonga, it would stay on the shelf. Also, £200 buys a s**t load of super foundation. I'd be very tempted to warm up the honey and crush it out but I have no experience of heather so do what you choose with my comments chap.

One more thing, the SWMBO financial sanction....... your DW wont forget she gave the fiscal sign-off so if it doesn't work future financial sanctions will be infinitely harder to secure.

Good points all!
I've decided that I hate heather honey and that the high price it commands must be a reflection of the great effort and expense incurred in acquiring it.
As I've said elsewhere, next year I'll be making sure that it doesn't contaminate my "real" honey, but rather give all the bees a separate, foundationless super at the start of August.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

the Abelo one featured above ( works but messy as plastic pins are too thick)

I find that I must disagree and find that the plastic pins are a vast improvement on the thinner S/S pins on the earlier versions, for one thing, as well as loosening the honey it pushes much of it out of the cells and on to the surface of the combs