hot air gun for uncapping

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rickvv

New Bee
Joined
May 26, 2010
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Location
Lingfield,Surrey
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
varies with the season
About a year ago I read (on this forum) that a hot air gun can be used for uncapping. Well I have used it and I must thank the forum member who put me on the idea. No more mess with honey everywhere, the speed is greatly increased and generally the whole extraction process is made a whole lot more pleasant. I recommend this method to all members, unless you like to get sticky!
By the way, what was that about a poor spring? I have had 240 Lbs of 6 hives and another 4 hives to go, and now the brambles are about to flower ! (about 10 acres of it)
 
Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try when I next do some extraction.
 
Hot air guns are for sale at £9.99 at Lidl now. Also, Inspection cameras at £69.99 which could be useful for cut-outs - you could see into wall cavities etc.
 
are we talking paint stripper type hot air guns here?

cos i got in in garage in that case - result!
 
Chance of overheated and tainted honey and loss of cappings wax.....no thanks.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
 
If you know what you are doing then the wax harvest is very valuable.

By all means taint and damage your honey.

PH
 
I did see it on youtube, I can't post links so search for.

'Bee Spencer - Uncapping Honey the easy way'
 
I have used most things over the years, but I have to say I am a convert to hot air gun. Mine came from a model shop and is meant for shrinking plastic coverings to model planes. It works well, is fast and mess free. I used to get so little wax from cappings that the mess and trouble wasn't worth it although I accept that someone with loads of hives could use the wax. For most beekeepers with three or four hives a hot air gun, is in my opinion, well worth having.
 
Well it depends on how you uncap and why.

I have posted this times but here we go again.

I uncapped Manleys down to the bottom bars. So roughly a half of the honey went into the cappings tub and the rest out vai the extractor.

The wax/honey mush was then warmed and spun to clean out the honey from the wax.

Wax then soaked in water to clean it and give the start of the mead must.

Honey clean as the proverbial and added to normal stock.

Why work the combs so deep? keeps the bees busy wax building. And their minds on that job and not making queen cells. ;)

PH
 
By coincidence i was shown the heat gun method of uncapping only today. I found it to be incredibly simple, mess free and very effective. Made short work of uncapping the undulating surface of the messy combs my bees had drawn out.

It definitely did not cause the honey to become tainted.

(yum yum)

The only reason I could see not to use it is collecting the capping wax.
 
If you know what you are doing then the wax harvest is very valuable.

By all means taint and damage your honey.

PH

Tainting of honey: Last night I extracted another 3 supers , and uncapped using the knife method, the scratch method (using the multi pronged fork), and the hot air gun When all batches were extracted 9 guests were given a blind taste test on toast- no one could tell any difference in taste, but the fork method had still some wax in the honey. So I believe the taste change is a fallacy, unless you tried to caramelise (or carbonise even!)the honey by keeping the heatgun too long in one position- What is your evidence of taste spoiling , and as regards damaging the honey what is your evidence ,or is it all by heresay?
As regards needing the wax, I acquire my wax by regular comb changing in the BB, and as regards the need to make mead, it is neither my favourite tipple nor do I have sufficient patience/time to allow it to mature until it is decent enough to drink, but I must agree, lots of honey cappings would be a good excuse for mead making.
Bees keeping busy to stop making queen cells; even you must believe this is wishful thinking!- If you want bees to stop making queen cells use lots of fresh foundation in the brood box and change from swarmiolans to buckfasts.
 
I never said it stopped swarming, now lets be just a little sensible?

Giving the bees plenty of wax work to do helps to avoid having masses of repletes in the colony as they are using the nectar to generate wax.

But no doubt you know all this and just think your hot air gun is the perfect method for your good self which no doubt it is but not in my thoughts the perfect method for everyone as I point out every year....

PH
 
IMO the major disadvantage of not using an uncapping knife is missing out on the opportunity to even up the surfaces of the combs ready for next time, certainly no issue with tainting from a quick pass with a heat gun and also maybe a hidden advantage of reducing rthe moisture content slightly.
I agree it has been a good, even if a little late, spring flow, lots of delicious hawthorn honey from my little beauties !
 
I did see it on youtube, I can't post links so search for.

'Bee Spencer - Uncapping Honey the easy way'

Yes, and if you want to know why Environmental Health want to get heavily involved in honey extraction units/methods, you should have a look around his place at the WD40, Cuprinol, Meths, etc, etc, all within dribble distance of foodstuffs.

And his is one of the much better ones. :eek:
 
I tried a hot air gun once, never again, it melted the cappings as expected d but then also blew little droplets of melted wax all over the place making cleaning up much worse than dealing with cappings. Maybe I has the blower blowing too hard but who needs that mess to clean off each time! In addition the honey did not extract as easily as when the cappings are cut off in my humble opinion.
 
Maybe I has the blower blowing too hard but who needs that mess to clean off each time!

Yep, operator error, I strongly suspect. Too fast, too close, too hot, too long? Most seem to avoid your outcome, so it can't be that bad. I've never tried the hot air gun, but I might one day. Cappings are good for the best quality wax you can get.

RAB
 
I guess that if there was a quality,hygiene or safety issue then Swienty would not sell them. But they do sell a heatgun for melting cappings so they must think that it is a correct and proper way for uncapping frames.

If it good enough for them its good enough for me and I use one.
 
,
I used is a while, when electrict knive went broken.
It simple spoils the taste of honey. Aroma of melted was and burned sugar.

I never use it again. Rubbish method.
 

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