Honey Extractor . . .

One of the large Beekeeping paraphanalia retailers has UniMel SS Tangential three frame extractors for sale @ £160. Does anyone have experience of this brand and is it a good price.

Also I did see mention of importing extractors from abroad somewhere on this forum (Germany I believe) but I'm damned if I can locate it again. Anyone gone down this route and with any advice? Are the savings financially worthwhile for manual extractors?

Finally, we borrowed an extractor for our (small - 54lb) honey harvest last year and an uncapping fork was the tool that was also provided. I notice that there are also rollers available for uncapping - they seem, to my inexperienced beekeeping eye, to be a better way to 'uncap' - pros and cons for either.

Any other 'Top Tips' (appreciate the top one will be to do the extracting in a bee excluding zone) gratefully received.

Cheers

John

Hello,

Rollers seem to make a mess and block the filters up very quickly, I would avoid based on here say.

If the weather is sunny & warm like this, and the extractor is metal, then leave it out in the sun for an hour to warm it up. That way the honey will run down the extractor much quicker.

Sean

Labrax said:

One of the large Beekeeping paraphanalia retailers has UniMel SS Tangential three frame extractors for sale @ £160. Does anyone have experience of this brand and is it a good price.

Also I did see mention of importing extractors from abroad somewhere on this forum (Germany I believe) but I'm damned if I can locate it again. Anyone gone down this route and with any advice? Are the savings financially worthwhile for manual extractors?

Finally, we borrowed an extractor for our (small - 54lb) honey harvest last year and an uncapping fork was the tool that was also provided. I notice that there are also rollers available for uncapping - they seem, to my inexperienced beekeeping eye, to be a better way to 'uncap' - pros and cons for either.

Any other 'Top Tips' (appreciate the top one will be to do the extracting in a bee excluding zone) gratefully received.

Cheers

John

Click to expand...

If it's the vendor I think you mean, they're out of stock until next month.

I use an uncapping knife, but some people use a hot air machine or forks - whatever works for them. Uncapping rollers are mainly for ling honey, they're meant to 'agitate' the honey in the cells, but it doesn't work too well and ling/heather is best pressed rather than spun.

Good page on extracting as well as preparing for show http://www.irishbeekeeping.ie/honeyshow/honeyprep.html

I use a hot air gun, no mess at all for uncapping.

Hot air gun is great but only for white (dry) cappings. Not for wet (icey looking) cappings!

enrico said:

I use a hot air gun, no mess at all for uncapping.

Click to expand...

Bit of wax spatter!

The extractors from Germany are still for sale on ebay but they are now £190. inc shipping.

Wait for the sales - may be a bit more but you could get one with an integral tank and filter.
I use a serrated knife - works well until you get your trigger finger in the way!

itma said:

Hot air gun is great but only for white (dry) cappings. Not for wet (icey looking) cappings!

Click to expand...

...and your beautiful pale wax that makes gorgeous candles, or is perfect for handcreams and other cosmetics, or looks fab on the showbench, - just vaporises!

bontbee said:

...and your beautiful pale wax that makes gorgeous candles, or is perfect for handcreams and other cosmetics, or looks fab on the showbench, - just vaporises!

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Anso the pleasure you get from not wasting the by-product of washing the honey off with a litre of vodka!

Thanks to all for your responses. Certainly helped me to come to a more informed decision.

Sean. said:

Hello,

Rollers seem to make a mess and block the filters up very quickly, I would avoid based on here say.

If the weather is sunny & warm like this, and the extractor is metal, then leave it out in the sun for an hour to warm it up. That way the honey will run down the extractor much quicker.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Sean. When we get our extractor we'll certainly bear in mind to leave it out in the sun prior to use . . . just got to hope its a sunny day. Thanks for the heads-up about the rollers.

BeeJoyful said:

If it's the vendor I think you mean, they're out of stock until next month.

I use an uncapping knife, but some people use a hot air machine or forks - whatever works for them. Uncapping rollers are mainly for ling honey, they're meant to 'agitate' the honey in the cells, but it doesn't work too well and ling/heather is best pressed rather than spun.

Good page on extracting as well as preparing for show

Click to expand...

Hi Beejoyful, Yes, I had noticed they were out of stock. But we're not likely to be extracting until the end of September. We have a lot of Himalayan Balsam locally and last year it started flowering in August and was still 'going' towards the end of September. Having said that this year it started flowering in early July, so possibly it may well stop flowering end of August. Fingers crossed that the Extractor arrives as promised by the vendor.

Dishmop said:

The extractors from Germany are still for sale on ebay but they are now £190. inc shipping.

Click to expand...

I think thats the decider then Dishmop. We'll order the £160 one . . .

enrico said:

I use a hot air gun, no mess at all for uncapping.

Click to expand...

I had watched a few videos on this method on good 'ole YouTube, Enrico. Initially I was impressed, as it had been a messy business last year, but the more I thought about it the more I wasn't convinced. Commonsense dictates that that amount of wax, even though just the cappings, doesn't just disappear because it's heated. As the cappings pop the molten wax (at least I assume it doesn't vapourise into it's constituent atoms) has to go somewhere. And the likely destination is a fair way about the extracting room, which in this case is likely to be a kitchen. And of course those cappings, as pointed out by itma and bontbee, disappears. I think we'll try out a combination of carving knife(!) and uncapping fork and see how we get on.

Once again, everyone, thanks for all your comments . . .

And, JBM, I will certainly be watching out for my fingers.

Cheers all

John

Try it (hot air gun) once.....you will never go back!
E

In my opinion Tangential extractors are far too labour intensive. Save your money and get a Radial extractor. I use an uncapping fork to scrape the combs. Other Beeks will, of course, differ.

vaporises

What?! It only melts the cappings. They don't go anywhere. You are not removing paint!