Extracting 14x12 frames??

[theeggman]

I have a brood box with 3-4 frames of stores that the bees are refusing to take down through an open feeder board after merging a Q- colony.
Having tried an empty 14x12 frame in my T's 9 frame radial extractor it will fit but not flush with the tangential frame rests.

Has anybody tried this and any advice other than SLOWLY + CAREFULLY would be welcomed.

At worst it will cost me 4 sheets of foundation.

Tim

 

[VEG]

Scrape and strain


Craig

 

[theeggman]

Thanks Craig,
That's plan B if the comb can't take the strain.

Tim

 

[oliver90owner]

I have a Lega 9 frame radial, originally from Th8rne.The tangential screens work perfectly well with 14 x 12 frames. Shirley you are not trying to extract without the tangential screens fitted?!

 

[youngyoungs]

Mine is an old Taylor's 6 frame tangential manual extractor, and will spin 14x12 frames. So it is possible to do, whether yours can be suitably adjusted is another question.

Maybe someone at your local BKA might have an extractor they know works with 14x12 and would let you borrow it. For 4 frames you'll be done in a jiffy.

 

[oliver90owner]

After reading the OPagain it is apparent that the poster does not really need, or even want, to extract.

Clearly not thought about how bees store honey - above the brood.

Simply put these frames under the brood box and they will move the stores up.

 

[theeggman]

Thanks Rab,

My tangential screens are for a standard nat. and therefore there is a gap between the comb and the screen. Having just cleared and removed the BB in question there are only 4 frames in question I will scrape and strain.
It is not worth the fuss of putting the BB under another hive.

Tim

 

[oliver90owner]

It is not worth the fuss of putting the BB under another hive.

May not be now, but much simpler in the future when both boxes are there already and you think about what you are doing before just removing them.

 

[itma]

4 frames would be tricky to get balanced loads (T's 9-frame takes 3 tangential screens).

So scrape and strain would indeed be the best idea.

T's 9-frame "universal" cage is too small to take 14x12's tangentially (and it will only take 6 Manleys radially...)
Mine, supplied originally by Park, is probably mainly Lega. It can take 9 frames radially (even 9 Manleys) and the tangential screens DO take 14x12...

 

[oliver90owner]

T's 9-frame "universal" cage is too small to take 14x12's tangentially (

Current maybe, but mine isn't. Bought over ten years ago from big T as part of a Lega extractor deal, and is fine. They may well have cynically designed parts to be incompatible since then, and deserve all the criticism that accompanies that.

I recently bought an auto-syphon (wine-making) that suits a large glass vessel but is just a mm too big for a normal demijohn. Totally cynical of the suppliers to sell one for the gallon demijohn and another for the larger glass containers ( one wrong diameter and one wrong length). Makes me try to avoid their other products; their loss in the long run... as I don't, then, give any credence to previous customer satisfaction. But presumably they don't care...

 

[drstitson]

keep for feeding nucs next season?

 

[VEG]

Nice one

 

[oliver90owner]

You might well have not noted my qualifying words 'since then'.

Maybe, then, it is overdue for a re-design? Lega managed it.

I often wonder why wide frame spacers are not available in different colours. They used to be. The blue ones lasted far longer than the natural ones.

 

[itma]

No, we didn't cynically design our radial cage to be too small for 14 x 12 frames. These were designed in the early 70's when hardly any beekeeper use these frames.

I find that an offensive comment.
Gill Smith
Thornes

Disappointed not to have received an apology.

Sadly, he is much slower with apologies than with judgements.

Having tried an empty 14x12 frame in my T's 9 frame radial extractor it will fit but not flush with the tangential frame rests.

I have been extremely pleased with Thorne kit, service and info.
When I did my research I discovered that for my Manleys and 14x12's T's 9-frame 'universal' really wasn't my best option.

The current catalogue makes perfectly clear that the 9-frame radial cage only takes 6 Manleys.
And that the tangential cage is not suited to 14x12 brood frames.
However, one does have to ask to confirm one's suspicions that the tangential screens in the radial cage are also not suited to 14x12 ...

 

[m100]

I have been extremely pleased with Thorne kit, service and info.
When I did my research I discovered that for my Manleys and 14x12's T's 9-frame 'universal' really wasn't my best option.

The current catalogue makes perfectly clear that the 9-frame radial cage only takes 6 Manleys.

I retrofitted a Thornes 9 frame radial cage about three or four years ago into my tangential only extractor (a Taylors one, so at least 30 years old) The cage will (just) take 9 National Manley frames. Fit the outer pair in each three frame section, then the central one, after extracting remove the central one first. 10 or 15mm more on the overall diameter and the loading and unloading would be significantly quicker and easier.