Today we check our hives and pull a few frames for a light, late Summer extraction. We'll show you how to harvest honey without an extractor using the crush and strain method. HONEY STRAINER: amzn.to/2EpUgxL
My friend who is a beekeeper once told me a way to extract without an extractor. He built a box that a five gallon bucket would fit in with space for a light bulb above it. I believe it was a 60 watt bulb. He would place his uncapped? frames inside and let them drain. The heat from the bulb was just enough to let the honey flow.
I do this in the bee-yard on a hot sunny day under a mosquito net,in a big bucket with a paint filler and return the frames straight back into the hive.
nice video sir. this video is useful for me. From Nepal Miss. Lucky Baral. Me to have 2 Hive of Bee Melifara. Please another video of utilization of this remaining portion of wax too.
completely unrelated to bees and extracting honey but i am honestly impressed you are doing ANYTHING "farm" related..... if my husband ever participating with what our "family farm" i think i'd have a stroke from the shock of it. He could eat crackers in bed and leave the toilet seat up, nevermind getting honey all over my kitchen, if he'd just pitch in instead of pitching a fit only to take credit for everything later on when we have company 🙄🙄 i hope your wife truly appreciates what you do and that you routinely help each other! 🤣🤣
You can return drawn comb by using a food grade tote rigged to hold the frames upside down. Gravity does the rest. The angle downward is exactly 17°. Like a beer bottle at a slight angle. Flip it upside down(no AC), and you'll get 95% of it out without damaging the drawn comb.
@@Typhus-th6ud if you look at the frame from the skinny side, the cells are at a downward pitch from each side toward the middle so they can fill them without the nectar just spilling out. If you flip the frame upside-down, it will just drain out.
@@gazinta maybe if you are pulling the frames before they are capped but once capped it's so thick that it cant break the surface tension to pour out. Youll get a little bit that way. If you are only after some honey then it's a good way to preserve comb. If you force the bees to draw out new frames each time the honey taste better
@@Typhus-th6ud no. You scratch or cut the caps off with a long blade over the collection tote. Then you flip them upside down to let them drain. Gravity does the rest.
@@Typhus-th6ud I know what you mean. I like comb honey. No foundation. Single use stuff. That's private stock, and it never sees metal. Wooden spatula into a glass bowl. I leave a few rows at the top to give back as a starter strip when I put it back. I hear ya on the flavor thing.
How do you keep this from turning itno a mess? I put my frames into the extractor and then the combs broke all to pieces and fell to the bottom. Its just a damn mess. But I don't understand how to get the honey off without it having problems. And to make it worse the vevor extractors are flawed in design where the ears of the frames bump into the top when they spin.
Ha! Truth is, using small-scale equipment you're going to make a mess. No getting around it that I've ever found. I usually plan for 1/3 of the time for collection and prep, 1/3 for extracting, and 1/3 for cleanup. Last time I think I even had honey in my eyebrows. Best advice I can give is: 1) Take your time. Hurrying just makes more mess and costs you time in the end. 2) The warmer the better. I sometimes even use a small electric heather on my strainers to speed up the flow. 3) Marry an understanding wife. Good luck Noah!
Noah. You need Frames of Honey, to be Extracted, to be either on : 1) Wired Foundation that the Bees draw their Comb on. OR... 2) Any Natural Drawn Comb must be made into a Frame that has very tight 'Tension Wires' across it... Use a starter strip to help guide the Bees to draw nice straight Comb ! 🤔 Any Honey Extraction using Frames of Comb only (no internal wires) will just collapse, 🥺 in being Spun at fairly fast speed, even on a Hand Cranked Extractor! 🤭 Hope this helps... Any Comb can be processed by Hand aka emptied by Gravity. 1) Uncap the Wax, lay Frame Tilted Down over a support Rack, or Mesh, over a Tray ! 2) Wait until all Honey drains out, then turn over, and do the 2nd Side. 👍 Do in a Warm room to aid that Honey 'Flow'. Patience and careful uncapping of wax (practice) helps. 😎 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2022. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Noah. PS. Most Extractors have little Frame 'Lug' sliding Clips*, to hold Frame in that spinning Cage. Or make your own* using Garden Tie(s) Wire... stuff used on Plant Supports etc. Or angle the Frame to they don't catch the Mechanism. ALSO... All Extractors need Frames to be Balanced + Opposite ! What you think ? ...🤔 Top Bars on both Outwards, both Frames of same Size, Weight, and Type. If only x1 Honey Frame left to Spin... Then add it to Cage, and place opposite x2 wet frames (just spun) so the internal capacity of Cage is 'balanced' !!! 👌 😎
We usually just put the frames out for the bees to clean up. Gotta keep them a fair distance from the hives though. Otherwise it can encourage robbing behavior.
hahahahaha!!!! Soap and bees don't mix. The frames smell like bees, honey and propolis. You WANT that. The bees get everything that's even remotely sticky off the equipment. You're not even supposed to wash the suit or veil. Once you get that smell on your person and in your nose, it's an addiction. My bee suit is almost black on the front, and weighs about six pounds more than the day I bought it, and the bees seem to take well to it. Put some fabric softener on it, and they'll die attacking it. Not good.
Crush and strain of super frames will work, but significantly sets the bees production back since they must first reconstruct the honey comb. Cutting the cappings off the comb is a waste of effort after all you are crushing. No benefit I see to uncapping. This video will be beneficial to those who do not have an extractor.
Yes and no. My honey frames are foundationless, and I take it all but the starter strip. The wax is a by product of pollen proteins. It literally pours out of their bodies as they're bringing in the nectar. It's not that it slows production, but it does focus some of their attention away from the brood chamber(already built out, and undisturbed. In other words, you're dead wrong. It also doesn't take 7 pounds of honey to make a pound of wax. That's the ratio by weight in the frames. It takes a pound of wax to STORE 7 pounds of honey. The nurse bees make wax all day long regardless. And they also eat their full share of honey and pollen regardless of what the workers are doing. Parasites slow production down because they kill brood and take time away from the nurse bees chasing them around the hive.
Furthermore, uncapping gets most of the PURE honey out and through the screen before the wax clogs it up. You're out of line a little bit. However, a person could just uncap them,and let gravity do the rest leaving a little drawn comb behind. There's no "wrong" way to do it unless your wife is on her way home, and her favorite knife is stuck to the island.
@@selfsufficientpath How long did you get yelled at for the sticky kitchen everything?? It's unavoidable. As soon as you said your wife was due back, The Cat in the Hat came to mind, except things 1&2 were absent. Lol
@@gazinta , it wasn't too bad. She's used to the farm messes making their way into the house. I need to pony up, get an extractor, and do this out in the shop.
Wax Use : Crafts... Candles, Fabric impregnated Wax Food 'Wraps', Furniture Polish, Shoe Polish, Lip Balm... even Chew it ! Who needs icky Chewing Gum ? Wax has beneficial properties to it. And lots of uses...👍 😎
do you really have experience, why is all your gear so new, no propolis stains on yr gloves or suit yet, wood hasnt seen more than a few months outdoors. try a tarp to work on next time or some newspapers.
