WCBA Extractor Use Policy and Guidelines
The WCBA owns honey extracting equipment for the use of WCBA members. The equipment includes an electrically-powered eight frame extractor, an uncapping tank, an electric uncapping knife and a stainless steel double sieve filter. Members should provide their own uncapping fork and a bucket with a honey gate for bottling. A heavy duty rubber mat or a piece of plywood would be very useful to protect your floor from the vibrations of the legs on the extractor.
The extracting equipment is stored by Mary Brady. Contact Mary at [email protected] or 240-401-6012 to arrange for a three day reservation. Return the equipment to Mary by 7 PM on the third day. The equipment should be clean and ready for the next club member.
What you get:
- Extractor
- Uncapping tank with wooden cross piece with frame pivot nail
- An electric uncapping knife with a manual control box for setting the temperature
- Two-part stainless steel honey strainer that fits a five gallon bucket.
The VIVO Electric Stainless Steel Honey Extractor (BEE-V004E) can radially extract 8 small or medium frames. It can also extract 4 deep frames tangentially. The operating instructions can be found on page 6 of the instruction manual at https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1190/2562/files/BEE-V004E_B_online.pdf?v=1583349779
The Mann Lake Plastic Uncapping Tank (HH-231) is a dual unit that stacks one way for uncapping and when reversed 180 degrees becomes a strainer tank, complete with honey gate.
The Speed King Electric Uncapping Knife with Manual Control Box and stand has a high watt density heater sealed into the knife, which will heat the knife up to the desired temperature in 30 seconds. The manual control box will allow you to adjust the temperature as needed. To protect surfaces, use the knife stand as needed. Turn the knife off as soon as you are finished to avoid having honey crystalize on the knife.
Tips for Use.
Be sure to cover the floor of your work area with a large sheet of plastic or newspaper. Honey extracting can be messy.
The extractor will shake and wobble under normal use. Be sure the extractor is as evenly balanced as possible. Run the extractor at a speed where it is not too wobbly!
If the extractor shakes or wobbles excessively, stop the machine, and check to see if something might be causing an imbalance. It might be that you neglected to uncap BOTH sides of one of the frames.
The extractor’s honey gate should be open when extracting the frames. Failure to do so can result in the honey level reaching the bottom of the spinning frames. Always have a bucket with the strainer under the honey gate on the extractor.
You should extract honey from frames that are fully capped to ensure that the honey’s moisture content is correct. If the frame is not fully capped, you can turn the frame horizontally and shake the frame. If the honey does not drip out of the frame, you can extract it. You may wish to check the moisture content with a refractometer, if you have access to one. The moisture content should be 18.5% or less for extraction.
Extract your honey on the same day as you pull the frames from the hive. Do the extraction in a warm environment; do not let the frames cool to 70°. Warm honey will flow out of the frames much easier than cool.
If you have one last frame to extract, put it in the extractor with a frame you have already extracted. This will provide the necessary balance when running the extractor.
A silicone spatula can be used to scrape the honey down the walls of drum when you are done extracting. This will help you get most of the honey down and out of the bottom of the extractor.
Cleanup.
Place the extractor outside with the lids open, and the bees will clean it out. Do not place the extractor too close to your apiary, in order to avoid a robbing frenzy. For example, set the extractor in the front yard if your apiary is located in the backyard. The bees will do a fairly good job of cleaning up the excess honey that remained in the extractor before you rinse it clean.
After the bees have done their work, you must also rinse the extractor. Cover the motor with a plastic bag to prevent water from getting into the electric parts. There is no need to dismantle the extractor. Hose the extractor down with cold water. Nearly all residual honey and bits of wax can be removed this way. Then pour a bucket of warm water into the extractor and rub down the inside with a clean sponge to dissolve and remove left over honey. Another good blast of water will leave the extractor pretty clean.
Do NOT use soap to clean the extractor or the uncapping tank!! Any remaining residue from soaps or detergents will contaminate the honey. Return the equipment as clean as when you picked it up!
After you have extracted your frames, the bees will happily finish consuming the last bits of honey and cleaning up the frames for you. You can put the extracted frames on the hive(s) that they came from. Or you can give the extracted frames to a weaker hive in need of resources. Alternatively, you can set the extracted frames in an empty hive body not too near your hives. Be careful not to set off a robbing frenzy among your bees!
After about a week on the hives, the frames should be clean and free of honey. You can store them in a cool dry place until needed next spring.