Extractor advice

[beryfarmer]

have 5 hives...unlikely to expand more until another 10 years (retirement).

Need some advice on how large of extractor to get

was thinking about this one
http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/9-Frame-Hand-Radial-Extractor-w_-Honey-Tank/productinfo/806/

the Maxant one is tempting but dont like the inside configuration plus a top crank seems inefficient
http://www.betterbee.com/Products/Extracting/Maxant-3100-Hand-Crank-Extractor-without-Legs

have a mix of medium and deep frames, realistically expect 2 supers/hive in the future.

also which is better the electric knife or planer for decapping? 
since these are under centrifugation, why wouldnt just a scratcher work just as well.

[BeeMaster2]

Bery,
I recommend you look at a 18 or 20 frame extractor that cam be upgraded to motorize it later. Mann lake and Maxtant have good ones.
I have the 18 frame Mann Lake motorized extractor.  I would not want to use anything smaller.
I tried the electric knife. You end up with carmelized honey. It was more trouble that it was worth. Mann Lake has a really good decapping knife that my wife and I use. We used to only use the scratcher to touch up the shallow comb the knife cannot get. We now use the roller with the spikes for low areas.
The scratcher leaves a lot of wax particles that are hard to filter out.
Jim

[10framer]

i agree with jim on the extractor size, i just bought a 20 frame and i'm worried i'll outgrow it.  the problem is the next step up is pretty much 60 frame and i'm not sure if i'll ever get that big again.  i've only ever used electric uncapping knives and if you let them sit idle too long they can get a little hot.   

[Spear]

I use an uncapping fork and I find it is the best for removing the wax without taking too much honey with it.

[Kathyp]

scratcher works.  i like the hot knife because it's easier on my hands.  you have to move along with it to not heat the honey.  heck, i have used a kitchen fork when i couldn't lay my hands on anything else.

i have an old 2-4 frame manual extractor, but i'm not in any hurry.  if it takes me 3 days, doesn't matter to me.  depends on your schedule and wallet.

[sterling]

I wouldn't buy one that I couldn't put a motor on. It didn't take me but one time with a hand crank to convince me that they make motors for a reason. I use a seriated knife and scratcher to decap because I don't like the heat. I also like the 20 frame better then the eight frame I had. But that fits me so consider your plans and buy what you think you will need and you want have to rebuy and sell as much.

[mikecva]

6 or 20 your choice. I have used a 6 frame motorized one for many years. By the time I uncap the next 6 frames the first 6 are finished. We are working 20 hives at this time and it takes us about 8-10 hours to complete the operation including clean up. We then let the honey rest in our warming room so the bobbles rise to the top before bottling.  -Mike

[BeeMaster2]

I recommend that you see if any one will let you help out extracting and experience what it is like with the extractors you want to buy. Our local club rents out two small hand crank extractors. See if your club does the same.
I went to a guys house and paid him to extract 20 frames with a 3 frame, motorized, non radial extractor for my first extraction. When I left there I knew I wanted a large radial motorized extractor.
Jim

[beryfarmer]

Thanks for the replies.  I think the recommended sizes are a bit over my budget.  I like the Maxant one because it is expandable to 9 frames but i think the top crank is ergonomically inefficient.

I do go up to a friends and use his equipment but it is a bit inconvenient and his timing is often different than mine.

[Michael Bush]

The right "extractor" for five hives is a double bucket strainer:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesharvest.htm#crushandstrain

For my advice I will quote Richard Taylor's advice:

"A comb honey beekeeper really needs, in addition to his bees and the usual apiary equipment and tools, only one other thing, and that is a pocket knife. The day you go into producing extracted honey, on the other hand, you must begin to think not only of an extractor, which is a costly machine used only a relatively minute part of the year, but also of uncapping equipment, strainers, settling tanks, wax melters, bottle filling equipment, pails and utensils galore and endless things. Besides this you must have a place to store supers of combs, subject to damage by moths and rodents and, given the nature of beeswax, very subject to destruction by fire. And still more: You must begin to think in terms of a whole new building, namely, a honey house, suitably constructed, supplied with power, and equipped....

"All this seems obvious enough, and yet time after time I have seen novice beekeepers, as soon as they had built their apiaries up to a half dozen or so hives, begin to look around for an extractor. It is as if one were to establish a small garden by the kitchen door, and then at once begin looking for a tractor to till it with. Unless then, you have, or plan eventually to have, perhaps fifty or more colonies of bees, you should try to resist looking in bee catalogs at the extractors and other enchanting and tempting tools that are offered and instead look with renewed fondness at your little pocket knife, so symbolic of the simplicity that is the mark of every truly good life." --Richard Taylor,
The Comb Honey Book

But if you INSIST on a extractor I'd hold out for at least a 9/18 motorized. Anything less is just not enough to be worth it, in my opinion.