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Author Topic: Cleaning honey extractors  (Read 3668 times)

Offline SouthAussieBeekeeper

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Cleaning honey extractors
« on: September 24, 2018, 09:18:41 pm »
I have an electric, stainless steel spinning honey extractor. With my current set up, I'm only able to heat up three supers of honey at a time in preparation for extraction. I've been informed that it takes 24-36 hours to heat up a super for extraction.

Would it be unhygienic to extract honey, leave it sticky for 24-36 hours and then process the next three heated supers? What if I have 12 supers to process, would it be alright to leave the extractor sticky for 4-6 days? Does the honey get harder to clean when it's left for a bit? Should I use detegerent when cleaning, or would just hot water do?

Offline blackforest beekeeper

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Re: Cleaning honey extractors
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2018, 02:20:07 am »
Depends on the humidity in Your room. I got around 35% humidity and I leave it sticky all season. That is no problem.
What I don`t understand: What do you mean with "heating the supers"? I got them at around 25C or a tad more if too moist.

Offline SouthAussieBeekeeper

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Re: Cleaning honey extractors
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2018, 02:26:29 am »
I have low humidity where I'm at. Is that good or bad?

Its important to heat the supers before spinning as it makes it easier to process.

Offline Acebird

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Re: Cleaning honey extractors
« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2018, 08:55:25 am »
I have an electric, stainless steel spinning honey extractor. With my current set up, I'm only able to heat up three supers of honey at a time in preparation for extraction. I've been informed that it takes 24-36 hours to heat up a super for extraction.

Would it be unhygienic to extract honey, leave it sticky for 24-36 hours and then process the next three heated supers?

You have to seal it up to prevent bugs, dust and debris from getting into the extractor.  This assumes all the wetted parts are stainless or plastic.
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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Cleaning honey extractors
« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2018, 04:48:13 pm »
I'm with Ace, if you can keep the dust and ants out of it, yes you can leave it for quite a while.  In my climate ants usually aren't an issue, but I've been in the Carribean where they would find my food while I was still eating it and if you left any honey out for ten minutes they would find it...
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Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Cleaning honey extractors
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2018, 11:51:59 pm »
I don?t understand the heating bit. What temp are your supers at when you are extracting?  I just extracted 20 supers without heating. They were inside for 24 hours at 75 degrees. The frames come out of the extractor very dry.
Jim
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Offline blackforest beekeeper

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Re: Cleaning honey extractors
« Reply #6 on: September 26, 2018, 03:10:31 am »
I don?t understand the heating bit. What temp are your supers at when you are extracting?  I just extracted 20 supers without heating. They were inside for 24 hours at 75 degrees. The frames come out of the extractor very dry.
Jim
Yeah, that`s fine for extracting.

Offline robirot

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Re: Cleaning honey extractors
« Reply #7 on: October 14, 2018, 06:46:16 am »
Well it is certainly not gold practice. In germany you would lose your whole season harvest if the food agency will find that.

For cleaning, Hose it down with warm to hot water (honey takes for ever to geht cleaned up in cold water).
Then once clean in it with a food detergent you spray on, leave for 15 min then hose it down with cold water.

Fir your heating problem, why can you only heat 3 supers? Making a box heater for up to 8 boxes costs about 10$ just build more. Alternative you can just extract the supers at hive temperature. Take then of and extract same day.

The low moisture is actually in favor of you, since it makes sure that your honey can't extract moisture from the air.

Offline SouthAussieBeekeeper

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Re: Cleaning honey extractors
« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2018, 09:11:48 am »
How can you build a box heater for 8 boxes for $10?

Offline robirot

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Re: Cleaning honey extractors
« Reply #9 on: October 29, 2018, 09:43:42 am »
How can you build a box heater for 8 boxes for $10?
All you need is some wood, a thermal control switch and a lamp.

First buy a thermal control with relay switch. Cost 1.50$ Form China. Then make a bittom board w?re you can put your boxes on. Install a PC fan and a 50w lamp.
Feed the wires out through a hole and tge thermal Probe inside. Hook the bulp up to the the relay and done. Now add a shallow and then your boxes.

If you Experiment a little with different bulps, you can even skip the thermal controll and just use a bulp and geht a constantant temperature.

Offline SouthAussieBeekeeper

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Re: Cleaning honey extractors
« Reply #10 on: October 29, 2018, 10:00:34 am »
huh interesting. Does the bulb sit at the bottom of the box? It'd get covered in sticky honey if so, could that be a fire hazard? What's the fan for?

Offline robirot

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Re: Cleaning honey extractors
« Reply #11 on: October 29, 2018, 10:10:08 am »
huh interesting. Does the bulb sit at the bottom of the box? It'd get covered in sticky honey if so, could that be a fire hazard? What's the fan for?
The Fan is just for better ventilation. Yes it gets covered. Best use a bulp with cover or put a sheet of wood or plastic over it.

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Cleaning honey extractors
« Reply #12 on: October 29, 2018, 10:22:09 am »
In my honey heater I placed the bulb in the center of the bottom. I placed a sheet of galvanized metal, 6 inches wide down the middle to protect the bulb.
I think the best temperature controls are the ones that are in hot water heaters. Just keep an eye out for one at the street on trash days and remove the controllers.
Jim
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