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Author Topic: How to Speed Up Flow Out of Extractor?  (Read 4767 times)

Offline Acebird

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Re: How to Speed Up Flow Out of Extractor?
« Reply #20 on: March 20, 2018, 05:05:06 pm »
I guess there's another advantage of beekeeping in the South - I NEVER worry if it's going to be too cold to extract  :wink:

All my frames go into the freezer or are left outside in freezing weather.  You not only need to warm the honey you need to let the condensation dry before you extract or you will end up with fermented honey.
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Online Michael Bush

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Re: How to Speed Up Flow Out of Extractor?
« Reply #21 on: March 22, 2018, 09:37:02 am »
One year I put all of the supers in the kitchen, closed all the doors on the kitchen and lit the oven and burners.  After the kitchen had been around 100 for a day the honey ran like water.  The candles on the shelf drooped too...  Kind of like a Salvador Dali painting...
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Offline 2Sox

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Re: How to Speed Up Flow Out of Extractor?
« Reply #22 on: March 27, 2018, 12:51:42 am »
If you put "cold" honey frames in a "hot" extractor, the "cold" honey will flow out of the frames SLOWLY until the honey has had time to warm in the "hot" extractor. It will take time for the honey to warm inside the extractor. If you are only have a couple of supers to extract, and time doesn't matter, go for it. The honey will eventually warm and run out of the extractor. If you want the honey to come out of the frame faster, and run out of the extractor faster, then you need to heat the honey frames before you put them in the extractor. If you put warmed honey frames into a "cold" extractor, the honey will flow out of the frames quickly, and will also flow out of the "cold" extractor quickly, before it has time to cool and slow down.

If your honey is cold enough that it is not flowing out of your extractor after spinning out of the comb, then you need to warm the frames before extraction. This solves your problem. Heating the extractor instead of heating the honey frames can solve your problem, but it is less desirable because it will take longer to get what you want. I'd suggest not reinventing the wheel here. Generations of beekeepers before us, and with us now, have had to deal with the issue of extracting "cold" honey. The traditional and effective approach has been to warm the honey before extraction.

If you try going another direction and get better results, post it here and you could start a new trend.

Thank you Chux for this VERY clear explanation and excellent advice.
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Offline splitrock

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Re: How to Speed Up Flow Out of Extractor?
« Reply #23 on: March 27, 2018, 07:42:52 am »
I just keep my honey house at 85-90, and let the supers spend a few days in there before extracting.  I keep it there while I extract.

With bandana around my head, and a fan blowing on just me, I keep pretty cool and the honey flows nicely for the duration.


Offline Beeboy01

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Re: How to Speed Up Flow Out of Extractor?
« Reply #24 on: March 27, 2018, 09:54:07 am »
Just remember if you are in SHB country letting the supers sit in a warm environment for more than 24 hours could cause an infestation of larva in the comb causing a total loss of the crop.
  Since I'm in SHB country I try to pull and extract on the same day, removing only the amount of supers I can process that day. If the honey crop is too large I pull and process the rest of the crop the next day and place the wet supers from day one back on the hives as I go. It's more work but I've learned the hard way to respect SHB's and the damage that they can inflict.

Offline paus

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Re: How to Speed Up Flow Out of Extractor?
« Reply #25 on: March 27, 2018, 09:58:03 am »
What results has anyone had placing honey frames in a deep freeze for 2-3 days?  Does this kill the SHB eggs?

Offline Robo

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Re: How to Speed Up Flow Out of Extractor?
« Reply #26 on: March 27, 2018, 10:57:58 am »
Just purchased my first extractor. (Been doing crush and strain into a capping straining system for years.)  I'm wondering if you have any ideas about how to heat the drum of the extractor to get the honey to flow rapidly and get as much of it out as possible. I've used a waterbed heater for my capping system to increase flow rate and it has worked great.  How have you all been solving this problem for extracting though?

A little late to the discussion,  but I have wrapped the outside of my extractor with roof de-icer cable (50', 5-6 wraps around??) and then a a layer of reflectix.  Works like a champ. 
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Offline Beeboy01

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Re: How to Speed Up Flow Out of Extractor?
« Reply #27 on: March 27, 2018, 09:06:01 pm »
Freezing the frames for 48 hours will kill SHB and wax moth eggs. I don't use a freezer, just extract the same day I pull the honey.   

 

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