Honey from the wax melter

[Lone]

Shane, if you really want to, you could gather it up and feed it back to the bees inside the hive.  I put a dish on top of the frames with cheesecloth over.

Lone

[sterling]

I know you said you don't put the cappings out for the bees to clean up. But that is the simplest way to deal with them. You are complacating your beekeeping. Your bees will come in contact with other bees in your area regardless of what you do.

[Finski]

.
Cappings have really much honey.
I bought this to press the honey away.

[edward]

Cappings have really much honey.I bought this to press the honey away.

How much did it cost?
dose it do the job well ?
how much work is it,?
is it hard to clean,?
how much honey is left in the wax after pressing?

Would you buy one again?

mvh edward 

[Finski]

It works well and press the cappings in small volume.

was it 150 Euros?

In UK Amazon its £ 100

It makes good juice from lingon bärs.

[danno]

these start at 150.00 on up.  they are used for wine making (pressing grapes) and cheese making.  They are available at amazon and ebay.  search for wine press will most likely come up with a few

[edward]

It works well and press the cappings in small volume.

Up to how many hives would you recommend it for.?

mvh edward 

[danno]

these are little.  they only hold a qt or 2

[ShaneJ]

I have looked at those presses but they are only good for a few hives. I would be best keeping that money and save for a cappings spinner when I get a few more hives.

[hardwood]

Or look at cider presses...many can used ones can be found.

Scott

[danno]

My wife makes alot of cheese.  I built her a oak press like the 2nd one in this link.    http://www.cheesemaking.com/cheesepresses.html  Very simple design.  To operate you fill a milk jug with water and hang it off the lever. With 2 milk jugs she can get 100#s of pressure  I have never use it for wax but it would be easy to do. I would use a pc of 6" pvc.  Cut a few small notches in the bottom edge and make a wood disc alittle smaller then the inside diameter. 

[Finski]

I have looked at those presses but they are only good for a few hives. I would be best keeping that money and save for a cappings spinner when I get a few more hives.

I have 30 hives and it works with smaller container. The tool makes a good work.
I use electrict knife.

Fork do not produce much wax from cappings.

[ShaneJ]

I have a bit more than 30 hives and use a steam knife. Even though I dont get much honey yet, we still get a lot of wax.

[Finski]

I have a bit more than 30 hives and use a steam knife. Even though I dont get much honey yet, we still get a lot of wax.

And you ask from these "catch and release" guys what you should to do?


many use loundry centrifugal drier in extracting. I once used but it speed was too fast and the cleaning was not nice job.


.

[ShaneJ]

Catching swarms and removing colony's from walls is easy for me. Making honey isn't. We all need help or direction sometime

[Finski]

. We all need help or direction sometime

Yes, I agree. I have nursed bees 50 years.  When the things will be jammed, then I am forced to search new methods.

Last summer I started to use 25 kg buckets as honey store. Before that I have used 350 kg stainless barrels.


Honey sieving has been a problem to me. But I think that I have found now a solution. Honey crystals use to block the sieve. Canola is eager to crystallize.

Last autumn I made a new extraction room where I can control the heat of room and honey temp in extraction and sieving.
That is very important. Poor controlling produces much waste honey.
.

One thing is to get new honey crystallized that I can start to sell it.
So I must have a freezener what I run in the heat of +15C.  When I put a current timer, it cuts cooling to proper value.
One way is to make a big polystyrene board box where I put a cooler. It drops the temp to 15C.


I believe that I can use this small electrict cooler box cover to drop the temp down to 15C. Drop down is only 5-7C.