Best tip is ditch the gloves that you either keep changing or get honey on everything and simply have a bucket of soapy water and a towel. Takes a second to have clean non sticky hand time and time again through the day.
I have a couple of simple suggestions to make your extraction process more efficient. Note, I'm only in my second year with 6 hives deep in the French countryside, so I don't pretend to be an expert in any of this. First - now the frames in your honey supers are drawn, place 9 frames in each super instead of ten. Equally spaced. The bees will draw the comb wider, with more honey in each, making the decapping and extraction a lot more efficient. Second, when decapping with a knife (this works for a heated knife too, lean the top of the frame over the knife - the cappings then fall straight into the tray and won't need to be scraped off afterwards. Lastly, make a simple bridge to go across the decapping tray with a short vertical nail poking above the middle. Figure out some way to hold this in place so it doesn't slide about. When decapping, place the end of the frame on the nail point where it will be held firmly while you cut through with the knife. And then simply spin the frame on the nail to get to the other side. In your video, you balance the frame on the edge of the tray - I didn't see it, but I'd bet you have honey all over the bench and floor with the system you currently use. Cheers and happy spinning. P.S. One more thing - invest in an motorized extractor. Hand cranking is a PITA
By the way - you said you were a little disappointed by the yield you got so far. How much did each super produce for you? Here in France, my 6 hive back yard apiary did nothing at all this spring - like most people over here, I had to feed in May to keep them alive. Summer has turned out nice though and not so wet. The three supers I harvested so far yielded 50kg, so that 16.6kg per 9 frame super which I though was pretty good.
We did weigh what one super was and it came out at 14kg but that’s with box and frames. The trouble we had is we just didn’t get the weather windows. One day it was nice and sunny the next two days would be rain! Your yield sounds very good indeed though well done!!
Seems to work nicely with the knife! What are the widths of the top and the bottom bars and how far are the frames apart from each other from middle to middle? 35 mm? Greetings from Germany
It’s such a rewarding job isn’t it! Out of that honey crop we did only get about 30kg which was less than I was expecting but with the weather we had I was just pleased they made some surplus
My mom used to live with a man who had many beehives. Once he extracted honey he was putting into a drum and kept it open to dry it out. He was saying that bees with theiy wings flopping drying it to some state which is ok if left in honeycomb but not ok if extracted. That's why he said he needs to leave it to dry. He was drying this during the hot summer months. So it looks like he was doing opposite thing to what you're doing. My question who is right?
Honey in a frame will dry down because it's got a large surface area for drying, honey in a barrel won't dry except at the very top of the honey. American beekeeper Bob binnie has a video discussing "wet honey" or honey with a unwanted moisture content, ideally it should be less than 18 percent moisture to stop fermentation but certain honey can ferment even that dry and you have to get it below 16 percent.
@@Manuherikiabeekeeping You right. I remember that he was few times a day shaking the drum and made honey got to sides to increase the area. I agree that it would be better let the honey to sit in a frame and let the bees do their work and dry it.
Good to see ur bees and ur own hard work pay off👍🏼
درود خسته نباشید شما بسیار تمیز کار میکنید
Absolutely loved this video very satisfying to see the honey extraction after all your work , look forward to buying some 🐝
Thank you very much! 😃
Best tip is ditch the gloves that you either keep changing or get honey on everything and simply have a bucket of soapy water and a towel. Takes a second to have clean non sticky hand time and time again through the day.
I have a couple of simple suggestions to make your extraction process more efficient. Note, I'm only in my second year with 6 hives deep in the French countryside, so I don't pretend to be an expert in any of this.
First - now the frames in your honey supers are drawn, place 9 frames in each super instead of ten. Equally spaced. The bees will draw the comb wider, with more honey in each, making the decapping and extraction a lot more efficient.
Second, when decapping with a knife (this works for a heated knife too, lean the top of the frame over the knife - the cappings then fall straight into the tray and won't need to be scraped off afterwards.
Lastly, make a simple bridge to go across the decapping tray with a short vertical nail poking above the middle. Figure out some way to hold this in place so it doesn't slide about. When decapping, place the end of the frame on the nail point where it will be held firmly while you cut through with the knife. And then simply spin the frame on the nail to get to the other side. In your video, you balance the frame on the edge of the tray - I didn't see it, but I'd bet you have honey all over the bench and floor with the system you currently use.
Cheers and happy spinning.
P.S. One more thing - invest in an motorized extractor. Hand cranking is a PITA
Any advice is greatly appreciated thank you! Hopefully in the next few years we will be able to get an electric one!
Brilliant, thanks.
I received 80kg of honey this year from 2 colonies I had coming out of winter, I currently have 7 colonies now from splitting those 2 colonies.
Oh wow that’s a really good result well done!! Hopefully they all over winter well for you
By the way - you said you were a little disappointed by the yield you got so far. How much did each super produce for you?
Here in France, my 6 hive back yard apiary did nothing at all this spring - like most people over here, I had to feed in May to keep them alive. Summer has turned out nice though and not so wet. The three supers I harvested so far yielded 50kg, so that 16.6kg per 9 frame super which I though was pretty good.
We did weigh what one super was and it came out at 14kg but that’s with box and frames. The trouble we had is we just didn’t get the weather windows. One day it was nice and sunny the next two days would be rain! Your yield sounds very good indeed though well done!!
Seems to work nicely with the knife! What are the widths of the top and the bottom bars and how far are the frames apart from each other from middle to middle? 35 mm? Greetings from Germany
Nice! how much honey did you get and how many hives do you have? this has been my first year extracting too!
It’s such a rewarding job isn’t it! Out of that honey crop we did only get about 30kg which was less than I was expecting but with the weather we had I was just pleased they made some surplus
My mom used to live with a man who had many beehives. Once he extracted honey he was putting into a drum and kept it open to dry it out. He was saying that bees with theiy wings flopping drying it to some state which is ok if left in honeycomb but not ok if extracted. That's why he said he needs to leave it to dry. He was drying this during the hot summer months. So it looks like he was doing opposite thing to what you're doing. My question who is right?
Honey in a frame will dry down because it's got a large surface area for drying, honey in a barrel won't dry except at the very top of the honey. American beekeeper Bob binnie has a video discussing "wet honey" or honey with a unwanted moisture content, ideally it should be less than 18 percent moisture to stop fermentation but certain honey can ferment even that dry and you have to get it below 16 percent.
@@Manuherikiabeekeeping You right. I remember that he was few times a day shaking the drum and made honey got to sides to increase the area. I agree that it would be better let the honey to sit in a frame and let the bees do their work and dry it.