Extractor

[Parke County Queen]

I am trying to decide on an extractor. I have looked at two and wonder if anyone has had experience with them. The first one is a Maxant 3100H from Betterbee and the other is a 9 Frame Hand Radial with tank from Brushy Mountain. I want a radial for sure. Does anyone have any better suggestions?

[BULLSEYE BILL]

You need to have an idea how many hives you will eventually expand to and buy for your future needs.

I bought the 9-18 and am very glad I did. I could have bought smaller and gotten along ok, but the time and effort saved with the larger motorized unit is well worth the extra money.

[JWG]

I used the 3100H for years, with almost 30 colonies! Put a lot of honey through that thing. One drawback; I as never able to extract more than ~3/4 of the honey from any combs in the radial configuration (in which it holds 6 medium frames). Used tangentially it was great. Very solidly built.

[ December 29, 2006, 09:22 AM: Message edited by: JWG ]

[Parke County Queen]

Thanks for the info. Can anyone recommend a better one? I only have 4 hives now, but plan on expanding every year.

[dgl1948]

Take a look at the Maxant 1400. If you are adding more hives, it would be money well spent. We started with a 4 frame, hand crank extractor and 6 hives. We get close to 200 lbs. of honey per hive up here. That got to be a lot of cranking. We soon replaced the original with a bigger motorized unit.

[Michael Bush]

How many hives do you intend to have? I certainly wouldn't buy any extractor except a bargain priced, used one for four hives. I'd just do comb honey and crush and strain. I like my 9/18 radial a lot.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesharvest.htm

[ozzy]

I have 2 20 frame radials a maxant and a dadant and I like the dadant. The maxant is not as well made, smaller diameter harder to load and slower. The combs come out wetter so it doesn't get the honey out as well as the dadants.

[sierrabees]

If you plan on expanding to anything more than 10 hives I would spend the extra money to get a motorized unit whatever else you get. Extracting works best in a very warm room, and it gets real unpleasant turning that hand crank when it's 80 degrees plus. If it's a hobbie it should be fun. If it's more than a hobbie it should be efficient. Either way motor power is far better than muscle power.

[Michael Bush]

Richard Taylor on Comb Honey:

"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."

[Joel]

{expand to and buy for your future needs.}

I think this is a key learning point once you decide you like beekeeping. Most operations tend to grow, some a little, many much more. Extracting is the labor intensive part of beekeeping and can quickly become mundane. Mimimize the mundane by maximizing efficieny in this aspect of beekeeping.

{The combs come out wetter so it doesn't get the honey out as well as the dadants.}

Everyone has their preferences, I've used both though not side by side. I prefer the maxant although the customer support can't touch Dadant.
I am confused why combs spun by centrifical force would be wetter in one unit and not the other is the speed is the same?

[ January 01, 2007, 11:28 AM: Message edited by: Joel ]

[Parke County Queen]

Michael - I know I don't need an extractor, but my motto is "It's not about what you need, but about what you want!" And I WANT an extractor.

[Jeffzhear]

Boys are defined by the size of their toys; Parke, go for one of those 80 Frame Dadant extractors....should only set you back a quadrillion dollars!

[Michael Bush]

If you WANT one, then don't settle for less than a 9/18 radial motorized.

[Dan Williamson]

I have a Kelly 12/21 frame radial unit. It is probably 20 years old and still works great. My
Dad bought it new and with care it should last quite a long time. It is the only extractor I have ever used.