Wired

Do frames have to be wired to use in an extractor or no?
Thanks

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Originally Posted by rtoney

Do frames have to be wired to use in an extractor or no?
Thanks

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Nothing in beekeeping is absolute. I don't wire any of my frames and have extracted both deeps and mediums with a hand powered extrator. They extract better tangentially because of they lay up against the basket and are less likely to blow out. Radially (spokes on a tire) they are more prone to blow out. That having been said, I am willing to bet that you can find beekeepers who have wired their frames perfectly and had some blow out both tangentially or radially. "Blank" happens and I have been too lazy and cheap to buy the wire and install. Of course I'm also the same guy who doesn't use foundation so what do I know.

Rod

I have about 100 deep frames that have no wire and I use a radial extractor. I run the extractor at 3 speeds slow to fast for about 5 mins each. I very rarely have an issue.

If your comb looks to be in good shape, I would expect it to hold up fine. I had a horizontally wired frame blow out because the bees made a kind of crease on the wire which I think weakened it at that point. Start slow, make sure the comb is warmed up enough and you shouldn't have any issues.

expect to have more issues if you use tangential extractor, especially if the "basket" isnt mesh wire but just a few rods.

Radial i would expect few issues.

Crush and strain I would want no wire.

Radial will have less blowouts than tangential extracting.

Thanks
I have 4 top bars that I C & S, just getting into Langs but don't won't to wire everything. This info helps.