Question about extracting honey small scale and cappings...

[MrGreenThumb]

Hello

What is 'good' way to extract honey for less then 15 hives? I saw somewhere that all were needed are a cold knife, for capping removal, combo plastic tub, to do extracing and gather capping in, and bottles.

Also, any one ever sell extracted honey WITH the capping in it?

thx

[Hobie]

I use a 2-frame manual extractor for my 2 hives. Makes life easy. Last year I uncapped with an uncapping fork (time consuming, but not bad for 1 hive at the time).

As for honey with cappings in it, I've never seen it done. I would think it would look unattractive, like a mass of sediment... not nice clear honey, and not a chunk of comb. If you're going to cut it off, why bother putting it back in? I put my cappings in a nylon strainer bag and hang it for a while to get the honey out of them, then clean up the wax.

[LusciousHoney]

sounds like you're talking about something like this...
http://www.reallyrawhoney.com/

We were thinking of doing something similar.

[Dan Williamson]

Hello

Also, any one ever sell extracted honey WITH the capping in it?

thx

Yep... I have had a few people specifically ask me to open the valve on the extractor and whatever flows into the quarts be sold to them. Of course being "RAW" should bring a premium right?

[Jeffzhear]

I filter my honey, to me it looks much better and most prefer my honey filtered.

[MrGreenThumb]

Honey with cappings can be sold for more. The cappings contain nutrients and propolis that heated and filtered honey does not.

[BigDaddyDS]

I know it doesn't really matter to us, and we all know what each other is talking about, but my organic and raw lifestyle customers have really given me an education.

(Most of...) My honey is: Raw, unheated, strained, organic-as-possible, honey. (Not all of it is "Raw", although none of it is cooked... see below!)

Unheated, to my customers, means that the honey has never been warmer than 120-degrees F. and that all the natural enzymes and pollens are uncooked and intact. Natural flavors are protected and the color remains light.

Strained. But not filtered! I pass my honey through a sieve as it comes out of the extractor to remove all the bee legs and chunks of broken wax comb. It still retains the pollen, which makes my honey slightly cloudy. (Filtered, however, means that the honey has been flash heated and passed through a fine, micro-mesh filtration system, usually under pressure, to make it clear and less likely to crystalize.)

Organic-As-Possible. This was a hard one for my customers to understand. My customers WANT organic honey, but since all bees are "free-range livestock", you can't really control where they collect nectar and pollen from. What I *can* control is my own 70 acre farm, where I use no pesticides, herbicides or genetically modified seed. And since I know my farming neighbors, I pretty much know that they do the same. But, what the farmers do, say, 2 miles away, I've no idea. Hence the self-proclaimed moniker, "Organic-As-Possible". The only way I could guarantee "Organic" is to own an island over 2 miles off coast where I control the only bees and forage. (And if I have my own island, you can bet that I'm not going to be farming!)

and Raw. That's title I save for the stuff that comes straight out of my uncapping tank! It has bee legs and wings in it, along with propolis and other "little bits", and I personally wouldn't eat it. But, you're right! It sells for a premium!

It's all part of marketing! Learn the correct lingo for your target customer audience, and you can sell your product for a premium!

DS