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Advice wanted on honey/wax handling equipment

6K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  KevinR 
#1 ·
Hello,

I'd like to know what options there are for commercial honey/wax handling. I'm slowly growing my want to be commercial operation, which should be ~30/50 hives in the spring/fall and hopefully 500 in the next few years.

Currently, I'm using a hot knife and a borrowed 36 frame extractor. Where is the best place to spend my money? I can continue to use the borrowed extractor, but I will need to buy one. The hot knife is the slowest part of the extraction process. Short of letting the cappings drain manually.

So, I'd like to know about options for uncappers, wax spinners, bottlers, and extractors that would continue to grow with me.

I've looked at the maxant and cowen lines. Are there other vendors in this market?

Thanks,
 
#4 ·
500 hive is my goal at the moment, but who knows. Ultimately, it comes down to how many bee yards I can manage and what my wife is willing to put up with.

I'd love to quick my day job, but I don't have any short term delusions on that.
 
#5 ·
Looks interesting, that really wouldn't be to hard to make.. ((hand held slitter))

I have a small cnc mill in the garage that is collecting dust. I was hoping to do something automated, but that might still be a good method. (slitting) Similar to the brushy mountain sideliner.
 
#6 ·
look at beekeepers at the size you wish to be. there is no fit all program. If someone seems to be sucessful at what theyer doing may be something to look at. the biggest problem you will find is how to deal with cappings. been doing this 50 yrs and still have not found a great system. dont buy anything that will not pay for itself. good luck
 
#7 ·
That was the overall purpose of this post. I'd like to get some comments from people that went before me.

**** Completely made up the below *****

The side liner jams every 4 frame when you run fat frames.
The flail systems gum up and tear more comb than they should.
Etc...

********************************

I don't expect an silver bullet, but I'd like to know what the choices are and the perceived benefits. As for the item paying for itself, that's the million dollar question.

i.e. The Super Uncapper Deluxe 101 will uncap 500 frames per hour, but I'll only have 1000 supers. While the deluxe is 15 times the cost of the regular, but runs at 10 times the frames per hour.

So does saying 20 hours twice a year justify the expense, but when I have 10000 supers it would be 200 hours saved.

I'd like to see this type of information.
 
#8 ·
uncapping and removing honey from your cappings is the biggest bottle neck you have right now. If you get an uncapper your biggest bottleneck will be your borrowed extractor.

I looked for used equipment that other beekeepers grew out of for their operation. So I found the essentials being 36 frame extractor, pump, uncapper, spinner, 2 uncapping tanks. I actually use 2 36 frame extractors at this point and find everything moves real smooth. Now my bottle neck is my uncapper.
 
#11 ·
We started out with a 4 four extractor and hot knife, and use that until we did 5 ton a year. Really wouldn't go that route. Over the years we have ran 600-1500 hives and used the Maxant Combo setup. As we got bigger we ran two wax spinners with a track to run uncupper from one spinner to the other. Ran two 80 frame extactors. With two people we could extact upto 8 durms a day with that setup. 20+ years with Maxant uncapper and just retired it. Have to go to a faster setup this year.( growing pains):thumbsup:
So if Maxant's equipment is built like 20 years ago, that's what I would buy. WOW just check the price on Maxant Combo and there price has gone up a little since I bought.$$$$:rolleyes:
 
#12 · (Edited by Moderator)
How does the flail system compare to the hot knives? I'm think about welding doing up my own horizontal extractor. I really like loading from the conveyor vs leaning over the drum to lower it in. Which is what I'm currently using and it feels like it takes longer to load than extract.

Either way, this is 3+ years off. I'll probably keep using the borrow extractor, but I'd like to start planning where to spend my egg money.
 
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