[crofter]

I remember the first few harvests and the chore of filtering using the tray filters. I cant remember where I came across the pull up pail filter idea but have never looked back since trying it.
The pail filters are available from Mann Lake and others and I believe also from paint stores but not sure if the paint store ones are suitable mesh and strength. The secret to the ease is to put the filter inside the empty pail, and let the extracted unfiltered honey go into the bag. When 3/4 full, gather the bag and tie off. Move it pail and all over to the pull up arrangement and hook on and let the weight slowly pull up the filter bag and leave the pail of filtered honey behind. I can run two or three batches through a filter before it needs turning inside out to dump the strained cappings. Nothing to hold or overflow. Takes about 20 minutes.

Edit. I have two small pulleys on the rafters to spread the pull up away from the descending weight of about 6 pounds. I have used bungies but the weight and pulleys is easier to work with than the sling shot bungies!

 

[gww]

Frank
Do you throw away after use or try and clean? As always, nice pictures.
Cheers
gww

 

[crab414]

That's pretty nifty! Some good looking honey, what kind?

 

[crofter]

Frank
Do you throw away after use or try and clean? As always, nice pictures.
Cheers
gww

Just turn inside out and pull off the strained wax for the bees to suck dry. A light spray of water from the inside takes the last of the honey out and the bag can be dried in the sun. Just turn back right side out and re use. You only get wax flakes on the inside of the bag.

If you hang the bag and try to pour into it the weight of all the honey is hard on the bag and hard to suspend. Pulling the bag out with a gradual force of 5 or 10 pounds and leaving the strained honey behind in the same pail is just so much easier.

I buy large sheets of the same material in my uncapping tub and use the same pull up technique to get most of the honey out. That can take a few days. You fellows with small hive beetles might have trouble with that, though.

You can buy a very cheap material in large sizes that is designed for curtain sheers. It is slightly coarser weave. Giant Tiger is a name here but dont know what would be a similar name brand in US.

 

[My-smokepole]

I have use big ban clamps to go around the bucket to hold the five gallon paint strainer. I had most of the center cut out of a lid. Then drilled out most of the bottom of a five. I put the lid on a good five. An put my strainer bucket on top and pour the honey through the strainer bucket.

 

[ericweller]

Can't you also squeeze the mesh as you are pulling it out of the honey? Does that make it difficult to clean the mesh afterwards?

 

[crofter]

That's pretty nifty! Some good looking honey, what kind?

There will be quite a bit of birdsfoot trefoil with some milkweed and Joe Pye weed. Wildflower I guess you would call it. Quite fragrant.

 

[crofter]

I have use big ban clamps to go around the bucket to hold the five gallon paint strainer. I had most of the center cut out of a lid. Then drilled out most of the bottom of a five. I put the lid on a good five. An put my strainer bucket on top and pour the honey through the strainer bucket.

Can't you also squeeze the mesh as you are pulling it out of the honey? Does that make it difficult to clean the mesh afterwards?

No need to try to force it through. You are not waiting on it since you can be extracting into another pail with a bag in it. Usually it is through by the time the next pail is full. If you had a large extractor you might need more pails and finish pulling the bags out of them afterwards. It only takes about 15 minutes to pull the bag out with 5 or 10 pounds pull. I think squeezing the bag would tend to plug it but that is a sticky job! The filtering part is entirely hands off except for hooking on or taking off the pull cord. Gravity does the work while you do something else. Nothing can overflow.

I only used 2 bags yesterday; when one pulls up free of the filtered honey you just have to undo the choke hold cord and drop it into another bucket and roll the elastic top down around the pail. It does not take a lot of clamping as the filter bag is not suspended. You can do two or three rounds without taking the strained wax out of the bag. It is not enough volume to interfere.

When the bag with the wax pulls free you have a pail of filtered honey to put the lid on.

 

[Robert Holcombe]

crofter: I have a small, insulated "bee room" with my extractor, dehumidifier and freezer which keep the room warm to 85-100F ( so far). I have a spare electric heater if needed to keep it warm for extracting. Dropping beeswax caps into a big strainer I found and using double bucket strainers and a 400 mesh bucket filter. My only issue was extracting is too fast with bucket overflow issues. So I fill to a weight - strainers are not a time issue. My "soft mounted" extractor in a 90F room gets balanced pretty quickly and up to full RPM quickly so the extraction flow rate is fast. I like to spin my frames dry so after extracting the majority of honey quickly, I can walk away and spin a few times on a timer - really dry frames in comparison to earlier efforts.