Was it new tender wax? Sometimes it's better to leave them on the hives a little longer so the wax will get stronger maybe?
extractor comb blow out, what did I do wrong?
Bad, bad news, I bought brand new radial extractor, I started on the lowest setting on the speed control, never even made it to the next level, and it blew every frame apart.
inch: Now I have frames with wires, but with only small bits of comb left. Didn't nearly have this problem last year with a tangential, I think I only destoryed 2 frames. What did I do wrong?
C2
inch: Now I have frames with wires, but with only small bits of comb left. Didn't nearly have this problem last year with a tangential, I think I only destoryed 2 frames. What did I do wrong?C2
1 - 20 of 35 Posts
Here is another option that you may want to try... Of course try digging in a little deeper with the knife (dont worry about the mess...the bees will clean it up for you , you may also want to try hand starting the drum and only bumping on the motor for about 3 seconds at a time... this should only have to be done a few times per load until the weight is down some. The idea is to get the rpms down as low as possible until the major weight is out of the frame... Then its business as usual and next year that wax will be harder and much easier to work with. I am not a fan of the plastic frames though. They just dont seem to last as long as the wooden ones do. We tried them out about 7 years back...bought about 20,000 of the deeps... worked fine the first year, but by the 2nd year they seemed to be getting brittle, and by the 3rd year we had to replace over half of them with wood, they have all been replaced long ago now. But of course our operation may be different than yours... we shake packages every year (which can put a hurting on any frame) and back when we bought the plastic frames we were extracting honey by the semi truck load. So I am not saying that they are no good...and they may have emproved them since we tried them...and our operation can be very tough on any equipment... just letting you know what my experience was.
, you may also want to try hand starting the drum and only bumping on the motor for about 3 seconds at a time... this should only have to be done a few times per load until the weight is down some. The idea is to get the rpms down as low as possible until the major weight is out of the frame... Then its business as usual and next year that wax will be harder and much easier to work with. I am not a fan of the plastic frames though. They just dont seem to last as long as the wooden ones do. We tried them out about 7 years back...bought about 20,000 of the deeps... worked fine the first year, but by the 2nd year they seemed to be getting brittle, and by the 3rd year we had to replace over half of them with wood, they have all been replaced long ago now. But of course our operation may be different than yours... we shake packages every year (which can put a hurting on any frame) and back when we bought the plastic frames we were extracting honey by the semi truck load. So I am not saying that they are no good...and they may have emproved them since we tried them...and our operation can be very tough on any equipment... just letting you know what my experience was.We color code each years new wax and leave new wax on for food stores over winter. Each year we cycle new wax onto 25% of our hives and rotate it as it ages. This keeps the cost under control in stead of rewaxing 100,000 frames every 4 years or so.
1 - 20 of 35 Posts
