Allen Latham described this type of gravity extracting method in his _Bee Book_:
Build a simple square frame of wood to fit over the top of your honey barrel/bucket. Staple or tack 1/2" mesh hardware cloth over this frame. Next, hang a piece of strong mesh strainer cloth down into the container (paint strainer works well for a 5-gal. bucket) so it is hanging down about halfway, securing it around the rim by tying or with clips.
Set the frame/screen over the top of the barrel. Now you're ready to "extract."
Lay one of your cut-out combs of honey on the screen. Then, using a wooden paddle or piece of wood, just mash the comb down through the hardware cloth. It doesn't take much effort.
The screen ruptures all of the cells and the honey/comb mix falls down onto the strainer cloth. The honey will drain from the wax over the next several hours. You can speed this up by setting the whole thing inside a car on a warm day. (Just don't sticky up your interior!) I would give it a couple days, anyway, in a warm, dry place with no bee access.
The honey will be as good as extracted. The actual mashing part goes very quickly once you get the hang of it. Compared to uncapping and extracting, it doesn't take long.
Once everything drains, you can remove the strainer with the dry wax and skim any froth off the surface of the honey, and then you're done.
For a larger operation, you could devise a simple metal screen basket of fine mesh to take the place of the cloth strainer.
This idea has worked well for me, for extracting honey from comb-honey combs that were not ideal enough to sell as cut-comb, for unfinished round section combs, or those from top-bar hive supers. I hope someone else might find it useful as well.
Build a simple square frame of wood to fit over the top of your honey barrel/bucket. Staple or tack 1/2" mesh hardware cloth over this frame. Next, hang a piece of strong mesh strainer cloth down into the container (paint strainer works well for a 5-gal. bucket) so it is hanging down about halfway, securing it around the rim by tying or with clips.
Set the frame/screen over the top of the barrel. Now you're ready to "extract."
Lay one of your cut-out combs of honey on the screen. Then, using a wooden paddle or piece of wood, just mash the comb down through the hardware cloth. It doesn't take much effort.
The screen ruptures all of the cells and the honey/comb mix falls down onto the strainer cloth. The honey will drain from the wax over the next several hours. You can speed this up by setting the whole thing inside a car on a warm day. (Just don't sticky up your interior!) I would give it a couple days, anyway, in a warm, dry place with no bee access.
The honey will be as good as extracted. The actual mashing part goes very quickly once you get the hang of it. Compared to uncapping and extracting, it doesn't take long.
Once everything drains, you can remove the strainer with the dry wax and skim any froth off the surface of the honey, and then you're done.
For a larger operation, you could devise a simple metal screen basket of fine mesh to take the place of the cloth strainer.
This idea has worked well for me, for extracting honey from comb-honey combs that were not ideal enough to sell as cut-comb, for unfinished round section combs, or those from top-bar hive supers. I hope someone else might find it useful as well.
