With numerous threads about heat gun uncapping starting to pop up, it's that time of year, folks seem to be extracting honey and looking for easier ways to uncap.
We tried something yesterday for the first time. I bought the uncapping punch from Mann Lake over the winter, it's like a little paint roller with spikes, at the same time we bought our new 9/18 extractor. We tried it out for the first time yesterday, and all I can say is WOW, does that make a messy / difficult task simple. First load, 18 medium frames, we had them uncapped and loaded into the extractor in under 10 minutes. We aren't set up with a rack to hold a load of uncapped frames yet, so we waited till the first load was spun out, then started the second load. From stopped to spinning again, was around 5 minutes, included unloading the first batch, uncapping and loading the second batch.
The only gotcha we ran into, a couple frames in the second load didn't extract fully, and after looking things over, we realized why. The roller needs to be cleaned of wax bits once in a while, or it wont press down far enough anymore. That only takes a few seconds with a fork to clean it up. Now we plan to clean the roller a bit between each load. Our workflow will be to first uncap 18 frames and get them onto a rack over a drip tray, then clean the roller, then wait for the prior load to finish spinning.
We've been contemplating various options for uncapping, and dealing with cappings over the last year, and until yesterday, we were totally unconvinced on what was the right route to take. Now we are convinced. We will build a little jig that holds one frame to hit with the spiked roller for uncapping, then a rack that'll hold a load for the extractor with a drip tray underneath. For dealing with cappings, we wont do anything, because there wont be any cappings to deal with.
The only caveat to all of this, our frames were all warm when we extracted, fresh off the hives on a 30C day, so it was (by our standards) hot out. But that applies to all methods of extracting, the honey flows much better when it's warm.
For folks struggling with uncapping, and contemplating expensive options, I would highly reccomend you try this gadget before spending the big bucks on a bigger / spendier gadget. We did, and I'm really glad we did. It worked a treat for us, and with a small amount of setup in place, it'll make extracting an easy one person job, uncap the next load while a load is spinning, and plenty of time to stop for a coffee after uncapping, before the next load is done spinning.
I've bought a lot of little gadgets over the years, with hopes they would make various tasks with beekeeping easier and/or more efficient. Most have been dismal failures, but, this one is a gem. We can uncap much faster than we can extract, and, as an added bonus, no buckets of cappings left to deal with when we are done extracting. Just empty combs, with little / no damage, ready to go back on the hives.
We are in the process of scaling up from a small handful of colonies, to 50+ over the next year or so. Our experience yesterday has completely changed our thoughts on how we will deal with uncapping come extraction time.
We tried something yesterday for the first time. I bought the uncapping punch from Mann Lake over the winter, it's like a little paint roller with spikes, at the same time we bought our new 9/18 extractor. We tried it out for the first time yesterday, and all I can say is WOW, does that make a messy / difficult task simple. First load, 18 medium frames, we had them uncapped and loaded into the extractor in under 10 minutes. We aren't set up with a rack to hold a load of uncapped frames yet, so we waited till the first load was spun out, then started the second load. From stopped to spinning again, was around 5 minutes, included unloading the first batch, uncapping and loading the second batch.
The only gotcha we ran into, a couple frames in the second load didn't extract fully, and after looking things over, we realized why. The roller needs to be cleaned of wax bits once in a while, or it wont press down far enough anymore. That only takes a few seconds with a fork to clean it up. Now we plan to clean the roller a bit between each load. Our workflow will be to first uncap 18 frames and get them onto a rack over a drip tray, then clean the roller, then wait for the prior load to finish spinning.
We've been contemplating various options for uncapping, and dealing with cappings over the last year, and until yesterday, we were totally unconvinced on what was the right route to take. Now we are convinced. We will build a little jig that holds one frame to hit with the spiked roller for uncapping, then a rack that'll hold a load for the extractor with a drip tray underneath. For dealing with cappings, we wont do anything, because there wont be any cappings to deal with.
The only caveat to all of this, our frames were all warm when we extracted, fresh off the hives on a 30C day, so it was (by our standards) hot out. But that applies to all methods of extracting, the honey flows much better when it's warm.
For folks struggling with uncapping, and contemplating expensive options, I would highly reccomend you try this gadget before spending the big bucks on a bigger / spendier gadget. We did, and I'm really glad we did. It worked a treat for us, and with a small amount of setup in place, it'll make extracting an easy one person job, uncap the next load while a load is spinning, and plenty of time to stop for a coffee after uncapping, before the next load is done spinning.
I've bought a lot of little gadgets over the years, with hopes they would make various tasks with beekeeping easier and/or more efficient. Most have been dismal failures, but, this one is a gem. We can uncap much faster than we can extract, and, as an added bonus, no buckets of cappings left to deal with when we are done extracting. Just empty combs, with little / no damage, ready to go back on the hives.
We are in the process of scaling up from a small handful of colonies, to 50+ over the next year or so. Our experience yesterday has completely changed our thoughts on how we will deal with uncapping come extraction time.
