BBKA Forum

Alfred wrote: ↑

08 Aug 2022, 16:59

Doubled last year's yeild

If I can shift it all that's ALL the equipment from the Qxs to the labels on the jars paid for.

Thanks for the fruit press Nigel-theres a small bonus bucket I wasn't expecting.

Lots of honey to be harvested from cappings....I estimate around 5-10% of centrifuged weight.
And still some left after pressing/filtering or whatever.
I'd like a cappings screw but bit overkill for my operation at 2.5K
https://www.abelo.co.uk/shop/cappings-screw/cappings-screw-press-honeywax-separator-50kgh/

That's beyond my diy capabilities.
Upgrade on the uncapping tank is all for now.

Uncapping is something I don't enjoy. Some comb can be uncapped with a heat gun which means that there are no cappings. However some does need a knife or such-like so the cappings can contain quite a bit of honey.

Swienty do a brush uncapper which looks interesting and there's disc uncappers too - like this.
https://simpleharmonyfarms.com/uncapper

That definitely looks interesting Adam and would certainly speed things up. Does seem to depend a bit on your supers being fairly uniform in width. I think the claimed 30 frames in 5 minutes will be a 2 man job....
I need a lot of wax for foundation exchange so heat gun is not a good option for me. Plus I like to say to my customers that no heat was used in the extraction process

Apart from my steam knife, which at current electricity prices is tooo expensive to use, the fastest uncapping tool I've found is what is colloquially known as a backwards uncapper as you draw it towards down the frame in one fluid motion. They have various widths including a full frame size. However as frames are often uneven I find the half sized one ideal. Can uncap and add to centrifuge a full super every 8-9minutes. It's 2 draws per side. But you will also need a cappings tray to let excess honey drain through for collection (or press out). About 5% of honey is left in the cappings.

I figured the 'hot knives' for taking off wax on combs were no different than heating wax to allow the honey to depart with a 'heat gun' so decided to run with it!!

The backwards uncapper is cheaper from Thornes than from ebay.

I have one hive double brood and it is bringing in honey by the bucket, a super I put on 10 days ago is almost full and capped, today I put a fourth super on. On the other hand another hive that produced 40 lbs of honey in spring has done nothing since.

Four supers left to extract now and varroa treatment is on all hives apart from one where I introduced a queen to a definitely queenless hive. They decided to kill her - an unusual occurence for me and more so at this time of year.
Two of my production colonies which had 2021 queens in them have not been looked at for a while have decided to re-queen themselves over the past month or so. (One of them got quite ratty of late and was earmarked for re-queening in any case - they do seem better now*).
The advantage of marked and clipped queens is that you be certain that a new queen is present as queens don't re-grow wings!

*Has anyone seen it before that a queen can actually make a colony badly behaved, just by being there? It's not common as we are usually told that a queenless colony will be worse than a queenright one, however I noticed it a year or two back that a nuc improved immensely when I removed a failing queen from it.

Visited my apiaries on the North York and Middleton Teesdale moors and I am gobsmacked as every super is rammed full and capped. I made a big mistake just putting 3 supers on some and only 2 on others, ever the pessimist Brood boxes are rammed full also now Put extra supers on all colonies and hope they shift some of it. Heather looks the best I have ever seen it so possibly more to come. Its been a fantastic Summer after such another dreadfull Spring.

Looked at my three hives, two rammed full of honey 6 supers between them, the other I fear has lost a queen. There appears to be two or three small superceedure cells, but no eggs or lava. Will have to double brood one of the other hives for the winter as I doubt there will be a successful queen this late in the year.