Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[alan]

I bought a honey extractor today.
I de- capped two frames and worked hard for 15 minutes or more,getting a sweat going,with little result.It appeared tha hardly any honey was being thrown out.
Is the extractor rubbish,is it not warm enough etc etc?

[zaunreiter]

The cells of the combs are pointing downwards. You need to lean the top bars towards the outside, so the honey is driven out of the comb. When leaning the bottom bars to the outside, the oney gets trapped in the cell.

[zaunreiter]

Like this:

[Broadwell]

Might be too that the honey has crystallised and gone solid. If you've got oilseed rape near you then this would make it probable. You can use an extractor for it, but with OSR the advice is to do it soon after taking it off the hive while it is still warm.

[alan]

I was going to ask that Q about crystalising,I suspect it has.
Would a really warm day in the conservatory make it run,or is it likely that iam stuffed?

[Broadwell]

Don't know, might be worth a try...? My guess is that it probably won't help. It sets rock solid in a bucket and you have to use heat and elbow grease to stir it into something more workable.

There probably is a way to get it out the combs though. Maybe look on other forums.

Where I've come across crystallised comb this year I've just put it in supers above new smaller colonies.

[alan]

I sholved the problem.
This is what I did.
I scraped the honey off with a spoon into a pan.I placed pan under grill to apply none direct heat,then sieved runy honey into jars!

[Barbara]

If you need to heat it, it is just as easy to cut it out of the frames into a slow cooker, place it on low and chop it up as it starts to liquefy and then strain it. I would be wary of putting it under a grill in case of fire.

Pleased you got it sorted though.

[alan]

Does melted wax in honey do any harm?Does it just give it waxey flavour?
Does it rise to surface or remain in the honey?

[Barbara]

Generally the wax will rise to the surface. Did you heat it hot enough to liquefy the wax? It's preferable not to heat it that hot if you can avoid it. If it did liquefy, you should have waited until the wax set again and then removed it as a solid disc off the top before sieving and jarring the honey. But no, wax in the honey will not do any harm other than maybe encourage it to crystalise more quickly as it provides a surface for the crystals to form on.

[alan]

Hi,
No I didn't really heat it,just warmed it.I have bottled it and now realise the wax has come to the surface.