Well meaning help, but aaargh! What now?

[Bumble]

A beekeeping friend looked after my bees for a couple of weeks, and added some supers. It was the right thing to do at the time because the bees needed the space. Trouble is that they used unwired frames prepared for cut comb, not the wired ones for use with an extractor

I'm left with some beautifully drawn, and quite heavy, frames packed full of honey but I'm sure they'll collapse when I put them through the extractor. I have no idea what to do for the best. Should I leave them be and risk it, should I try to wire them through the stored honey, or ...?

What would you do?

By the way, falling about laughing isn't an option. I've already done that.

[fatshark]

Buy (or beg space on) an Api Melter … http://www.paynesbeefarm.co.uk/uncapping-equipment/dana-api-melter … the people I know who use these process everything this way.

I certainly wouldn't try and wire them retrospectively.

I assume it's OSR so you can't actually use it for cut comb? I have some like this in storage … I'm just going to melt and crush it out when I get the chance.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Bumble, I extracted quite a few unwired frames last autumn using a manual tangential extractor - some survived OK, some collapsed and then had to be crush-and-strained. Some of the frames were thins, others were built up from starter strips. So I think start off using the extractor and hope you don't get too may broken ones.

[Little_John]

I assume it's OSR so you can't actually use it for cut comb?

Why not ? There's always that possibility you could be creating a niche product ... :)

And if it doesn't sell - you can still warm it, crush it, and strain it.

[Calum]

Hi
I would not recommend an Api Melter to anyone.. The heat damage to the honey would make it unsaleable as honey to my mind.
Might as well sell that product in a plastic squeezy bottle in Lidl.
But I am sure someone will disagree... :)

Extracting them at a low speed reversing the cycle often should be fine for extracting.
Or give the frames back to the bees and make them repack it in wired frames.

[Bumble]

Sadly, or perhaps fortunately if Calum is right, I don't know of anybody with an api-melter. (I don't know anybody who has that much spare cash!)

I've got a manual tangential extractor, so will give it a go and see what happens. I also have a large piece of cheesecloth, or is it muslin, that I can put over the top of a bucket for larger scale crush and strain.

Lesson learned, I think, to make sure I store frames mixed, with both wired and unwired in the same box so if anybody else is kind enough to help in the future it won't cause problems. I might even get more cut comb out of it too, instead of only using unwired later in the season.

[fatshark]

Sadly, or perhaps fortunately if Calum is right, I don't know of anybody with an api-melter. (I don't know anybody who has that much spare cash!)

It sounds like you don't believe the marketing hype "With the Dana api Melter, however, your honey yield is close to 100% which is why the machine will pay for itself in a matter of months."

That'll be £3,120 please :eek:

[Bumble]

Sorry, no, not for the amount of honey I'm going to be extracting. I can't imagine making that much in the next umpteen years, if ever!

I can see how it might be worth it for commercial beekeepers with a lot of cappings, they can sell the honey on to the baking industry. As it is, my cappings will be carefully drained, then rinsed and melted, the wax might be heavy enough to enter the local honey show.