If you’re a beekeeper looking to extract honey from your honeycombs, a honey extractor is an indispensable piece of equipment. Designed to preserve the integrity of the comb while separating the honey, a honey extractor use centrifugal force to accomplish this work efficiently.
The extractor comprises a spacious plastic or stainless steel drum, housing a frame basket. As the basket spins, it propels the honey outwards, allowing it to coat the inner walls of the drum. Eventually, the honey accumulates at the bottom of the drum, ready for filtering and pouring. The beauty of this process lies in the fact that the wax comb remains intact, enabling the bees to reuse it.
Before you can extract honey using a honey extractor, the wax capping on the frames must be removed. Bees seal the cells of honey with a thin layer of beeswax, indicating their readiness for storage within the hive.
Now, let’s explore the various types of honey extractors available on the market:
Manual or Electric Extractor:
- Manual Extractor: These extractors feature a built-in hand crank, allowing you to spin the frames manually. They offer affordability and independence from power sources. Hobby beekeepers with fewer than 10 hives often find manual extractors suitable.
- Electric Extractor: Powered by an electric motor, these extractors provide convenience and speedy extraction. Commercial beekeepers or those with a substantial number of hives prefer electric extractors. Once the frames are loaded, you can immediately start uncapping the next batch for extraction.
Radial or Tangential Extractor:
- Tangential Extractor: Commonly used by small-scale hobby beekeepers, tangential extractors hold the frames with the honeycomb facing outward. However, they only extract honey from one side of the frame. To extract honey from the other side, you need to flip the frame and repeat the process.
- Radial Extractor: With radial extractors, the frames sit in the basket with the top bar facing outward. This design allows honey to be forced out simultaneously from both sides of the frames.
Size of Extractor:
When choosing a honey extractor, several factors come into play:
– Cost: Larger extractors tend to be more expensive.
– Space: Consider the dimensions of your beekeeping setup, as larger extractors occupy more room.
– Time: Larger extractors can accommodate more frames, allowing for faster honey extraction.
As a general rule, an extractor can handle approximately double the number of hives as the number of frames it holds. For example:
– 2-frame extractor for up to 4 hives.
– 4-frame extractor for up to 8 hives.
– 8-frame extractor for up to 16 hives.
– And so on.
The most satisfying aspect of beekeeping is undoubtedly harvesting the honey. To optimize your honey extraction process, invest in a high-quality honey extractor. At multi sweet, we offer a wide range of honey extractors suitable for both commercial beekeepers and hobbyists. we offer 2-72 frame extractors and 2-8 frame manual honey extractors, 2-72 frame Dadant honey extractors.l Our extractors are designed to meet your specific needs, ensuring you can harvest as much honey as possible while saving valuable time. Contact us today to find the perfect honey extractor for your beekeeping endeavors.