Hi all, I just joined yesterday. My son and I were using our brand new (to us) extractor to extract three supers of honey that we had found at the place we got our two hives. Being new at this we blew out about four frames. So go slow turning the crank at first until some of the honey comes out.
BUT most important, a tip that we didn't find in any of the internet surfing we did before extracting is this - when you have a lot of broken comb in the extractor with the honey let it sit for awhile before opening the gate to let the honey into the strainer. The wax will float to the top and you won't end up with a gooey clogging mess in the strainer until the END of the process.
Now I know you experienced keepers are probably going "Well DUH!" but it wasn't inherently obvious to us until AFTER we made that mistake.
seems that is the way I learn best, to screw stuff up the first time?! Kinda fun way to learn when you are doing small in-expensive stuff. Kinda ruff on a guy when it is a diesel engine or something!
I extract about half on the first side then turn the fram around and do the other side completely, turn back to the first side and finish it. Have minimum blow out. :)doak
I just slowly turn up the speed of my motor.
To keep the valve closed while you extract is ok for a few frames. But if you are doing a bunch of frames, you have to let drain into some kind of container or else the honey will get too deep in the extractor and the frame rack will have to slosh through the honey.
Maybe for the future I should get another container with a gate valve just to let it settle. The frames we were spinning didn't have any support wires either.
QuoteMaybe for the future I should get another container with a gate valve just to let it settle. The frames we were spinning didn't have any support wires either.
I wire everything. Even then I get an occasional blowout. Not as bad though.