I recently went from having 3 colonies to suddenly having 6. I did not have equipment prepared to handle a doubling in the number of colonies I have. (I'm really new at this and I didn't actually expect to be this successful really hadn't expected the bees to make it through the winter. I felt like a bungling, inept newbee, and still do!)
Included with the hives I'd inherited were 2 boxes of cut comb foundation. So being a really cheap sort of person, I installed the cut comb foundation into 30 frames. I took 3 frames of honey from each of the original 3 hives I had, replaced it with cut comb foundation frames and put the honey frames into the new hives, 3 each, with 7 frames of cut comb foundation.
So my question is, has anyone had experience with putting cut comb into an extractor? Will the velocity of the extractor destroy the comb? Will I be able to reuse it for honey again? Should I expect it will make one heck of a mess and resign myself to figuring out what to do with so much cut comb honey, (and break down and buy some foundation I can reuse)? What about putting frames in with mounted popsicle sticks and having them make their own comb? Having read it takes 17-20 pounds of honey to make one pound of wax, I wonder if having them make their own foundation is something I should try only one or 2 frames at a time.
I welcome any and all thoughts on this!
Janet
You can extract honey with cut comb foundation, just go slow and easy with the extractor.
If you are bottling honey use the cut comb in some of the bottles, light honey makes it look really good. You would be surprised at the people that will buy it just for the looks.
G3
the key to extracting is start with a real slow rpm in the extractor and slowly build up speed as the frames become lighter. i rarely blow out frames but regardless sooner or later it will happen ive extracted foundationless frames with no problem but remember it is the starting speed that is the key to success
Great idea G3! I''l give it a try!
Thanks so much, guys. I will definitely go slow! I really want to conserve these frames so I don't have to invest any more money until I start bringing a little in... :-\
Quote from: mysticantiques on May 12, 2010, 09:44:56 PM
Great idea G3! I''l give it a try!
Thanks so much, guys. I will definitely go slow! I really want to conserve these frames so I don't have to invest any more money until I start bringing a little in... :-\
bringing in money? with bees? now thats a concept i cant hardly hold on to :-D
Well just had to had my 2 cents worth....I like cut comb honey I sell more of that the I do pure honey. Not that i don't sale pure honey it's just I get more people wanting the cut comb for so reason. Good luck an have fun.
James
All good info, but don't forget crush & strain. It's always another option, especially with the ones you blow out while learning.