Honey Harvesting Equipment

[PaloAltoMark]

Hi Folks:

I'm a new beekeeper and put up two hives this year.  At the end of the season, I expect to have 2-4 honey supers (40-80 pounds of honey) to harvest.

Our local bee keepers guild, allows members to borrow an extractor at now charge, but I would need to drive about 30 minutes each way to borrow it and I would need to clean the extractor when I'm done. 

My question is whether the extractor makes harvesting so much easier that it is worth the effort to borrow and clean it (2-4 honey supers).  If not, what method would you recommend and what equipment would I need to buy.

Also, I don't anticipate ever having more than my current two hives.

Many thanks in advance for your advice.

-Mark

[asprince]

Greetings, Crush and strain works for many. The only advantage of an extractor is having drawn comb to place back on the hives for refill. The bees will no have to redraw the wax. Do a search of this site for crush and strain. I think Linda has a good video on her blog.

Steve

[Ollie]

You can always make one ...

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,26611.0.html

This worked for my first couple of years.

[PaloAltoMark]

Hi folks:

Thanks for the info on the DIY extractor.  That will work just fine for the time being.

-Mark

[indypartridge]

Our local bee keepers guild, allows members to borrow an extractor at no charge, but I would need to drive about 30 minutes each way to borrow it and I would need to clean the extractor when I'm done.

There's gonna be clean up regardless of what you do, so that's not an issue. For me, I drive 30 minutes just to get groceries, so I wouldn't hesitate to borrow the extractor. For me, I'd say it would be well worth the effort.