Beekeeping is not an inexpensive hobby by any means unless of course you want to do beekeeping using traditional means of practice. When I say “traditional” I mean “Little House on the Prairie” traditional. When Pa and Half-Pint would venture out into the great big woods and find a hive lodged in a tree hollow. Half-Pint would set fire to the tree while Pa cut it down with his double bladed axe like Paul Bunyan. Together they walked home with 180 pounds of comb on Pa’s back while Half-Pint lovingly looks up to Pa and says “I love you Paaaa!.” That worked during 1880’s but now a days there are not many wild hives in the woods due to the mites and as folksy as this sounds it is a lot of work.
Most modern day beekeepers like to do things efficiently with as little mess as possible so that our spouses won’t clobber us over the head with grief. This being said we arrive upon our most expensive purchase when it comes to being a hobbyist bee keeper. The extractor. Careful consideration must be given when searching for the right extractor. For my part, I made a poor choice. But knowing what I know now, I know what to look for the next time I buy a new one in 2024.
- First, it may not even be necessary for you to buy an extractor. If you join a local club they may have one you can use on loan or for a small rental fee. Or you can join in with a few other beekeepers and share the cost of buying one. This is probably the wisest route. However if you live far away from other beekeepers or just don’t like the way Earl cares for his own equipment, you may want to purchase your own.
- What size. If you are a hobbyist beekeeper of about 1-10 hives you may want to purchase only 3 or 9 frame extractor. I myself have a nine frame extractor which serves its purpose well. If you are a commercial beekeeper you probably know way more than I do so I wont make a recommendation.
- Hand crank or power radial style of extractor. My extractor has a hand crank which is not worth a $&!*. The mechanism should work in theory. The hand crank is connected to a mechanism with teeth that connects to another mechanism with teeth. The idea is that you have the ability to disengage the hand crank so that it does not spin crazily while the extractor spinner slows down. Unfortunately the gearing is made of a hard plastic that seems to slip when turning beyond a few revolutions per minute. I bought my extractor(see link) from Brush Mountain Bee Farm. Usually they sell good equipment but this thing is junk for being as expensive as it is. It is so poorly designed we had to tape the two sets of gears together so it would not disengage. Next time I might go for something like what you can see here. Solid construction without the use of plastic gearing. King Honey’s Roto-Blast H-1000 instead of the Wimpomatic Plastojunk 2000.
- But next time I may go the route of purchasing a powered radial extractor. You can fly through the frames and still use your arm later that evening to drink a cold one. However you will shell out buku money. Or maybe you are a MacGyver of sorts and can make your own extractor out of bicycle wheel spokes and old rain barrels like this guy. MacGyver 3000 Honey Extractor.
- When you extract try to secure your extractor to a stable surface using bolts. Your extractor should have holes at its base on each of the legs for you to affix it to the floor. When you start getting some speed the extractor will begin walking on its own down the driveway unless you have one person holding it down while the other person cranks.
- Extractors can run you about 250.00 – thousands of dollars depending on the quality, features, and make. Try to look for used ones in bee periodicals or beekeeping forums under the for sale section. If the extractor came from a hobbyist it is probably still in very good shape as it most likely used only once or twice a year. If it came from a commercial operation be more wary especially if it is motorized as they put a lot of wear and tear on their equipment.
- If you buy new and it is cheap it is probably junk. Although I bought new and it was not cheap and it is junk. My best set of advice is if you are going to buy a hand-cranked extractor make sure all of the gearing is metal and not plastic as you can see in the picture. If you buy a motorized extractor this will not be an issue for you because by the nature of the motor it should all be metal gears.
An extractor is an essential part of your operation. In days past people used to put the honey comb in cheese cloth and pressed out the honey. This was effective however it made it hard practice beekeeping as you destroyed the essential structure of the hive. Using an extractor it is now easy to put frames into a rack and spin out the honey with little or any damage to the comb. Empty frames are then put back into the hive to be filled again thus restarting the cycle.
One sad fact about beekeeping is that it is a dying art. As it goes by the wayside, so do the manufactures of beekeeping related wares. As a result there are far less choices than there used to be. Doing a quick online search I only found 2 manufactures of extractors and that was King Honey and Maxant. The other extractors I see sold in most of the catalogs today are made by the Chinese and sold generically. Maybe making your own is not such a bad idea.
