# How does an extractor work????



## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

I haven't bought anything for bees yet but really want to this spring if things work out. 
I am learning about several things as fast as I can get it to soak into this water logged brain of my. I feel good about what I have learned for the greenhouse, a garden, and my chickens for next year, but I want to add bees and meat rabbits next spring also.
The rabbits might wait another year, but I really want the bees for the honey and the pollination for the gardens also. Pollination mostly, but I love honey too. 
And I don't even know what an extractor is yet. :help: :help: :help: 
I'll say right now, I will not have the money to buy one until late next summer at best. 
I read the other thread about extractors and thought this would be a good time to learn this part of keeping bees. 
So Here's My questions.
Does it use centrifical force to remove the honey from the combs???
Has anyone here ever built thier own??
What RPM's do they turn?? (From what I have learned in the short time I have tried to learn about extractors, which is less than an hour so far, I take it a hand cranked one might turn 100 to 200 RPM's according to the size of the persons arm, LOL), but what is the best speed. 
And if I have something wrong, what is it??????

Thanks ahead
Dennis


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Extractors work some thing like your washing machine on the spin cycle. Yes you can build your own. I know a fellow that built one from a washing machine.
Speed of spin should start slow and speed up as the honey is removed. Although the home made one has only one speed but geared down to a slow one.

 Al


----------



## indypartridge (Oct 26, 2004)

I've seen plans for a number of different homemade extractors. One was made from a ceiling fan. Search the bee forums listed below - you'll find various ideas and plans.

If you're looking to start beekeeping in the spring, you have the winter to read, read, read. There's a lot of great info on the web. A few suggestions:
http://www.beesource.com
http://www.beemaster.com
http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm

I highly recommend getting involved with local beeks. Find a mentor. Beekeeping has many local "nuances", i.e., find out what successful beeks in your area do. See if there's a local group that offers a beginniner beekeeping class.
http://www.virginiabeekeepers.org/

Lastly, consider putting an extractor pretty far down your list of things to buy. Many times bee clubs have a "loaner" that you can use, or make friends with a beekeeper who has one. Spend your initial capital on hives, bees & other equipment.


----------



## dcross (Aug 12, 2005)

And there's always crush and strain!


----------



## ace admirer (Oct 5, 2005)

i've built one from ss expainded wire. for two full frames. guy in club made one from wood and a trash can in a few minutes...uses a variable drill motor to drive it. some plans on net. 

when purchased,,,,they do cost too much don't they


----------



## suzyhomemaker09 (Sep 24, 2004)

dcross said:


> And there's always crush and strain!



Yep..if you're starting small this is a viable option. Our 1st honey harvest was done this way, we took about 4 gallons off 1 hive.


----------



## boren (Jan 7, 2004)

We made a video of removing the supers and extracitng, we show the frames and the extrator spinning so you can get an idea of how it works:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GByw88J1C4[/ame]

Hope that helps, sometimes it's best to see it in action.


----------



## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

Like a washing machine on the spin cycle. It should be simple enough to build and it shouldn't cost that much to do it either.

indypartridge, you are right about starting at the bottom, so to speak and building up to the extractor but I am in a situation where I am trying to learn several different things at once. Right now I am building a pull behind tiller hoping to get a fall garden in. Fingers crossed and praying. I think I have the chickens down pat now, as soon as I can get them to lay the eggs where I want them to, LOL. I am all the time running up on someone elses junk, that's my gold so I am trying to learn as fast as I can what it will take to build an extractor so when the right tub, electric motor, or whatever turns up, I will know to grab it while I have the chance.
Unless someone here tell me differently, I doubth I will even take any honey from the hive next year to be extracted.
My reasoning, and if I am wrong, please tell me, but my gut felling is a new hive could be split by the end of the year with only a new queen and a second hive and they would need the honey to build up as fast as posible. 

Now this is something I haven't had the time to really look into as of yet. Bee keeping that is. I wanted to get a hive this year and had a great deal from a fellow HT'er, ( he knows who he is and I appriciate the offer, but the cash just wasn't thier and the dang varmits didn't leave enough to really worry about pollinating. Maybe next year it will come around for us. 

Al Thanks for stateing it so simple, and ace, I just happen to have 2 pieces of 22" x 8' sheet of 22 gauge SS expanded metal and 3 pieces of 2' x 8' pieces of 12 gauge stainless sheet metal. It will take some cleaning and it's bent up somewhat but I can rub the rough edges out, and it will get the job done. 

All I needed was to make sure I was on the right track, and many thanks once again to the good bunch of people here at HT, you have saved me no telling how many hours of searching for infomation. 

But I do still need to know if I am close on the 100 to 200 rpm's. That's going to be a main thing. 
But I have a while before I will need it anyway, LOL. I am just trying to learn what I can when it comes to lght that I need to learn it. 

Thanks to all of you and God Bless you all.


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Even if you don't have bees right now join a club. I got our first extractor because of a fellow coming to a meeting and having equipment to sell from and estate. Yes it was only a two frame hand crank job but has worked very well for small jobs and our student this year used it to extract her first honey.
We expanded to an old used 36 frame job a member of the club told us about being for sale. 
Now we have a big 72 frame SS model we paid a quarter of what is cost new, again thanks to a club member telling us about it.

Here is some of this years honey in frames set in the extractor.








 Al


----------



## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

Al, I don't even know of a club anywhere around here. As far as that goes, until I started looking at post on HT's, i didn't even know there were clubs. 
How can I find out if there are any around here ??? I can't even find any fresh honey any more. Anyone know of one in or around the Danville, Va. area???? :help: again, LOL. 
Dennis


----------



## Batt (Sep 8, 2006)

You might start with one of these contacts, and go from there.
Virginia Beekeepers I'm not sure where Danville is located.


----------



## ace admirer (Oct 5, 2005)

Why sir!, you forget your history. Danville, Virginia was the second capital of the Southern States,,,,,probably was not in the text books used outside of Virginia.

Halifax county (38 miles east of Danville) has a beekeepers club that used to meet on mondays. If that were not too far, you could call the Ag extension office in Halifax to find out for sure.

the meeting was more of a social thing,,,,but you could get lots of help if you asked for it. members would come out to your site and help you go through your hives, make suggestions lotts of good help.

let me know if interested,,,,i could hunt up some contacts.


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I can not say enough good thing about the 3 local area clubs we belong to or the 2 region clubs we are members of.
I am a bee keeper still because club members gave me swarms after our second start bees had to be killed because of illness. I would have quit throwing money into the empty pit at that point.
A club member extracted our honey for 2 years till we got our first extractor. 
Speakers at the regional club meetings taught me so much, one taught me how to raise my own queens.
Kare won a hive with a 3 pound package of bees raffled off at another regional meeting.

I took on a student this spring and found it rewarding. The smiles as she extracted her first honey was well worth the little time I spent with her.
This coming spring we are going to donate a 5 frame nuc to be raffled off at bee confernce.

 Al


----------



## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

I have to do something before spring but right now I have gotten myself tied up in trying to buy my daddy's well machine back. I hope I can put that together but right now I am spending all my time between it and getting a tiller working so I can try and get a fall crop in before it's too late which is coming too fast.

Adron thanks for the site and I looked at it and the closest one to me would be Halifax and the county line is about 45 miles from me. Maybe I can get to one of the meatings before spring gets here. 
I have so many irons in the fire right now I don't know which way to turn. Mainly learning everything I can as fast as I can, and hopefully geting my fathers well machine back. Any of you need a well drilled??? Just trying to line up some jobs before I try to get it. 
If I don't do anything else yet, I will continue learning as much as posible, buy a couple complete hives come spring because I plan on planting a lot more area next year than I did this year and I will have an electric fence around it. 
I had a lot of plants that grew good this year. Some did good until the ground hogs or deer got to them and then I had alot that just grew and didn't produce anything. And I know it's because they didn't get polinated. I had a really good garden the year before last and this year I tripled the size of it and didn't get as much from it as I did from the smaller one. I intend on tripleing it again next year, or atleast doubleing it, but it will be all fenced in. 
I found out this year that no bees and too many varmits could kill this country in a single year. It sure tore me up this year. 
Ace, I am not 100% sure of this, but I think Danville was the last capital of the Confederacy. I think I am right on that. The building still stands. It's a musiumem now. 
Maybe there is some bee keepers that live a little closer to me, but even so, I have already made a deal with someone to buy some hives. I didn't get to do it this year but I hope he will let me come and get them comes spring. 
Thanks again. I will keep ckecking on it.
Dennis


----------



## notaclue (Sep 23, 2005)

We did crush and strain the first year since we didn't pull a lot from the one hive of ferals we had. After that we accidentally fell into an extractor after one was purchased for my birthday, Christmas, anniversary and Fathers Day gifts for the next couple years. Some clubs will have a "community" extractor that can be loaned out. 

I did learn to remember to uncap the frames before I start cranking. :doh:


----------

