Bought an electric honey extractor today

[fried1765]

It has been 40 years since I have had bees (I am an old guy), but I am about to play with them again.
The local bee population has been very low, and the lack of fruit and berries was particularly obvious this year.
It is about to be winter here in the Northeast though, so this is certainly not the time to start with bees.
Well: I actually did start,......just today.
I bought a used (looks like new) Maxant 3100P electric powered honey extractor.
It will do 9 shallow frames (radially) at one time, so it is way more extractor than I am going to need, but what a fine piece of machinery it is.
Has a heavy duty stainless drum, stainless baskets, and a quality motor with rheostat control.
I had been considering a 4 star rated import, but the Maxant, made in the USA, is the cat's a__.
Over the winter I will buy and assemble the wood equipment, and buy other necessary supplies; so I am on my way to having bees again, after 40 years.
I will order bees in December, for late April delivery, then I'll feed 'em to get 'em started, and hope that those little buggers will work hard for me all summer long.
For 2019 I will have only 2 or 3 colonies.

 

[cqaigy2]

Sweet score! Ya i know. :laughing:

I've been thinking of getting back into them too. Used to only do full sized supers, but can't manage that kind of weight anymore. So probably full sized for the bottom two and maybe medium or shallow frames.

 

[fried1765]

Sweet score! Ya i know. :laughing:

I've been thinking of getting back into them too. Used to only do full sized supers, but can't manage that kind of weight anymore. So probably full sized for the bottom two and maybe medium or shallow frames.

I will use two deeps for the brood chamber, but only shallows above.
78 is too old for the weight of even the mediums.
I want it to be fun,..... not work.

 

[Bird]

When I was a kid (under 14 years old), we used to have 6 or 7 hives and I had to help Dad with them, but I never heard of a honey extractor until now. Very interesting, and I hope you do well with the project.

 

[rhunt]

A most interesting hobby, many years ago I had three hives working. The kids were very interested when I would show them the queen and teach them all about these wonderful creatures! Good luck to you and may you have many pounds of honey in the future. I used my wife's stocking as a strainer when extracting after spinning, it worked very well. Bob

 

[fried1765]

When I was a kid (under 14 years old), we used to have 6 or 7 hives and I had to help Dad with them, but I never heard of a honey extractor until now. Very interesting, and I hope you do well with the project.

It is for fun only. I am much too old to want to work at it.
I had a honey extractor (hand crank type) 40+ years ago, but I was in my 30's then.

 

[fried1765]

A most interesting hobby, many years ago I had three hives working. The kids were very interested when I would show them the queen and teach them all about these wonderful creatures! Good luck to you and may you have many pounds of honey in the future. I used my wife's stocking as a strainer when extracting after spinning, it worked very well. Bob

Did you wash the stocking first, or just use it as is..... for flavor?
Think I'll use a stainless strainer.

 

[Stimw]

There was a pretty good movie called "Ulee's Gold" starring Peter Fonda a while back and had some footage of the main character handling the hives and loading the spinner.
Movie plot was decent too.