Honey Extraction 2021: Day 1

[@pirateprospecting707]

Great video buddy!! It would have been better if you shared the dog shredding the cushion and the...FEET!!!! I LUV ME SOME FEET!!✅😉😉😉😉🤣🤣🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

[@BKBees]

lmao, firstly, I'm definitely pinning this comment, secondly, gonna show Katie the second she walks in the door. Thanks for the laugh and the continued support brother.

[@pirateprospecting707]

@@BKBees Always ✅😉🤣🏴‍☠️

[@mattrose9778]

As someone that grew up in the UP and have been stuck in the lower (Muskegon now), I miss the lack of humidity. I’ve got to imagine that dries the honey down quite a bit quicker. Thank you for the time with the bee club tonight!

[@BKBees]

The summer is fantastic UP here. So nice to work bees in July in high 70s and breezy. Thanks to you guys for having me. I'm always happy chatting bees.

[@donbearden1953]

Brett, I’m happy things finally worked out so you could post videos again. I hope your extraction process went well for you and Katie!

[@BKBees]

Thanks, Don! Things went well, as well as they could have. We did like a quarter of the total amount the day I filmed this video, and then life and bee stuff got in the way preventing me from extracting the rest for another month. So we had a messy kitchen with honey boxes everywhere for a literal month. I'm very glad to be on the other side of that chaos.

[@billybradley410]

Awesome video brotha! I was digging the music from your video man. As a musician and a beekeeper it was one of the best extracting honey videos I have ever seen. Love all your content and I have learned a great deal about beekeeping from you videos. Keep grinding my man!

[@BKBees]

Thanks dude. It's tough finding good tunes in the free audio library.

[@a.patrickgibb4456]

To addresses the wobble of the extractor, i suggest you put some castors underneath the board that the extractor is fixed to. That allow the whole thing to move a little. It's counter-intuitive but it works. That is what I do with my extractor. I got the idea from somewhere on the Internet so you can probably find videos.

[@Gdf143]

Where do you get your bulk bee supplies?

[@johnvisco3931]

Try screwing the exactor to a wood pallet. Much more stable. Doesn't scratch the floor and you can stand on the pallet to stabilize the extractor rather than leaning on it.

[@BKBees]

That extractor is actually screwed to that pallet on the floor. After that first extraction day I just stacked like 8 honey buckets on the pallet and it kept everything together pretty well. Thanks for the comment, John!

[@johnvisco3931]

@@BKBees couldn't see the pallet in the video. Keep up the videos. Informational and fun as always.

[@BLachance75]

How long do you let the buckets sit before skimming the wax off the top.

[@noahriding5780]

So I was curious to see what you think about something... I'd been building my own boxes, and its sort of winter-ish right now. When I was cutting the boards with the saw the other day to build a box, a bee came out in like 42% weather. It got me wondering if loud sounds can disturb the natural hybernative torpor that the bees go into once it gets cold? I'd also worried about this because there was another time when a stressed out hive suddenly came out of the box when I was using a saw also a month previous to that, even though in both times, I wasn't using the saw next to the bees. (I was still about a hundred feet away from them in both instances.)

[@BKBees]

Bees don't really do the whole torpor thing, honey bees don't at least. When they're in the box and it's 40 some degrees outside they're doing normal hive stuff, cleaning, walking, feeding the queen, tending to brood if there is any, that kind of stuff. So, if a loud noise happens they might be alerted to head outside, but it isn't pulling them from a torpor state. I would advise against rising them out of cluster when it's much colder than the 40's, even though they aren't in torpor, they are clustered tightly and any movement away from that tight cluster can cause too much cold, too much energy expenditure. So yeah, you probably scared those bees to come find out what was up. No, you didn't harm them in any way.

[@dwaynelevandowski5506]

What do you really think of that uncapping tool you're using. It's great seeing you guys......

[@BKBees]

Hey Dwayne! Thanks for the comment dude. We love that tool. I will buy a couple more before next year, and see if there are any out there that are made of a higher quality metal, but other than that the tool and design is great.

[@RyanMcDonnough]

6:20 LOL

[@BKBees]

Is that the feet joke? I hope it's the feet joke. I expected that one to get more of a reaction than it did, lol.

[@RyanMcDonnough]

@@BKBees It’s the feet joke. So funny. Nice work

[@lordmike9384]

with the amount of hives and honey you have im surprised y'all don't have a more sophisticated extraction system.

[@BKBees]

You should have seen us last year, lol. This is the very first year we've ever used an electrified extractor. The last bunch of years we just hand cranked it.

[@lordmike9384]

@@BKBees thats crazy. i bought a 20 frame maxant extractor when i only had two hives. i wouldn't have the patients for a hand crank and i would probably break it trying to hard. lol. now i have 50 hives and can't wait to get a bottling system. lol

[@BKBees]

Man you'd be surprised how hard you can crank a Mann Lake extractor.

[@davidmoore613]

Hi. Why don't you strain the honey directly as it comes out of the extractor into the bucket rather than later.

[@BKBees]

That slows the process down a lot. I hate scraping screens and waiting for the screens to clear before I can continue spinning. It's just a nicer process to get it all into buckets and then strain as we process the buckets into bottles.

[@dennisnieft1270]

Brett nice to see another video been awhile.I can't hardly wait to get an extractor.For now it's old school method with only 8 supper's.Thanks from NE Wisconsin.

[@BKBees]

Thanks for the comment, Dennis. Yeah we scraped a few frames at the start too, but then we bought a 3 frame hand crank extractor from Mann Lake that served us really well. I'd suggest you look into something like that.

[@fezwhy]

Watching the extractor spin is mesmerizing. So knowing what you know now what will you do different next year? How will you get the honey to flow better out of the frames? I had no idea that big extractor only held half the deep frames. Will you bolt it to the floor?

[@BKBees]

Boy, I haven't thought about next year too much yet... Next year we're bringing back the queen operation so less attention will be paid to honey. Hopefully, honestly, that means we get less honey, I'd be totally happy with that. Either way, my only sure thing I will change is not waiting for weeks to start extracting. I need to do a July pull and an August pull, and extract them right after they come off the hives.

[@BrooklandsHoneyBees]

Great video thanks for sharing :D extraction time is always a fun time of year. Hope you and your bees are well :)

[@BKBees]

Thanks! I always think it's a fun time of year as the boxes start to stack up, but by the end of extraction I hate honey so much, lol.

[@BrooklandsHoneyBees]

@@BKBees haha couldn't agree more! Thanks again and all the best

[@kathyhathaway8823]

It is good to see you all back working putting out video’s about your season an it looks like it turned out to be a great season . I was watching your extraction an was thinking. Do you think you can get three racket straps ( NEW ) an hook to the top edge of your extractor tank an come down to your pallet somehow an pull tight so maybe it will help with the wobbly extractor. Just a thought. You may have to put maybe a rug under the pallet so it does not scratch your floor up . 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️. Keep your video’s coming. Thanks

[@BKBees]

I'm not sure if the connection from the top of the extractor to the pallet would lend anything in terms of structural stability. I'm sure it couldn't hurt. The days after the day in the video I just stacked honey buckets on the pallet and it worked really well. Thanks for the comment, Kathy!

[@russellkoopman3004]

Welcome back stranger. LOL So good to see your videos again. I have used that type of uncapper when the comb is short and the knife can't get at it. Your wife is so good at it. You didn't mention the brand name of you extractor. This week I bought an electric 8 frame from Hillco 800E that looks really sharp. Hope it works better than yours. My little manual 3 frame transgentel was a lot of work extracting 1000 lbs. If it was a radial it might have been okay. Hope to see a few more of your videos this fall. Have a good Thanksgiving.

[@BKBees]

Thanks for the comment, Russell! Not sure what brand that extractor is, it's pretty old, we bought it from our old bee mentor. I'm sure a brand new 8 framer is going to be awesome. Especially if you aren't trying to put deep frames in it. That's the real problem that I'm having with mine is that it just isn't big enough to comfortably fit deeps.

[@juskonig]

Always look forward to your vids,...how many supers does it take to fill a bucket (on average/typically)? Thnx

[@BKBees]

Around 1.33 boxes to a bucket. 3 boxes is right around 2 buckets.

[@tmoore8539]

Curious what uncapper you use. I have a heated uncapping knife with less than optimal results. Also, any reason you don't filter as the honey comes out of extractor?

[@BKBees]

The last year or so we've been using a weird fork scraper thing. It works really well. www.amazon.com/POLLIBEE-Uncapping-Scraper-Beekeeping-Equipment/dp/B07RHC3JC1/ref=asc_df_B07RHC3JC1/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=343257889873&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2340077615934094448&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9017725&hvtargid=pla-758808664556&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=68270154919&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=343257889873&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2340077615934094448&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9017725&hvtargid=pla-758808664556

[@BKBees]

And as far as why we don't strain right out of the extractor, that just slows the process down too much. We own like 4 sets of strainers but even with that amount they end up getting clogged and slowing extraction down. Rather than doing that we strain the buckets right before bottling.

[@leebraddock8624]

Awesome man, I have about 150 hives for blueberry pollination on our farms, wish I had 1000, never can have enough, if you want to set some hives on our farms we invite you, also have many other things for the bees to forage on! We have tons of gal berry and titi on the property

[@BKBees]

That sounds great. Those are southern honey plants, right? Like Georgia/Florida?

[@leebraddock8624]

@@BKBees yes!

[@leebraddock8624]

@@BKBees read up on them and you will see that bees love them, lots of flow from those as well as others

[@BKBees]

@@leebraddock8624 I used to work with a beekeeper out of southern Georgia, Marc Simmons, and when I went down there to help shake packages the bees were on the titi and were either getting over or getting ready for the brazilian pepper.

[@leebraddock8624]

@@BKBees yes, and the galberry, that's a big one too!

[@peterlightbody8443]

Interesting , I think you need to invest in a shed and set up more on a permanet basis, had your problem of shaking , anchored my extractor to the floor , much better and I can walk away for 15 mins .

[@BKBees]

Yeah, a honey house is in the plans for sure. Problem is we just bought a house house, so it'll probably be a couple of years before we can pull that off.

[@lexfiref11]

First