The Madison County Beekeepers Association owns two honey extractors. The first is a 9-frame radial, hand crank, honey extractor. It was converted from a 2 frame, reversible. The second is an electric extractor that will handle 6 medium or shallow frames in a radial configuration or 3 deep frames in the tangential configuration. Both extractors are available for loan to any MCBA member.
Members can reserve on of the extractors more than one time per year but scheduling priority will be given to first time (per year) users. Be sure to read all of the information on this page below. Then, click the button below to complete a Google form to reserve one of the club extractors.
If you need additional information about either extractor, contact Jon Brumbaugh at his cell (567) 525-6791 by calling or texting. Depending on where the extractors are, Jon may help coordinate the extractor pick up from his house or possible from the member that is currently using the extractor.
Each club member is required to thoroughly clean the extractor after using it. Failure to do so can result in access to the extractor being denied. The user is responsible for the safe usage of the extractor and must agree to relieve the MCBA of any liability and or personal injury resulting from the use or handling of the extractor.
How to Use the Extractors
Manual 9-frame Extractor
The extractor has been converted from a 2-frame reversible to a 9 frame radial. Radial (in this case) means that it will extract the honey from both sides of the comb at the same time.
To use the extractor, uncap both sides of your 9 frames of honey (usually with a hot knife) and place them in the extractor “top bar” out. Try and balance the load by placing similar weight frames in positions 1,4, and 7 then 2,5 and 8, then 3,6 and 9. For best results start with frame 1 or 8 in the super (assuming you are using 8 frame supers) and place each successive frame in the sequence above. This will help balance the load. Turn slowly and increase speed until the honey is extracted from the frames. An unbalanced load will cause the extractor to walk all around the room when you turn the crank.
It will extract both medium and shallow frames but will not accommodate deep frames. If at all possible, leave the honey gate open while extracting. Allow the honey to drain out as it is extracted. This will keep honey from overflowing the moving parts in the bottom of the extractor which can reduce the operating life of the extractor. Obviously, you should use the gate to stop the flow while changing the catch bucket. Leaving the gate closed while extracting is not a problem as long as you do not allowed honey to rise to the point that it is able to enter the bottom bearing as this will significantly shorten the life of the bearings.
6-frame Electric Extractor
The operation and leading of the electric extractor is similar with one notable exception; specifically, the basket must be advanced using the speed adjustment knob on the top. With the switch in the Var (variable speed) mode and the knob set to zero, slowly turn the knob to advance the basket to the next position.
Once the basket is loaded with frames, slowly increase the speed in the Var mode until you reach the 30 percent position. Let the basket run for several minutes at this speed which should remove some of the honey allowing the frames to somewhat balance out. As with the manual extractor, you will have to hold the extractor down otherwise it will “walk” across your floor. It is unlikely that you will need to increase the speed above 50%. 10-15 minutes will extract 80 to 90% of the honey. An additional 10-15 minutes will extract most of the remaining honey.