As East Anglia Apiaries has grown, so has the amount of honey we need to extract each season — and our old hand-cranked extractor was starting to struggle.
Last year, the small extractor could only take three frames at a time. It worked, but processing a relatively small harvest could take most of the day.
It was certainly good exercise though — I ended up with arms like Popeye!
With the number of hives increasing, we now need to process several hundred frames during a busy harvest.
The solution was a new 20-frame electric radial honey extractor. Unlike the old machine, it can spin far more frames at once and there is no need to stop halfway through to turn them around.
We put it to work for the first time in May, processing around 200 early-season honey frames.
What previously would have taken a very long day became a much quicker and more efficient process, allowing us to handle larger harvests while still taking care with every frame.
A very welcome upgrade as the apiaries continue to grow.
