Honey-extracting Room with High Standards of Efficiency and Cleanliness

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 91, Issue 6, 15 December 1955, Page 547

Honey-extracting Room with High Standards of Efficiency and Cleanliness

By

L. H. JOHNSON,

Apiary Instructor, Department of Agriculture, Palmerston North

IN nearly every honey house of recent construction it will be found that some new ideas have been incorporated which are not found in older buildings. For each special feature there may be a case for and against. The extracting room illustrated in this article is part of a honey house recently built by Mr. E. J. Whalley, of Kakatahi, Wanganui. All of the equipment is new and works very efficiently.

THE inside measurements of the room are 12ft. by 16ft. with an Bft. 6in. stud. Building Construction as Seen inside Special attention has been given to the floor. First the flooring was laid down side up and left loose for a few days, during which time a good deal of shrinkage took place. All of the flooring was then heavily coated with raw linseed oil, after which it was reversed and cramped together. All

nails were punched and stopped with putty. Any open joints or blemishes were filled with plastic : wood. The by-wood was then cleaned off with a sanding machine and the floor was coated with raw linseed oil. The purpose for making the floor so even was to ensure smooth running for any wheeled floor conveyance that might be used and the liberal application of oil to the timber was for three reasons: To hold the timber from shrinking; to render the floor impervi-

dus to water or honey; and to give a finished and pleasing appearance. Wall Sheathing and Ceiling Asbestos cement sheets to a height of 4ft. form the lower wall sheathing. Because the sheathing is breakable, it should be protected by fixing 3in. x lin. battens horizontally at lin. centres to the studs. The studs above this and the ceiling joists are covered with wood pulp soft board. Windows A pair of windows each 3ft. lOin. high by 2ft. 6in. wide of the glass louvre type that can be opened or closed are found to be satisfactory, as they are easy to operate, good for ventilation, and bunches of bees may be easily ejected. Cost of installation is below that of other windows. The sill height from the floor is 3ft. 9in. On the partition wall between the extracting and packing rooms there is a three-light window with two fixed panes of clear glass and one pane in halves made to slide open or shut. Not only does this admit light from another angle, but the rising level of honey in a tank may be seen from the extracting room. The door, in keeping with the quality of the rest of the interior

finishings, is a flush type fitted with a chromium-plated catch. All joints in the wall sheathing and ceiling have been covered with halfround mouldings and quarter-round strips have been fixed to all internal angles. The windows and doors have 3in. x lin. bevelled architraves fixed to the margins. Six-inch bevelled edge skirting boards have been used. Good Finish The walls and ceiling have been given three coats of glossy finish weather-resisting paint of an ivory tint, but the skirting and door have been coated with raw linseed oil and then varnished. All surfaces are washable. With this finish the room would make first-class office accommodation. Means of Heating the Room An electric heating element of the tubular type to operate at a moderate temperature is part of the equipment. A thermostat regulates the heat to any temperature that may be desired, usually between 80 and 90 degrees F. A load of honey in the comb brought in during the day and left overnight in this temperature will be in good condition to extract next day. . A wash-hand basin has yet to be fitted to the wall near the uncapping box. Extracting Plant To handle honey from the combs to the tank four pieces of equipment are used: Uncapping box, extractor, honey warming unit, and honey pump. Uncapping Box There is nothing new in the general principle of an uncapping box for draining honey from cappings, but the important point is that all of the honey so obtained is of first-class quality. To get the maximum drainage of honey from the cappings it is necessary:• 1. To keep the liquid honey thin by some method that will ensure a constant warm temperature. 2. To break the cappings up thoroughly and to turn them periodically.

z The uncapping box is a home-made appliance which can be easily understood from the diagrams. A supporting framework of 3in. x 2in. timber is sheathed on the outside with wood pulp soft board and on the inside with tinned steel so as to form a tank. To facilitate complete run-off the bottom of the tank or box has a twoway fall to the outlet mid-way on the side. Queen excluders placed along the sides, ends, and bottom make a suitable strainer. The strainer rests on a 3in. x lin. timber frame with a runner down the centre and is shaped to fit the bottom of the uncapping box. They may all be lifted out to be washed. To provide warmth two electric light bulbs are fixed under the strainer and are shielded from drips of honey. On the top a timber frame is fitted with a cross-piece to set frames of honey on for uncapping and also a rack for holding uncapped combs. This frame may be lifted off and a lid covered with wood pulp soft board may be placed on top to retain the warmth. All of the soft board has been given three coats of paint so that it is waterproof and washable. Supers with combs of honey are brought by a honey house wagon into the extracting room. To avoid unnecessary stooping, supers of honey with drip trays underneath are set on empty hive bodies placed on the floor. Combs of honey are uncapped over the uncapping box and all honey that drains from the cappings will flow through a chute which passes under the extractor to the warming unit. The appliance is mounted on four industrial plate castors so that it may be moved out from the wall to facilitate cleaning when necessary. When no more honey will drain from the cappings they are then forked out and put through a Baines melter. Honey that is recovered from the melter may be sold to a manufacturer or fed back to the bees. The treatment of cappings can be done without holding up the routine work of extracting.

Extractor The extractor is the latest 21-frame semi-radial machine and appears to be very satisfactory. It is powered by an electric motor which is bolted to a shelf on the wall. The chute is arranged to take the flow of - honey from the extractor outlet. Construction of Honey Warmer The honey warmer is of a design that has been in use for some years and overcomes a bottleneck in the warming and straining process. The warmer now used stems from the original adaptation of a Baines melter for this purpose by Mr. E. J. Kirk, of Wanganui. Of all the honey warmers

made this appears to be one of the best yet devised. The appliance has a small oblong tank with an inner and outer wall. On the inside between the two side walls and lin. up from the bottom a number of 2in. tubes are fixed in position with 3/16in. spaces between them. The space between the walls, the double bottom, and in the tubes holds water for warming which is heated by a 2000-watt electric element and the temperature of which is controlled by a thermostat. Honey flowing from the chute will fill the heater and keep it at the level of the outlet. All honey flowing in must pass between a series

of hot tubes near the bottom and rise up past the baffle to the outlet. The warmer .is also a gravitystrainer. Particles of wax and other bee comb debris do not readily pass between the warm tubes, but rise quickly to the surface and as the floating mass accumulates it becomes a strainer. From the outlet honey flows into a small tank 25in. x 12in. x 12in. The floor has been recessed to a depth of 12in. to take the warmer and tank. Honey Pump and Strainer , Bolted to a piece of timber on the wall is a modern gear-type honey pump. Connected to it are l|in.

diameter nickel-finished brass pipes and all the joints are held together by nickel-brass unions. They are tight fitting, but may be easily dismantled. As the pump has to pull the honey up from the bottom of the tank, it has to be primed with honey before being started. A float operates a mercury switch to control the motor and pump. The honey is pumped through the minimum of piping and bends to the required height so that from the delivery end through the wall in the adjoining room it gravitates through an open chute to the honey tanks. A large bulk of honey will retain its warmth for several hours during which time pollen grains and froth will rise to the surface from where they may be skimmed off. Instead of using gravity for clearing honey a fine strainer may be used. Warm honey is comparatively easy to strain through either cheesecloth, fine brass mesh, or Swiss bolting silk. This last may be obtained from a firm or decorator who specialises in silk screen process printing. No. 6XX is a suitable size of mesh. The silk is expensive, but is very strong and makes an excellent

fine strainer which should last for years. The honey-warming equipment may also be adapted for liquefying granulated honey in bulk containers. Extra heat required in the uncapping box may be obtained by fixing to the inside walls a “Pyrotenax” cable of 800 watts and plugging it into the power supply. The temperature should be under thermostatic control. Twelve 601 b. tins of granulated honey may be placed upside down with the lids removed in the uncapping box. After the lid has been closed and the heat switched on the honey that liquefies will run from the tins and gravitate through the chute to the heater. To liquefy all crystals completely the heater may be run at 160 degrees F., which should raise the temperature of the honey to 140 degrees F. From here the honey that flows into the small , tank is pumped through to the holding tanks, the whole process being automatic. This all-electric power, heating, and lighting set-up will put honey through the total process for less than £1 per ton. Daily Clean up If during the extracting period any drops of honey appear on the floor, they are promptly cleaned up and never left overnight. The outsides of the uncapping box and extractor are also cleaned daily. Bees brought in on the combs. will soil the windows, walls, and ceiling and these have to be cleaned continually. A long-handled mop is useful for this job. A vacuum cleaner is effective for periodically collecting bees from off the floor and windows. The inside finish of this extracting room and the standard of cleanliness measure up to the standard which Apiary Instructors have been advocating.