Unfortunately, as a small diverse family farm, we do not have the time nor staff to harvest honey for others at this time. 

There are several methods to do this:

• Bee Brush 
• Bee Brush w low-speed blower
• Escape Screen
• Fume Board

Make sure you are ready to extract.

• Frames should be 80-90% capped on average to avoid having your honey ferment.
• Your frames should be warm and the honey flowable.
• Honey that is cold or crystallized in the cells is difficult or impossible to extract. 
• Pulling honey too early may be a problem with SHB sliming your honey. Don't pull more than 24hrs in advance. Ideally the day of harvest
• Super too heavy to pull? Pull one-frame at a time into an empty hive body or tupper container.

There are several tools & methods that can be used to decap honey. Included with the rental are:

• Uncapping Knife
• Uncapping Roller
• Uncapping Fork
• Cappings Scratcher
• Spatula
• Food grade Tray with Bar to Decap and Food grade Drip Tray w Honey Gate

You must remove or puncture the cappings to get the honey out of your frames BEFORE putting them in the extractor.

5 gallon Food Grade Buckets

Make sure you have adequate containers to transfer your honey to. There's nothing worse than not having enough buckets and having to leave to get more in the middle of harvesting your honey. 

Typically, you can fit two (2) supers into one 5-gallon bucket. It's common to only fill the buckets 2/3 full due to the weight of the honey and to minimize handle issues, such popping off or breaking the bucket due to poor design or bucket brittleness and causing a big honey mess if the bucket cracks when it drops.

Honey Bottling Kit

Because bottling is not always done at the same time as extracting. We do not include a Bottling Bucket with a Honey Gate in the Package, but you may find it handy to have at least one. 

We do have them for sale separately at the farm store and as part of a Honey Bottling Kit w 3 Micron Screens. 

Honey Gate

We do have honey gates for sale separately at the farm store

Different decapping tools have different purposes that may match a beekeepers goals better than another

Cappings Scratcher is used to uncap areas that a cappings roller or serrated decapping knife may not access as easily

Capping Roller removes less wax from the frames by just piercing the cappings rather than removing them. Puts more wax back into the bee yard faster

Decapping Knife works well with 9-frame honey frames in 10-frame boxes. Produces more cappings wax that can later be processed and used for value added products. 

Any big box store or even online sell 5 gallon buckets. The bucket should be clearly labeled as "food-grade".

Just because something is made from HDPE does not mean that it is virgin HDPE and food grade. The various dyes and manufacturing process may also make a bucket not qualify for the food grade label. 

You may also get them at a local bee supplier

You can also often get used food grade buckets from restaurants, bakeries and delis for free or a small fee. It's not a good idea to  use buckets from strong smelling foods, such as pickles, jalapenos etc as the residual odors that have penetrated the plastic may taint the honey's flavors. 

Additionally, we do have 5 gal Honey Bottling Kits for sale separately at the farm store and as part of a Honey Bottling Kit w 3 Micron Screens, which includes a 5 gallon food grade bucket with lid & honey gate as well as 3 micron screens (200, 400, 600)

Honey gates are for sale at the farm store as well.

Decapping Tanks are typically quite deep and used by sideliner beekeepers that typically end up with a lot more wax cappings than a backyard hobby beekeeper. 

We found we did not use the depth and adapted food grade trays to make a decapping tank that is more robust and less likely to crack. Functions exactly the same with drain holes, wooden frame rest and honey gate. 

A tangential extractor means you extract the honey from your frames one side at a time and you have to flip the frame to extract the second side.

A radial extractor means you extract honey from both sides at the same time.

The hand-crank 2-frame is tangential for either deep or super frame, whereas the 4/8 electric extractor is tangential when used w 4 deep honey frames and radial when used w 8 super frames

Typical manual (hand-crank) and powered extractors (6:28)

 Straining the honey (5:26)

The hand-crank 2-frame is designed tangetial extraction for 2 frames at one time either deep or super frames

The 4/8 electric extractor is tangential when used for 4 deep honey frames or radial when used for 8 super frames. You cannot harvest the 4 deeps and 8 supers at the same time 

Simple video on extracting (6:30)

Tips for Cleaning Extraction Equipment

• Allow one or two hours to clean up equipment
• Cleaning is best done outdoors before the bees are flying or after dark
• Be sure to clean inside AND outside as this is for food products..
• Cleaning requires lots of water and lots of time to air dry. If you hand dry, use clean, lint-free cloth
• Avoid all cleaning liquids or powders. They will leave a tell-tale residue and scent.
• All equipment should be washed with COLD water first, thoroughly rinsed with a garden hose, and air dried. 
  • First Use COLD water (a hose is OK) and dish soap along with gentle washing to loosen wax and honey. *NOTE: Wax will melt and make a big mess if you use warm or hot water initially to clean the extractor. 
  • Second, clean again with cold water.
  • Third Wash again with liquid dish soap,
  • Rinse well with HOT tap water,
  • Dry, and also let it air dry.
• Inspect honey gates, inside and outside parts, carefully for any trace of honey
• Sometimes boiling water is the only way to remove all trace of wax
• Do not disassemble extractor gear mechanism. Please do not disassemble the extractors to clean them. They don’t always go back together the same way as the original.
• Do not immerse the hot knife in water. Wipe it clean with a wet wash cloth. It will clean up faster warmed up a little but be careful not to burn yourself.

Thank you for returning it CLEANER than when you borrowed it.
 

Don’t forget You Should clean the extractor before use also. 

If there is not another reservation the next day right behind you, you may be able to rent the extractor and tools for an additional 32 hours.

During peak demand, you may be charged a fee if it is not back in time for the next reservation. Please be mindful that you may cause issues for that beekeeper that has that reservation.

We understand that things happen to good people! 

Just let us know as quickly as possible, so that the item may be replaced without delay, especially during peak season when there are other beekeepers relying on the same equipment.

We may provide you with a link to order the replacement part, if it is not something we stock in our farmstand. You will need to order the item and have it express mailed to us as soon as we send you the link. 

PLEASE DO NOT REPAIR anything on your own. This includes super glue, soldering or anything else that may permanently damage the unit and cause you to be charged for replacing the entire extractor or tool, rather than simply a replacement part.

If there is a rental loss due to damage, we will have to refund the other beekeeper and may charge you for this refund. 

Each situation will be evaluated on its own merit and we strive to be fair and amicable during this process, in hopes that you will be too :)