Thanks for all the effort you put into the making off the videos, I don’t sling my honey to be honest to much sticky work, I just put it in my wax capping extruder 100 kg a hour one, the same one to press my wine grape
Great content ! Thank you so much for sharing this. TH-cam has a lot of content on bee ‘husbandry’ but far less on the actual processing of the crop, particularly for smaller producers like us ( running less than 100 hives) We have the Logar version of the cappings melter and it has revolutionised our extraction , we have also found propolis and older wax is a nightmare to clean up on the grill, would also recommend the cheesecloth option as another commeter recommended 👍
The main issue with hawthorn honey is that it goes sugary very quickly, I always had issues selling it but lately there seems to be a move at least locally to asking particularly for this honey. So honey that frequently went back to the bees is now finally paying for itself. I have one customer that has some other local ladies applying this honey to their faces as a cleansing and antimicrobial rub, and they swear by it.
Great informative video as always, Thank you. I'm a new bee keeper and and can't afford something like this. Is there a budget way of separating wax and honey to not lose it? it looks like so much honey can be lost just from uncapping. Thanks again 😀
I just tried something this year that I am happy with. It's simply melting the cappings in a double boiler. And by double boiler, I mean a pot of water with another pot with the cappings inside. What you will be left with is partially cooked honey on the bottom and wax on the top. You can use or sell it as baker's honey. It does NOT return the high quality of honey that Gruffy's machines do. I use it for caramels, BBQ sauce, or sautes. I believe you could use it for mead as well.
If you are a commercial beekeeper it seems obvious that you cannot afford to 'discard' the honey trapped in the wax cappings. It will therefore be very interesting to see what the results of the laboratory test will conclude as to the quality of the heated honey compared to the non-heated honey, but I presume it all depends of how much heat the honey is exposed to, and for how long. I do think that a lot of people who go out of their way to get, and not least pay for real raw honey, will expect it to be just that though. The question is therefore where the very fine line is between raw honey and processed honey.
The honey isn’t exposed to heat for a long time. + it would be crazy to discard that honey after the bees spent the whole year to produce it. But in the grand scheme of things it’s a small percentage of honey that you produce actually goes through this. It’s actually illegal to call your honey raw. Even if it’s a fresh pice of cut comb. I wonder if they will change the regs in future.
Honey stored in buckets, after spin extraction, and allowed to crystallise can be raised to a temperature of between 35°C - 40°C in a warming cabinet or bain-marie. Levels of HMF and alpha amylase aren't commonly measured, but short durations of heat not exceeding 40°C would rarely spoil honey. In this melter, you can leave cappings to drain overnight, so the sump has cold honey already waiting to cool down any warmed honey which drips through the bottom screen. Nice video, Gruff. Looking forward to your test results. 👊
@@gwenyngruffydd I wasn't aware that you cannot call it raw honey (if it is raw of course) and just by doing a quick Google search I can find several UK companies selling "raw honey". Sometimes life is complicated by too many regulations....but probably for a reason I suppose.
@_J.F_ there was a legal battle between rowse and hilltop regarding the term. Depending where your based trading standards came down hard on it. Harder in some regions than others.
@@gwenyngruffydd After looking into it a bit further it seems there is an EU regulation that prohibits the use of the word "raw" unless it describes something specific to the product and not something that is common for all similar products. Reminds me a bit of the recent video where you have the vet out to assess your situation. A bit as if the rules are being made to keep certain professions busy.
I swear by my Swienty apimelter, I couldn’t live without it. My top tip for you is to line the filter tray with cheese cloth, I buy it by the roll, it’s as cheap as chips and you can compost it when you’re done. Your honey and wax will come out super clean, the wax is plenty clean enough for bulk sales and the honey requires minimal filtering and is ready to jar, It also keeps your apimelter way cleaner.. I also use it in two stages, I do a honey melt @ 68 top and 30 bottom. then I lift the tray and scrape out all the honey, any wax that makes it through the cloth gets put back on top, i then crank both up to 80 for a wax only cycle. The wax gets poured straight into large moulds. You do end up with a tiny amount of cooked honey under the last wax block but it’s minimal for time saved. Let me know what you think if you try it out.. D
Great tips. I know another beefarmer that lines the mesh with a fabric like a pre filter too. He swears by it but I’ve never tried it. Will need to try it. Cleaning it at the end is the worse! Soda crystals is your friend 😂😂
Hi Gruff great video as usual thanks again
Thanks Colin 😊
Great video really enjoyed, nothing better than a Welsh accent
😆🏴
Thanks for all the effort you put into the making off the videos, I don’t sling my honey to be honest to much sticky work, I just put it in my wax capping extruder 100 kg a hour one, the same one to press my wine grape
Lots of great information- You are waaay beyond my level- but I appreciate the knowledge 😊👍
Thank you ☺️
Great content !
Thank you so much for sharing this.
TH-cam has a lot of content on bee ‘husbandry’ but far less on the actual processing of the crop, particularly for smaller producers like us ( running less than 100 hives)
We have the Logar version of the cappings melter and it has revolutionised our extraction , we have also found propolis and older wax is a nightmare to clean up on the grill, would also recommend the cheesecloth option as another commeter
recommended 👍
Thank you! 😊
Cheesecloth….seems to be a running trend there. Will need to try it out
Gruff can you share how you clean out the bottom?
Lots of warm water and soda crystals!!
Great video thanks. Do you do a full clean after every run or do you wait until the end of the season. Thanks
Wait till the job is done 😊
The main issue with hawthorn honey is that it goes sugary very quickly, I always had issues selling it but lately there seems to be a move at least locally to asking particularly for this honey. So honey that frequently went back to the bees is now finally paying for itself. I have one customer that has some other local ladies applying this honey to their faces as a cleansing and antimicrobial rub, and they swear by it.
A new market for us maybe! 😆
Great informative video as always, Thank you. I'm a new bee keeper and and can't afford something like this. Is there a budget way of separating wax and honey to not lose it? it looks like so much honey can be lost just from uncapping. Thanks again 😀
It’s either heat, screw press or a specialist spinner.
Or you could bag the cappings up in a special bag and spin it in the extractor.
I just tried something this year that I am happy with. It's simply melting the cappings in a double boiler. And by double boiler, I mean a pot of water with another pot with the cappings inside. What you will be left with is partially cooked honey on the bottom and wax on the top. You can use or sell it as baker's honey. It does NOT return the high quality of honey that Gruffy's machines do. I use it for caramels, BBQ sauce, or sautes. I believe you could use it for mead as well.
@rtxhoneybees doing that is fine if your going to sell it as bakers.
It’s a good option for people with a few hives.
It looked as if you let the wax set in the Apimelter. Do you just hack it out or did I miss something?
Yea I let it sit. It peels up easy because of the shape of the bottom of the tank.
Does it have a filter built in?
A very very course one. It leaves large bits though so I wouldn’t actually class it as a filter.
Very good video. Very informative thank you. We use a solar wax melter but we only have 35 hives tho.
If you are a commercial beekeeper it seems obvious that you cannot afford to 'discard' the honey trapped in the wax cappings. It will therefore be very interesting to see what the results of the laboratory test will conclude as to the quality of the heated honey compared to the non-heated honey, but I presume it all depends of how much heat the honey is exposed to, and for how long. I do think that a lot of people who go out of their way to get, and not least pay for real raw honey, will expect it to be just that though. The question is therefore where the very fine line is between raw honey and processed honey.
The honey isn’t exposed to heat for a long time.
+ it would be crazy to discard that honey after the bees spent the whole year to produce it.
But in the grand scheme of things it’s a small percentage of honey that you produce actually goes through this.
It’s actually illegal to call your honey raw. Even if it’s a fresh pice of cut comb.
I wonder if they will change the regs in future.
Honey stored in buckets, after spin extraction, and allowed to crystallise can be raised to a temperature of between 35°C - 40°C in a warming cabinet or bain-marie. Levels of HMF and alpha amylase aren't commonly measured, but short durations of heat not exceeding 40°C would rarely spoil honey. In this melter, you can leave cappings to drain overnight, so the sump has cold honey already waiting to cool down any warmed honey which drips through the bottom screen.
Nice video, Gruff. Looking forward to your test results. 👊
@@gwenyngruffydd I wasn't aware that you cannot call it raw honey (if it is raw of course) and just by doing a quick Google search I can find several UK companies selling "raw honey". Sometimes life is complicated by too many regulations....but probably for a reason I suppose.
@_J.F_ there was a legal battle between rowse and hilltop regarding the term. Depending where your based trading standards came down hard on it. Harder in some regions than others.
@@gwenyngruffydd After looking into it a bit further it seems there is an EU regulation that prohibits the use of the word "raw" unless it describes something specific to the product and not something that is common for all similar products. Reminds me a bit of the recent video where you have the vet out to assess your situation. A bit as if the rules are being made to keep certain professions busy.
Is it possible for bird feeders with wild seeds
The black crud at the end?
I swear by my Swienty apimelter, I couldn’t live without it. My top tip for you is to line the filter tray with cheese cloth, I buy it by the roll, it’s as cheap as chips and you can compost it when you’re done. Your honey and wax will come out super clean, the wax is plenty clean enough for bulk sales and the honey requires minimal filtering and is ready to jar, It also keeps your apimelter way cleaner.. I also use it in two stages, I do a honey melt @ 68 top and 30 bottom. then I lift the tray and scrape out all the honey, any wax that makes it through the cloth gets put back on top, i then crank both up to 80 for a wax only cycle. The wax gets poured straight into large moulds. You do end up with a tiny amount of cooked honey under the last wax block but it’s minimal for time saved. Let me know what you think if you try it out.. D
Great tips. I know another beefarmer that lines the mesh with a fabric like a pre filter too. He swears by it but I’ve never tried it.
Will need to try it.
Cleaning it at the end is the worse! Soda crystals is your friend 😂😂