EXTRACTED (EMPTY) FRAME
As the frames come out of the extractor, they are somewhat sticky from the thin honey coating but have a noticeably different look as a result of the empty cells. Gone is the wet look of the uncapped cells or the whitish appearance of the comb before uncapping. The weight of the frame is also significantly lighter.

BAFFLE TANK
The photo at right (fig 5) shows the three compartment baffle tank and honey pump which are sunken into the floor. The extractor is on the right in the photo and the short 3" round threaded stainless steel extractor discharge fitting is barely visible just above the tank. The extractor drains into the first compartment and the pump is connected at the other end of the tank. Honey is pumped up to the collection tank via the small white plastic pipe.

Honey recovered from the cappings spinner drains into the tank through the larger plastic pipe on the right. A lot of honey drips from the frames being collected on the gathering table and falls onto the stainless steel bottom pan which is inclined down towards the uncapper end. This honey is collected by the longer white pipe on the left and drains into the tank.

One of the more difficult things about extracting honey is separating the wax from the honey. The baffle tank helps accomplishes this by floating the much lighter wax to the top of the honey. The two baffles are designed such that as the honey moves through the tank from the extractor to the pump it must travel from the bottom of one compartment up to the top of the next compartment until it gets to the tank exit which is at the bottom of the third compartment.

As the wax bits float up, the clearer honey settles to the bottom of the compartment and this honey passes on to the next compartment to repeat the process. By the time it gets to the bottom of the third compartment, almost all the wax has been floated to the surface. The floating wax which accumulates on top of the honey is visible in the photo. It is periodically removed with a perforated scoop and goes in the wax spinner with the other wax from the uncapper.

WAX SPINNER
The wax and honey coming from the uncapper is collected in a plastic basket placed underneath. Shown in the photo at left (fig 9) it is being emptied into the wax spinner which separates the wax and honey. The spinning cylinder inside is made of expanded metal lined with screen wire which traps the wax but allows the honey to flow through and is collected on the outer stationary wall where it drains down and into the baffle tank. As can be seen in the earlier photo of the uncapper (fig 3), the wax comes off in somewhat continuous pieces and the basket provides a way of collecting these pieces and keeping them intact which facilitates separation of the wax and honey.

Beeswax is a by product of the extracting operation and is further processed to make candles or sold for use in cosmetics and for many other purposes.

CLOTH STRAINER BAG
The final step in removing wax from the honey is this cloth bag through which the honey is strained as it goes into the collection tank. The cloth mesh bag is fine enough to catch small bits of wax and other objectionable material but not so fine as to remove the pollen.

STEAM BOILER
The boiler is necessary to heat the uncapper knives, but it is also an invaluable aid in cleaning up the equipment at the end of the day. As you can imagine, honey and wax get in and on everything in this process and the live steam for clean up saves untold hours of washing and wiping.

This is a 5 HP propane fired boiler operated at 50 psi. It is set up on a pallet for easy movement and is self contained with the feed water pump. When in operation, it sits just outside the extracting building in order to keep the heat outside.

The boiler, like everything else in the extracting operation, is only used during the honey harvest - about two months of the year (August and September). It, along with the other extracting apperatus is stored for the other ten months and everything is set up and taken down each year.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT
After the honey sits in the collection tank for 24 to 36 hours to let any remaining wax bits float to the surface, it is put into 55 gallon open head drums for storage. A small sample of the honey from each drum is kept and used later to select drums to be blended together.

Although the extracting operation only goes on about two months out of the year drums of honey are blended and the honey is packaged for sale year round. The selection and blending of drums is based on the samples in order to maintain a consistent product.