Archive for the ‘Beekeeping’ Category

Honey is very beneficial to us, especially when it is organic honey, un-filtered and raw. It is commonly used to heal burns and ease throat colds because it has many healing properties and can be used in many recipes and to sweeten foods and beverages. In addition to its antimicrobial qualities, it also can prevent scarring, and speed up the healing of tissue for diabetics wounds or sores. Diabetes typically worsens ulcers by making it more difficult for the body to heal and replace infected or dead tissue with healthy skin.

Natural state means it is untouched and not processed, so it comes directly from mother nature. Organic honey is free of preservatives, additives, and artificial colors or flavors and it is good for your body. Honey cannot be labeled certified organic if it has traces of chemicals, drugs or antibiotics and it must be produced, processed, and packaged in accordance with national or federal regulations. It also needs to be certified organic by the governing body or an independent organic farming certification organization.

Honeybees that live and collect nectar in clean colonies free of contaminants are the ones that produce the truly organic honey. Honeybee colonies are about 2 mile radius from their beekeepers location. This means that honeybees could easily pick up contaminants, such as chemicals, drugs and antibiotics in their environment around their colonies.

For example, to reduce diseases in honeybees that gather nectar, antibiotics and chemicals such as sulfa compounds are used by many beekeepers. Also carbolic acid is used to easily remove the honey from the hive. In some instances, even calcium cyanide is used by beekeepers to kill the bee colonies before extracting the honey. Honeybees living in non-organic colonies gather nectar from areas that have been sprayed with pesticides and other chemicals.

Therefore, to produce truly organic honey first the honeybees need to be in an environment free of additives and chemicals. Second its processing must be kept to a minimum and no additives should be used. When you filter honey you remove its beneficial properties and you can ultimately change the color, and the taste, which can affect your recipe or delay healing.

The most pure form is the unfiltered raw honey because filtering and processing includes adding other syrups and flavors and chemicals to modify its properties. During filtering and processing, most of the benefits are lost including its healing and antimicrobial properties. Even though it is put through ultra-filtration processes to remove chemicals, the end results is honey that no longer has its healing properties because it has been heavily diluted with water, boiled and filtered until it returns to a more natural consistency.

One of the advantages of authentic organic honey is that organic honeybee growers need to sustain the natural life cycle of bees by safeguarding their natural environment. Also, certifying the hive as organic is expensive so most beekeepers do not exterminate the bees at the end of the season, which is often a very common practice among conventional beekeepers.

Large beekeepers can not turn a profit if they limit their market to their local community. Beekeepers who have several colonies must be able to sell their product at larger grocery stores and supermarkets if they want to remain financially solvent. In order for beekeepers to sell their honey to a larger market their packaging must meet certain USDA standards. The first thing beekeepers have to decide is what kind of container they want to use to hold their honey. The standard size of containers used to sell honey are measured in pounds. The typical amount of honey offered to the customers can be as small an amount as a half pound or as large as five pounds of honey. Some stores perfect to sell honey that is measured in gallons, these stores offer their customers the option of purchasing a container of honey as small as a half pint or as large as one gallon. If, as a beekeeper, you are attracted to novelty containers you can choose from a variety of fun containers such as skeps, bears, and plastic squeeze bottles. Once you have settled on the perfect bottle for your honey you have to design an equally perfect label. Before you start designing a label for your honey check with your state government, most states have several laws and requirements about how labels appear on products. Make sure that the word honey is written in bold letters across the label. The word should stand out and really catch the casual shopper’s eye. Most graphic designers recommend that the honey should run parallel with the container’s base. Do not authorize a label if the design does not incorporate your name (or your farm’s name) and your address. If you use a packing or distribution company their name and address must also be included on the label. The final thing that needs to be clearly printed on the label is the net weight of the honey. If the honey you are marketing weighs between one to four pounds then the weight has to be written in both pounds and ounces. The print size used to show the net weight is not random, the font size is determined by the size and shape of the container. If you are a beekeeper who harvests your honey more then once a season you might be able to write what flavor of honey you are selling. You might have honey that is flavored with clover, alfalfa, or apple blossoms. Labels that have words such as unfiltered, natural, raw, and areanic refer to honey that has not been processed. Beekeepers who have USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) grades printed on the label have passed a set of USDA grade standards. Honey that has a USDA grade of A has passed the exacting government standards. Honey that has a USDA grade of D has passed only a bare minimum of standards. The USDA grades honey based on the amount of moisture in the honey, clarity, flavor quality, and defects.

There’s approximately 20,000 species of bees throughout the world making them the interest of beekeepers who rely on them to cross pollinate because when bees do that it changes not only the flowers they collect pollen from creating new species of flowers, but it also changes the consistency of the honey the produce. Beekeepers also track bees when they cross breed with other species of bees and that’s how they track their habits from mating to origin of where they come from. Beekeepers will also track their honey production since different species of bees will also produce different consistencies of honey. Most bees were originated from places in Europe, Africa and some parts of Asia, but with the fact that many bees were brought over by immigrants to the United States over the centuries. Bees are found on all continents except Antarctica. The evolutions of bees are derived from wasps since they’re cousins with the exception that wasps aren’t pollinating insects and their ability to be organized rivals wasps, beetles, flies, and butterflies. Bees are also categorized in two social classes that are ideal for beekeepers to adapt their system of managing bees and hives. Most bees born are usually female you have few males, and females will fight each other for control of the hive and colony. Now most people when they hear about the African bee they think killer bees when in fact the Africanized honeybee is in fact not dangerous as people make them out to be. It is this species of bee that is the most popular with beekeepers and the beekeeping industry alike. The African honeybee are the most readily used when they produce clover honey which is the most used and produced honey. One reason that the African bee is so popular is because they’re not an aggressive species that will readily attack someone, but they will attack when they’re defending the hive and the Queen-who will go into permanent residence inside the hive after she becomes pregnant and isn’t seen ever again. Usually most beekeepers remove portions of the hive, but leave the one that contains the queen where it’s. Bees are generally docile, but they do get annoying when they fly around you during picnics because of the fact that their sense of smell will direct them since they don’t have very good eyesight. Their sense of smell is what helps them find flowers they pollinate and sometimes with the food people eat in this world the smell can mimic flowers which can result in them getting their scents mixed up. This is why you’ll likely find bees swarming around trash because debris on food wrappers can attract them because sweet scents resemble flowers and plants. Beekeepers should be careful about dispensing their trash because bees can smell sweet scents for long distances and what can be harmless such as disposing trash can turn into a huge pest problem when they start gathering in places that isn’t their normal habitat.

The springtime is the time when honeybees reproduce. The natural means of reproduction for honey bees is called swarming. The springtime swarming period typically last about three weeks. Normally a single swarm of honey bees divide and becomes two during the swarming period. Because swarming typically means a loss of production so beekeepers try to discourage the behavior. One way that beekeepers eliminate swarming in their hives is by purchasing new bees each spring to replace their previous bees that they turned out of the hives the previous fall. Another method commonly used by beekeepers to discourage swarming is the creation of a starter colony. Creating a starter hive and then splitting it encourages bees to stay in their hives. Some beekeepers believe that bees only swarm when they have an abundance of food in the hive. Beekeepers who subscribe to this theory use a method called checker boarding to discourage their bees from swarming. When a beekeeper checkerboards their hives they remove some of the full frames of honey, giving the bees the illusion that they don’t have any honey in reserve, and therefore discouraging the bees from swarming. It is unusual for a bees to swarm when there is a new queen in the bee hive. As time passes and the Queen ages is when the hive typically prepares to swarm, generally the elderly queen leaves with the primary swarm, leaving a virgin queen in her place. When the elderly queen is getting ready to swarm with the primary swarm she stops laying eggs. She concentrates on getting fit enough to fly when she leaves the hive (the only other time the queen has flown is when she went out on her nuptial flight). When smaller swarms leave the hive they are commonly accompanied by the virgin queen. When they first leave the hive in a swarm, bees don’t typically go far from the hive they have always known. After fleeing the nest the bees settle on a nearby tree branch or under an eave. The worker bees cluster around the queen, protecting her. Once they have the queen protected, some bees, scouts, look around until they find a suitable hive to turn into their new home. Some beekeepers see swarming as a way to restock their hives. An experienced bee keeper has no problem capturing a group of swarming bees. Beekeepers use a device to called a Nasrove Pheromone to lure swarming honey bees. When they swarm, honey bees carry no additional food with them. The only honey they are allowed to take from the parent hive is the honey they consumed. Although honey bees normally swarm only during the spring the same is not true of Africanized Bees, also called Killer Bees. The Africanized Bees swarm whenever they have a difficult time finding food. Although they typically don’t go after people when they are swarming, their is something about the site of a swarm of bees that scares people. It is not unusual for a beekeeper to be called out to capture a colony of swarming bees.

Obviously the whole reason to set up, maintain, and stock a beehive is to harvest honey. You will know that it is time to harvest the honey when you look in one of your hives supers and find that the frames are full of honey combs that your bees have covered with wax caps. Now all you have to do is remove the honey combs. Harvesting your honey won’t be a problem as long as your put on all your beekeeping gear, wear light colored clothes (beekeepers swear that lighter colored clothes have a soothing affect on bees) and stay calm. When the super is full of capped honey combs you are going to have to remove the bees from that super. There are chemicals available on the market that will make this easier. One popular chemical that beekeepers use to remove bees from the super is Bee-Go. All beekeepers have to do is apply Bee-Go to a fumer board. When the bees smell the Bee-Go they head to the bottom of the hive, leaving the super full of capped honeycombs empty for you to harvest. Another product beekeepers use to clear out supers is one called Fishers Bee Quick. Neither of these products harm the bees, the bees simply find the scent offensive and move away from it. Now that you are in possession of the honey comb you need to prepare it to be extracted. The first step in this preparation is to remove the wax caps the bees have used to seal the honey into the honey comb. Many beekeepers prefer to use nine frames instead of ten in their supers. By using nine frames they give the bees enough room to draw the comb out, placing the cap right on the very edge of the comb. This makes it easier to remove the wax caps. Beekeepers use a metal knife to remove the caps, the knife works best if the knife blade is warmed, after all its easier to cut warm wax then it is to cut cold wax. You can keep the knife blade warm with frequent dunking in a basin that is full of hot water. Many beekeepers like to use their bread knife to remove the wax caps from the honey comb while others prefer an electrical knife that is designed just for beekeepers. What do you think bee’s wax candles are made out of. Removing the caps from the dripping honey is easy, just use a piece of cheese cloth to empty the contents into a second pot, the honey will drain through the cheesecloth and the bee’s wax caps will collect on the top. Once the caps are removed from the honey comb the honey is ready to be extracted. As you remove the caps, let them fall into a pot, do not just through them away. You will notice that there is a surprising amount of honey attached to these caps, honey that can be processed and used. Also there is a market for the wax caps. Once the caps have been removed from the honeycombs the honey combs are ready to have the honey extracted.

Pollen is a source of protein, vitamins, mineral and some carbohydrates for honeybees. One pollen alone does not provide a bee with all the nutrients they need to stay healthy, so a variety of pollens are needed to provide them will all the nutrients they need. Without these nutrients, bees would not be able to produce the royal jelly required to feed the queen and rear brood. If the weather will not allow the bees to leave the hive for several days to collect pollen, and there is very little stored in the combs, it will be necessary the beekeeper to feed the bees a pollen substitute. At the same time the beekeeper will feed them sugar syrup.  The main ingredient used in making a pollen substitute is brewer’s yeast. The yeast can be fed to the bees dry, but the bees can better utilize the yeast when it is made into patties with the consistency of peanut butter. The yeast is often mixed with 50% sucrose syrup to moisten the patties. The patties are wrapped in wax paper or placed inside plastic bags to keep them moist. The beekeepers that use the high fructose corn syrup will mix the patties using that syrup. Other ingredients can be added to the patties that offer more nutrients than the yeast and syrup mixture alone. Beekeepers will add casein, lactalbumin or soy flour to their mixtures. If the beekeeper use the casein and lacatalbumin it is necessary for them to watch out for lactose and over two- percent sodium. When the beekeepers use soy flour, they try to get the “debittered” soy flour that has been processed and retains some lipids, and toasted to knock out enzymes that interfere with the bees’ digestion. Always make sure to check the data on the soy flour. The beekeeper will want to determine if the soy is a “high sucrose” variety or contains mostly stachyose. Stachyose is toxic to bees. Beekeepers will sometimes add a “feed yeast” like Torula to the pollen mixture to enhance the nutrients in the substitute. Most of them don’t use it because of the high cost. Pollen substitutes do not increase brood production as well as pollen sources brought in by the bees themselves. Because of the pollen substitute brood rearing will not stop all together should the weather stay bad for a while. A beekeeper will have a fatter bee when using a pollen substitute. There are some areas where pollen is scarce in the late summer and fall. If the beekeeper feeds the bees pollen substitute for a fatter bee, a fatter bee will winter better and rear more brood the next spring than their non-fed counterparts. Bees are not fond of pollen substitutes. It must be place directly in contact with the bees and as close to the brood as possible. As long as the bees are bringing in a trickle of pollen the substitute will be eaten. If there is no pollen being brought in, the substitute will be ignored and will spoil over time. There are some commercially formulated pollen substitutes on the market that claim the pollen substitute is so attractive to the bees that they will eat it anytime the substitute is offered. No one has investigated those claims.

One of the reasons people become involved with beekeeping is so that they can market the honey. Many beekeepers chose to sell their honey to a local market. Beekeepers who choose a local market for their honey typically sell their product to friends, family members, and neighbors. They typically set up a roadside stand to display their product, selling the honey produced in their hives along side berries, apples, and vegetables that they have grown in their gardens. If they produce a quality product their honey may start to appear in stalls at farmers markets. Some small honey producers will gain enough local credit to sell their honey at local grocery stores. Beekeepers that sell their products locally typically only a few active bee hives. The key to a successful local marketing technique is to provide the customers with a quality product and good customer relation skills. Beekeepers that market their honey typically enjoy face to face contact with their customers. Often the sale of the honey has as much to do with friendship as it does with the product. Beekeepers that sell their honey locally should take an active interest in their product. They should make sure that their display is kept clean. They should spend a significant amount of time designing the package. Bottles that are filled with honey should be made of clear plastic and glass. The bottle should be attractive, something that will catch a customer’s eye. Glued on the bottle should be a label. The label be clear an easy to read. Clearly printed on the label should be the type of product, honey, and the name of the beekeeper who produced the honey. The bottle of honey should be something that the customer will want to display on the their kitchen counter or table. If you are a beekeeper that is planning on marketing your honey at a roadside stand you should make sure that they have a sign that can be easily read by drivers. In large letters the sign should read Honey for Sale. The sign should be eye catching, but simple. If the sign is to complex, drivers won’t be able to read it. Try to keep shade over your road side stand, a comfortable customer is one who is more likely to take their time and spend some their money purchasing your product. Keep an eye on the honey you are selling. If you notice that one of the bottles on honey is stating to crystallize immediately replace it with a fresh bottle. Many beekeepers claim that setting up a hive near their roadside stand helps attract customer interest. Successful beekeepers pass out literature that gives customers insight to the art of beekeeping seems to increase sales. Handing out cards that have recipes that use honey gives customers an idea about how they can use the honey they are purchasing. Many beekeepers encourage handing out free samples and promote spending time getting to know potential customers. When you are pricing your honey make sure you consider the demands on your time and the cost of all the products you are using to turn your honey into a marketable commodity.

If you are considering bees as a hobby or as a sideline business, there are things you will want to keep in mind before making that decision. Since there are many factors involved with making money with the honeybees produce, you might want to start doing it as a hobby. There is a significant amount of money in the start-up of beekeeping. Before investing any amount of money in your beekeeping project, you might want contact beekeepers in your area. As a rule, they will more than happy to share their experience with you. Most beekeepers love keeping bees and to them it is just a “hobby”, but they can give you some insight into beekeeping. Take plenty of notes. More likely than not you will need them. In making the decision of becoming a beekeeper, you will want to consider the safety of family, friends, and neighbors. You wouldn’t want someone to get stung that is allergic to bee stings. The best course of action on that account is to ask your neighbors and friends, if any of them are allergic to bees. You will also be able to find out if there might be someone who would not like beehives so close to their proximity. You will also want to check with the county you live in. You will want to know about any ordinances or laws prohibiting beekeeping. You will also want to consider whether or not you have a location that would be conducive to maintaining bees. You will also want to consider where the bees will have to fly to retrieve nectar and pollen. Keeping plants they like close by is not a bad idea either. Since bees need water every day, you might want to have water for them close at hand. You don’t want them visiting the neighbor’s swimming pool. Here is a list of spots unacceptable to the health of the bees. How many months of the year will pollen and nectar will be readily available to the bees? Will you have to feed them in order for them to survive and how much of the year? Is there a water supply available year round for the bees? They need water every day. You will need to consider what will be underneath the bees as they fly to get the nectar and pollen they require. The bees will defecate as they are flying and their feces will leave spots on everything below them. The feces can even ruin the surface of a vehicle. There are methods to use to force the bees to fly at a higher altitude, such as a tall fence or thick tall plants near the hive. You want the hives accessible year round. You will want to avoid low spots for your hives because they hold the cold, damp air too long. You will also want to avoid high spots for your hives because that would be too windy. These are just some of the things you will want to consider before taking on this hobby. During a nectar flow, many of the older workers will be in the field hunting for food. This is the best time to examine the colony.  During the summer more bees will be in the hive and the situation can change, especially between the nectar flows. There can be some robbing going on at this time, which will make the bees even more defensive at any intrusion to their hive. Leaving the colony open for more than a few minutes can accelerate a robbing as can leaving cappings or honey exposed. It will become a necessity to reduce the entrance of a weak colony to prevent stronger hives attempt to rob from it. A honey flow will reduce the likelihood of robbing. The mood of the bees can have a lot to do with the weather or the time of day. On the days of rainy weather, cool temperatures, early in the morning or late in the afternoon will be more likely to make them angry and they will attack.  Always inspect them on warm, sunny days in the middle of the day when most of the bees are foraging. Keep a constant warm water supply for the bees to cool the hive and dilute honey to feed t heir young. They will collect water from the closest water source. If you do not have a constant supply of shallow water for the bees, they will look for it somewhere else, like the neighbor’s pool, birdbath or wading ponds. The bees are more likely to drown in those sources. If you have a water supply for them when they first fly out in spring, they will not go anywhere else for water. Once they find a water source, it is hard to keep them from going back to it. A beekeeper must keep the bees in control every time the hive is open. A typical hive can house thousands of workers all capable of stinging. There are measures a beekeeper can take in the open that he can not take in the city because of the closeness of other people. Smoke is the most important tool for the beekeeper opening a hive. Smoke should be used in moderation, but the smoker should be capable of producing large volumes of smoke on short notice. The beekeeper must smoke the entrance of the hive, under the cover, and periodically smoke the frames while the hive is open. Try not to jar the hive or the frames as that may anger the bees, which will make it hard for a beekeeper to do his work. The beekeeper must work quickly and carefully. By going through the frames several times a year, the beekeeper keeps the frames movable. Remove any excess combs. Using gloves when working with bees make the beekeeper clumsier and he may lose control of the hive. The stings that the gloves are protecting you from are easily removed and the pain quickly passes.

Bees are very essential insects because worldwide, they provide pollination service which is very important to agriculture and biodiversity conservation.  Aside pollination, bees also provide hive products which are nutritious and medicinal such as honey, royal jelly, beebread, propolis, wax and many more.  Most people however perceive all bees to be stinging and dangerous. This is entirely not the case because there are some bees which are harmless and very friendly to the extent that they could be kept on porches, study rooms, etc.  These bees are known as Stingless Bees.

Stingless bees also known as Meliponines are a group of bees with non-functional stings.  They are tropical bees of African origin which have dispersed to other tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world.  There are about 500 species of stingless bees, and they are the only highly social bees aside the common honeybees (Apis mellifera L.).  Stingless bees usually live in permanent colonies that consist of the queen and the drone as the reproductives and hundreds or thousands of workers (depending on the species).

The colonies are found in all forms of nest with the most common being in tree cavities. A few species however build underground nests and some also build exposed nests surrounded by hard and brittle layers, hanging over tree branches in the air.  The bees use all forms of materials including resin, sand particles, excrement, etc in building their nests, which are waterproof and highly resistant to predators.

Even though stingless bees have non-functional stings, they have various and efficient means of defence within and without their nests.  Some species adopt aggressive ways of external defence like biting, releasing caustic mandibular secretions, unpleasant oduors and irritating by crawling into eyes and ears of intruders.  The most external tactic of defence of the bees is making their nests invisible.  Internally stingless bees use a substance known as propolis to embalm intruders.

Stingless bees and pollination

The transfer of pollen grains to the stigma of flowers thus pollination is very crucial for plant reproduction and therefore, seed and fruit production.  Plants depend on agents called pollinators to effect pollination.  Bees constitute the principal pollinators, ensuring the survival of many plant species including plants that provide food security to innumerable rural households.

Most species of stingless bees exhibit some characteristics that enhance their potential as pollinators.  The bees are polylectic or generalist flower visitors, visiting and adapting to a broad range of plant species.  They also demonstrate floral constancy whereby the workers visit only one plant species on a single trip.  Floral constancy is linked with pollinator efficiency because the collection and deposition of a mixture of pollen from two or more plant species tends to contaminate the stigma with the wrong pollen.

Meliponiculture (stingless beekeeping)

Transferring stingless bee colonies into artificial nests boosts the potential of the bees for crop pollination because the hives could be transported where and when needed for pollination.  Stingless bees were kept by man centuries ago but unlike Central and South America and parts of Asia, the practice did not evolve in Africa.  Currently in Africa, meliponiculture exists only in Tanzania and Angola on small to medium scale.  Stingless bee honey in Africa is mostly harvested destructively from feral colonies.

Stingless bee keeping has some advantages over honeybee keeping. For instance the colony could last permanently as long as no damaging disaster occurs, by replacing the old queen with a virgin queen.  Also stingless bee queens and workers generally tend to live longer that of the honeybees.  Aside the longevity of their colonies and castes, stingless bees have not yet been found to be affected by the disease and the Varroa mite problems that are plaguing the honeybee keeping industry.  In addition stingless bees do not sting making them the golden and friendliest bees of the world. The stingless attribute also makes them harmless to man and therefore easy to handle and manage. This means that stingless bees could be kept as close as possible to our homes, on the porches, backyard gardens, and study rooms etc as pets. Thus stingless bees are the only pets that provide additional benefits of pollination, honey and other hive products to enjoy.

Stingless bee hive products

The hive products of Stingless just as that of the common honeybees include honey, propolis, pollen (beebread) and wax.  The hive products, some of which have antioxidant, antimicrobial and antifungal properties have been used in the food and cosmetic industries as well as in medicine.  Stingless bee honey has a higher medicinal value than that of A. mellifera.  It is either taken in its pure form or as a component in both in traditional (including herbal extracts especially in Africa) or conventional medicines.

Threats to stingless bees

In recent times bee population densities are declining below points of sustaining pollination services in both agro and natural ecosystems.  This decline is as a result of habitat loss, land management practices, agricultural and industrial chemicals among others.  Most feral bees and for that matter stingless bees require safe and undisturbed habitats for nesting and foraging.  The elimination of these resources by lumber exploitation, clearing of natural vegetation, wild bushfires, land degradation, literally starve and kill the bees. 

Most pesticides and other chemicals used in agriculture also kill bees directly, decreasing their populations significantly.  Stingless bees are particularly affected by these threats especially in Africa where meliponiculture is virtually non-existent.  This is further exacerbated by the destructive harvesting of the stingless bee honey from the wild colonies.

There is the need for more research and education on stingless bees, their importance and the need for meliponiculture as means of conserving this very important resource; the stingless bees.

How to make your own honey extractor
To extract honey from the beehive one must have an extractor of honey. Honey extractors are available in the market and cost around $300, which is the approximate price of getting a new bee hive. Sometimes instead of investing so much money in a new honey extractor, several beekeepers who are located near each other collectively get a honey extractor and share it. In case there are no beekeepers near your place, then the next best option is to make your own honey extractor.
How to make your own honey extractor
To put together your own honey extractor you would first have to get all the materials that would be required for this. What you would need are six coach screws, is a single pillow block bearing, a bearing that is self centering, four sections of 400 mm of 8mm rod that is threaded, for the metal bolt you will require ten bolts, a metal drum that is fairly large, a single meter of fencing wire which is 2 to 3 mm thick, two bits of wood, two wheel rims of a bicycle and a one meter rod of metal that is thickly threaded. While selecting the metal drum that is a large one for storing the honey, make sure that no toxic or dangerous material was ever stored in it before. The tools that you will require for making your honey extractor would be a hack saw, a socket set, a machine for welding, and an electric drill.
The step by step instructions for making the extractor
See the side of the drum that is without the two holes and open it, this will be the upper end of your drum for the honey extractor. With the coach screws fasten one piece of wood diagonally across the underneath of the drum. Now put the pillow block into place securely with the coach screws.
The threaded rod should be inserted through the middle of the initial bicycle rim, firmly lock the frame to the rod about ten centimeters away from the rods end. On the opposite side of the rod thread a but for the other wheel, on this nut you should make the second wheel will rest. Drill four holes and when both the wheel rims are in place around each wheel. After this job is done use the 8mm rods to secure the wheel rims together. Using two of the nuts on the rod, ensure that two cm of the rod stick out
Next you should cut a slit 10mm deep and 3mm wide in the last part of the rod. After this thread the lock the nuts together at the finishing end of the rod. Once the nuts are in place, with the welding machine permanently secure them into place. Secure the wire to the spokes of the wheel rim which is at the bottom, about 5-8cm from the edge of the rod. Your honey extractor’s basket is ready. Take this basket and put it inside the drum on the pillow bearing. Now bolt another bit of wood to the self centering bearing and the sides of the drum. Drill a screwdriver piece into the chuck and place the chuck inside the slit at the slot on top of the threaded rod. For details with photographs for a better understanding of making an extractor for honey go to the websites for more informtaion.