The Guild has been awarded a PA Dept. of Agriculture grant to build a mobile honey extraction trailer.

The proposal is to put a complete extraction line including uncapper, wax recovery, holding tank for uncapped frames, extractor, clarifier, honey pump, filters, holding tanks, bottling tanks, bottling machine, air conditioner, generator, etc. The idea of this tool is that we will be able to take it anywhere, load supers in one end and get bottled honey out of the other.

This facility, whether it ends up being a trailer or self-propelled will replace the Awbury Education Center as our extraction location. It will be available to members on an appointment basis.

We would like to get this built for this year’s honey harvest and to do that we need two things.

• $43,000 – The grant from the PA Dept. of Agriculture funded by USDA is a reimbursement grant. That means we have to spend the money first. We will be trying to raise this money from our community first.
• A team – Dave Harrod is leading this effort with support from other Guild members. He needs a few more people with experience at building honey houses and/or trailers to help design and build it, and to form the core of the team that will manage it once it’s built.

If you have questions or are interested in supporting or participating in getting this done please fill out this short form. We will get back to you.

A bit of inspiration is provided by International Honey Products Limited. Their Honey Extraction trailer is A LOT more elaborate than what we will do, but gives you an idea of some of the advantages of mobile extraction.

Advantages of in-field extracting include less wear on honey supers – boxes aren’t bounced down the dusty country roads where honey-laden frames sometimes break. The honey is cleaner (no road dust). There is less labor – you don’t load a truck in the field, unload at a shop, reload empties and then unload again at the bee yard. You can meet the honey wagon at your apiary – you arrive with just a passenger van and crew, not with a huge truck. The honey is extracted while it is fresh and warm, so you don’t need a hot room.  Honey in the barrels is from one known apiary, not blended from many, so product tracking is easier.  Fewer stray bees arrive to your house/farm – cutting down on the spread of varroa and family members’ stings at home. If you are just getting started in commercial honey farming, calling an inspector-approved mobile van reduces your initial investment. There are undoubtedly other advantages.

From this blog post…

All of these points will apply to our extraction thing too. If you have a lot of honey in one yard, you can bring the extraction operation to that yard. The honey comes off the hives already warm, and the supers go right back on. You walk away with your honey in whatever container you prefer. If there are a group of people who all want to extract in one location it can be easily done anywhere you have a level parking spot.

The justification for the expense of this equipment was that it would be an economic benefit to beekeepers here. The Guild would like to extend the benefits of this tool to as many beekeepers as possible.