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I've been keeping this blog for all of my beekeeping years and I am beginning my 19th year of beekeeping in April 2024. Now there are more than 1300 posts on this blog. Please use the search bar below to search the blog for other posts on a subject in which you are interested. You can also click on the "label" at the end of a post and all posts with that label will show up. At the very bottom of this page is a list of all the labels I've used.

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I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here.Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.

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Friday, September 14, 2018

Trying out a new honey filter

Recently I was asked to try out a new honey filter developed by an Atlanta baker. He had heard beekeepers talking about problems with the filters they were using and decided to try his hand at making a better one.

There are many things I love about this filter. It's a 400 micron filter, but filters as well as my 200 micron filter in my filter bucket. The filter is like a paint filter and holds to the bucket with an elastic top.




I crushed and strained honey from about the equivalent of two frames and put the crushed comb in the filter:


I did one bucket of light and one of dark since the super we removed had both varieties in the combs. I cut around the dark honey and kept it separate from the light.

When the honey was bottled, it was clear and very clean.



I couldn't figure out how best to show you the clarity. I held it up to a window so you could see how clear it was. And I held it up to my kitchen tile.







This was a very small amount of honey so the filtered honey didn't occupy much of the bucket. In a good year (this wasn't), I would filter a whole medium of honey at once. The honey, when filtered, occupies about half of a five-gallon bucket. 

The major disadvantage of this filter is how low it hangs in the bucket. You can see the bottom of the filter in this shot through the honey gate. In a full super's worth of honey, this filter would be hanging in the filtered honey. I tried pulling the elastic band down as far as I could and this is as high as I could raise the bottom of the filter bag. 




For quality and ease of use, this is a great filter. It is reusable and washable. The seams are on the outside so there's nowhere in the inside of the filter for the wax to get caught. It is easy to clean. 

Its biggest disadvantage at the moment is the length of the bag. Stacked filters that I purchase from the big vendors only occupy about the top 1/4 of the five-gallon bucket and never do I have the problem of the filter being IN the honey which is what would happen with this one. The good news is that I have told the inventor about this and he will redesign it on the next manufacturing run.

Meanwhile, for small harvests, this is a great filter. You can buy it from Amazon. A photo of the product is in the fifth photo on this post and you can buy two of them for only $15.99.

I had a very pleasant visit with Michael Yoss, the maker of these filters. He and I harvested the honey together and he accompanied me while I filtered it. I appreciated his efforts to make a good product for beekeepers.






5 comments:

  1. I use a filter like that but with 2 buckets like this at Brushy Mountain.
    https://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/5-Gallon-Strainer-Bottler-Unit

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So in that expensive ($87) kit, the top bucket must have the bottom cut out and the bottom bucket is then free to hold all the honey. That would be a way for this type of filter not to sit in the filtered honey.

      Delete
    2. Yes, that is how it works. The top bucket has a lid glued to its bottom. A hole cuts through the bottom of the top bucket and the lid. Still much cheaper than an a extractor for frames.

      Delete
    3. There is also a metal plate with holes to support the bag of crushed comb.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous12:13 PM

    Looks like a paint strainer - available at Home Depot for a lot less.

    ReplyDelete

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