OK Keith!
I can attempt to describe an easy version of the uncapping tray.
First, let me emphasize that for a few colonies, you don't need a special
electric uncapping knife. A good large serrated bread knife will serve
very well and require no heat. Also, it can get into somewhat sunken areas
of comb because it is flexible. Now, the tray:
Materials:
aluminum baking pan (big)
empty super
queen excluder (wire type)
1/2 " strips of wood, long
wire nails
What you will need is a deep super (or shallow, but you will have less
volume) or similar box, and a big aluminum pan. I found that the local
restaurant-supply/bulk food store had these big aluminum baking pans, as
used by caterers. They measured about 16 x 24", and were the flexible,
disposable aluminum. (Similar material to the round single-use, disposable
pie pans.)
Anyway, these big pans have some slight ridges across the surface, to give
them strength. I pounded them down for the most part with a rubber mallet.
NOW, cut yourself two 1/2" thick strips of wood, 20 " long.
Invert the super. Lay the queen exluder over its bottom.
Now, lay a 20" strip of wood on each side of the q. excluder, on the rim,
along the hive side walls. Put a nail thru the strips, excluder rim, and
into the hive wall at each of the four corners.So you have
\ \
\ \
\ \
\ \
-------------
\xxxxxxxxxxxx\
\ xxxxxxxxxxx\
\ xxxxxxxxxxx\
\xxxxxxxxxxxx\ excluder
--------------
______________
\ \
|\ \
| \ \
| \ \
| \ \
\ ---------------
\ | |
\ | | hive body
\|______________|
I hope this art holds up in transmission. It should look like the two
sticks, excluder under that, and super at bottom. Just drive 4 thin nails
in at the corners to secure them all together.
Now flip the super over and do a little shaping of the pan edges if you
need to, and the super fits right into the pan. It is held up off the pan
surface 1/2" by the sticks.
Next take another stick and tack it across the center of the top of the
super, side to side. You can also have a nail point sticking up out of the
center of the stick. This is to balance the end of the frame on while you
uncap.
Finally, cut a hole in the rim of the pan (on the front edge) for the honey
to drain through. You can then uncap, the honey will drip thru the
excluder onto the pan, and run down out of the hole into a pail. When done
for the day, I would tip up the other end of the pan with a board, to help
the honey to drain faster overnight. Here's a crude side
view of the setup.
______^______
| |
| |
|___________|
\_______________/o <--------hole in rim for honey flow
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
x x
x x | |
x x |HHH| <---- (pail on floor)
x X -----
What is nice about this is once you are done you can just disassemble
everything and the super, excluder,etc are available for other use.
THE NEXT GENERATION: I also built a free-standing frame- type setup out of
wood, about waist height. It holds two exluders, side by side, and they
are just set into a rim across the top (not nailed). Then two hive bodies
go on, side by side, and I uncap into both. It provides lots of room.
Also, when one side is draining you use the other.
Beneath the wooden frame-rim supporting the exluders and hive bodies, I
just sloped a tray of sheet metal and fastened it between the wooden legs
of the structure. So the honey drips down, hits the pan, and runs down to
bucket. It is very simple. Well there are a zillion different ways to do
it, but here are a couple which you can easily modify and adapt. Have fun!
If you need clarification, let me know. I have used these extensively and
like them much better than any of the "boughten" trays I have tried (which
tend also to be expensive).
Happy holidays and all!
Joel
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