michael.bassett asked about a Cowen Silver Queen Uncapper with 9 frames to a
box.  I've had a silver queen uncapper for 4 years now.  It's great!  It
uncaps frames faster than I can feed it!  As far as 9 frames to a box and
concerns for cutting too deeply, it's a non-problem.

First, you'll catch whatever is cut off the frames in an uncapping tank.
You may end up with more wax and honey in your uncapping tank, but nothing
is lost.  You just drain more from your cappings.  I use Stroller Frame
spacers in all my honey supers.  Most of my supers have 9 frame spacers, and
some have even 8 frame spacers.  There is an adjusting lever on the left
side of the uncapper that adjusts the distance between the blades to
accommodate thicker of thinner combs (or at least there is on my model).  I
bought my uncapper used.  I imagine it was built back in the early 80s.  I
love it.

Cowen displayed their latest model at EAS.  The silver queen uncapper (which
was a manual model, 1 frame at a time vs. the model I have which allows one
to stack 4 frames at a time and auto-feeds them into the uncapper) was
mounted above a cappings spinner.  The cappings fall right into the spinner,
and the uncapped frames are pushed onto a rack that leads directly to the
extractor.  A claw sort of devive picks up 15 frames at a time from the rack
and loads them into the radial extractor, which runs 30 frames at a time (2
claws full).  After spinning the frames, the next loading with the claw
pushes the spun frames out to a rack on the other side of the extractor.
Actually, I'm not sure if the spun frames get pushed out with the next load
or if you have to use the claw again for the unloading.  The demo used dry,
fresh frames (no wax/propolis/honey to gum things up.  The frames get back
into the supers by scooping them from below the bottom bars using the super
as the scoop.  Automation at it's finest.  I was drooling!

Cappings spinning and extractor are both connected to a baffled settling
tank, with a honey pump.  The whole line was on rollers so the beekeeper can
easily roll the aparatus out of the way when not in use.  Ballpark cost was
$10K.  Certainly overkill for my operation, but I've been having a hard time
getting it off my mind.

So anyway Mike, yes, 9-frames and the silver queen uncapper are well suited
for each other.  The frame spacers are a nice touch.

Aaron Morris - I think, therefore I bee!