As you likely know, honey never goes bad. An extractor like the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit lets you make the most of this fact. Beekeeping is an ancient practice that’s employed many different tools and harvesting techniques through the ages. A modern, manual centrifugal extractor just makes it easier.
After all the work you put into tending to your bees and retrieving the frames, you shouldn’t have to toil away for your honey. And you shouldn’t have to settle for sub-optimal results. Since there are a few simple steps to extraction, it’s wise to invest in a complete kit like the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit. Otherwise, you may forget something and have to spend more.
The final process of extraction can make or break your finished honey. So ensuring that you get the right equipment for your needs is worth some research. But again, let’s make that easier for you.
The Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit consists of a two-frame honey extractor with a stainless steel honey sieve and an uncapping roller. It’s a practical starter package for easy, great results. From opening sealed honeycombs to spinning the honey out and filtering it, the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit has you covered. And with a 16-gauge stainless steel construction, you can count on it to endure a lot of honey extraction. This video shows you how to use a kit like this.
This 2-frame manual extractor can handle between up to 10 hives. It consists of food-grade 304 stainless steel, so you don’t need to worry about impurities. A robust design with sealed gears and bearings makes it able to handle lots of use with little maintenance. You can fit two frames of different sizes. The frames can be deep, shallow, or medium depth.
Three sturdy legs keep it stable at a comfortable working height. You can also take them off if you’d rather work on a table or chair. It’s a manual extractor rather than electrical, meaning that you crank it by hand. It doesn’t take much work, and it gives you control to ensure that you don’t damage the honeycomb.
Now, a few things to note about this type of honey extractor. First of all, the bottom isn’t conical, so you’ll have to tilt it to get the last bit of honey out. And if you use it with the legs, without securing them to anything, there can be a lot of vibrations. These vibrations can slowly undo screws, which you’ll have to secure once in a while. However, this isn’t unique to the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit. And, as always, remember to wash it before use to ensure it’s free from manufacturing coatings.
The steel gears ensure longevity and consistent results with minimal maintenance. Since the gear housing is sealed, no sticky honey or dust can seize the gears.
If you’re new to beekeeping, you may not realize how many impurities there can be in fresh honey. That’s why the double stainless steel honey strainer of the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit is so useful. It consists of two sieves with a diameter of 10 inches. The top one has a 1000-micron mesh, and the lower has a finer 500-micron mesh. This ensures that the honey you get is fine and free from debris. In case you want even more filtering, there’s also a cheesecloth that you can place between the two sieves.
Like the honey extractor, the strainer consists of food-grade stainless steel. It features extendable arms to make it fit a variety of buckets and bowls. Most extractors don’t come with strainers, so the Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit is a very convenient option.
Last but not least, you get an uncapping roller to help you get the honey out. You use it to remove the wax cap that keeps the honey inside. The more common hot knife approach requires more precision and may leave parts of the cap intact. An uncapping roller makes it easier to open every cell.
The roller has stainless steel needles that puncture the caps evenly. A smooth wooden handle makes it comfortable and reliable. Unlike the popular heated uncapping knives, the roller doesn’t need any electricity. This means you have more options for where to do your extraction, and no time waiting for the tool to heat up. The downside is that it may not be so effective if you have lots of honeycombs to open.
Performance is often subjective, so the word of a single person may not be sufficient guidance. Therefore, we’ll supply some other opinions.
They like how fast it gives you honey, how sturdy it is, and how much you get for the price. A common complaint is that there are sometimes rough or sharp parts, so be careful while assembling and cleaning the extractor.
The price for the full kit is between $275 and $350. You can buy your Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit straight from Goodland, or from Amazon.
Just like it’s good to compare more than one opinion on a product, it’s good to compare a few products before deciding. Next, let’s compare the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit to three direct competitors.
We’ve analyzed and compared a variety of user reviews and comments found on the web. Amazon customer reviews are the primary source.
It’s a similar setup in most regards. There’s a manual stainless steel extractor and an uncapping tool. The use of stainless steel ensures that no strange taste or scent contaminates the honey, and makes everything easy to clean.
The extractor drum is 23.62 inches tall with a diameter of 15 inches. That makes it able to hold roughly 100 lbs of honey. Like the extractor of the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit, it has three legs. Another thing they have in common is that the legs give you enough room for a five-gallon bucket.
You crank it the same way, and it spins the frames the same way. So, you get all the honey out without damaging the honeycomb. It’s easy to get them up to a high speed and achieve sufficient centrifugal force to draw the honey out.
The uncapping knife that comes with the XtremepowerUS honey extractor uses electricity to help you open the wax cap. Using a regular knife requires force and produces a sloppy result. With a heated uncapping knife like this one, the knife goes through the wax with ease and leaves a smooth cut. It can save you a lot of time. However, it’s not as easy as the uncapping roller you get with the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit.
Buyers on Amazon report that they like the spinner operation and the knife. However, some users had issues with the extractor’s legs. They seem sharp, hard to assemble, and flimsy.
Being a simpler and lower-quality extractor kit, you can get it for between $140 and $200.
The Honey Keeper brand is well-known among beekeepers. They offer a variety of equipment and products. The Honey Keeper Pro 2-frame honey extractor is their budget extractor. It’s one of the cheapest extractors you can find, which also means it’s not a high-quality product.
To make it cheaper, they’ve skimped on the build quality. It’s not a bad design, but it’s unlikely to sustain years of use. You may find the inside coated with cutting oil, metal shavings, and more. So wash it before use. It’s easy to clean due to the simplistic design. However, you may lose a ball bearing if you’re not careful when cleaning.
There’s a metallic lid with two handles for easy carrying, in addition to the standard clear lid. Other than that, there’s nothing extra. It takes deep, shallow, and medium frames. And it only works with two frames. You won’t be able to fit much honey in it, and you can’t fit a large container underneath the extractor with the standard legs.
According to Amazon customers, it works well and extracts honey with ease. However, some buyers experience fabrication errors, rust, and issues with the crank coming off.
It’s a stainless steel drum with manual centrifugal operation like the others. However, this one fits more frames. But there are no extras like what you get with the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit.
The extractor has three legs like the others and takes frames of various depths. There are no plastic parts, and everything is durable. The build is about the same as the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit, although the quality isn’t as high. But the capacity for more frames makes it more suitable if you have more than 10 hives. This is because it gets the job done faster.
You won’t have to worry about rusting or degradation. The only maintenance it needs is cleaning and occasional tightening of screws. It comes in pieces, but unlike the others, it offers an instruction manual. Assembly is the same procedure as with the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit. You bolt the legs on and attach the honey gate and the crank. It’s quick and easy.
You get two plastic lids to keep debris out, and a plastic film gives the whole thing extra protection from corrosion. Due to the frame holder design, you won’t get good results with only one or two frames. Furthermore, you can’t fit a tall five-gallon bucket underneath the drum.
Buyers like the high frame capacity and good value. However, the overall quality and the short legs leave some customers unsatisfied.
This simple honey extractor is a bit cheaper than the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit. You can buy it for between $200 and $260.
- Yields honey fast
- Easy to use
- Good environment for the hive
- All you need to extract honey
- Not completely stable
- Only decent capacity
Now that we’ve covered the details and comparisons, it’s time for a summary. These are the best and worst things about the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy solution for your honey extraction needs, the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit is an excellent choice. If you don’t have a large number of hives, it’s all you need.
The downsides of the Goodland Bee Supply GL-E2-UR/STR honey extraction kit are generally common denominators for this type of honey extractor. If you need more, a high-end electrical honey extractor is a better bet.