Table top bee bread harvester “BBM Mini” 250 W / 230 V / 50 Hz

223.00 €

The table-top bee bread harvesting machine “BBM Mini” – is a brand new page in the history of beekeeping!
This machine had won the first prize – gold medal award at the Contest classes at APIMONDIA 2013 international congress in Kyiev, being nominated as the best invention.

Such a small device intended for hobby beekeeping.
Width of the hopper’s inlet: 85 mm.
Power: 250 W / 230 V. Weight: 7,4 kg.
Combs with bee bread have to be prepared for threshing/harvesting in advance: (1) honey residues to be removed away by extraction and putting back to hive for complete drying – combs have to be completely honey-free, (2) next, combs to be broken along the wires into 85 mm width strips and (3) have to be frozen at -18°C… -22°C overnight (normal way to put broken combs to a freezer at late afternoon of one day, to leave overnight, until the next morning comes). Manual stainless sieve intended for manual sieving of the obtained mixture.

Productivity: up to 20 kg/hour. Purity is some 80% – to 98% (depends on the age/colour of combs) – requires more handwork for its refining. Before its final storage or packing, the bee bread has to be dried.

Directions on how to prepare the „BBM mini“ for work.

1. Place the separation device on a flat and stable surface, i.e. table. Put the «BBM mini» machine atop of it, just to have its outlet directed to the separator’s mouth. In addition place the small perforated stainless-steel sieve (№ 8) attached to separator’s side, next to the inclined metal grid or (if separator is not in use) straight under the harvester’s outlet (№ 2).

2. Make sure that the inner metal comb-crushing/threshing disk (№ 6) is properly fitted in its place (if it has been removed before) and its plastic screw (№ 7) is tightened well. Then insert the metal feeding hopper (№ 4) by squeezing its legs and thrust it into the top cover’s (№ 3) inlet hole. Keep the machine fixed with both side clamps to have the top cover’s casing (№ 3) shut properly.

3. Switch the power toggle (№ 5) to its working position „I“.

4. Once the motor starts buzzing at its constant speed, the threshing process may be commenced: to pass the initially prepared combs’ pieces with ease (without any pressing) through the upper inlet hopper’s hole (№ 4). Can also watch the video on YouTube:

WILARA BBM – Bee Bread Harvester-YouTube

5. If separation device is not in use, after having threshed some 1 or 1,5 kg into small stainless sieve, You have to sieve all the mixture obtained in it, in order to sieve/segregate the bigger bee bread’s hexagons from smaller pieces of bee bread and also from wax particles.

6. If USING the separation device, separation process has to be carried out automatically by gravity: collecting the bigger bee-bread pieces into small stainless sieve attached to the separator from the outside. However, some small/damaged fractions of the bee bread and wax flakes has to be collected in the separation device’s drawer beneath.

When harvesting/threshing process is completed, it is essential to clean the «BBM mini» machine thoroughly: to remove the top cover (№ 3) first; then take out the inlet hopper (№ 4); to remove the crushing disk (№ 6) by unscrewing the plastic screw (№ 7).

7. The bee-bread, after being harvested, if intended to have it stored for longer periods of time, has to be dried well for 2 or 3 days at a temperature not exceeding +42ºC or +43ºC. If failed to dry well, a humid product would start to grew mold in it. Of course, a fresh (humid) bee bread is more valuable for human consumption rather than dried one. In order to preserve its valuable properties, if not dried for good, – it has to be frozen for storage again. Either, there is an opportunity to keep the bee bread mixed with honey. Honey preserves the best properties of bee bread, and throughout one year period of time a loss of its properties would be 5 % only.

PAY ATTENTION!

For the sake of safety, always pull out the power cord from the power socket before disassembling or cleaning the «BBM mini» parts!

Comb preparation for harvesting.

(1) Take the combs containing bee-bread out of the hive (in frames); (2) extract all honey residues out of them, if any; (3) after the honey extraction completed, if some traces remain, – put the combs back into hive, in order to be dried up by bees themselves from honey for good. Please note, combs have to be completely honey-free, otherwise the clean harvesting will be aggravated/encumbered; (4) break off the comb by your hands out of a frame into some 8-cm width strips: do it parallelly to wires, avoiding to use a knife in order not to have some of bee-bread severed; (5) put them (combs’ stripes) into a freezer to freeze it overnight at a low temperature of some -18ºC or -22ºC; keep it for freezing some 16 hours at least: starting freezing from late afternoon on one day, till the morning comes of the next. (6) after taken out from freezer, straight away You may do your harvesting (note, combs’ stripes have to remain frozen all the time).

Fundamental principle: frost makes honeycomb-wax fragile and easily degradable, however, bee bread hexagonals, on the contrary, become hardened and so retain their unique shape not being damaged.

Producer: UAB “Wilara” (Lithuania).