Development of Pedal Operated Honey Extractor

Abstract

Bees are winged insects that produce honey by their activities with the nectar of flowers. The honey produced is sweet and are finding replacement for sugar nowadays. Honey bees live in hives where the honey combs being formed by the bees are being deposited. Various methods had been exploited in extracting this honey from the honey comb both traditionally and by different designs of extractors from the primitive to a modern one. Although the former design which was locally produced in Nigeria was hand driven which functions quite efficiently, however, there is need for new innovation that involved the introduction of pedaled mechanism. An existing honey extractor design was improved upon with the introduction of pedal mechanism as compared to the hand driven one with the aim of extracting the honey in the most hygienic way with the suitable materials required. The efficiency of the machine was estimated to be 85 per cent, which was compared to the former available designed one of 83 per cent efficiency. The cost analysis for the production of the machine was included in the work which was estimated to be #48750 (US$243.75).

Apiarists’ Awareness and Responses to Honey Bee Colony Parasite and Pathogen Infections in Kenya

“…The total number of traditional hives owned (3,647) viz the modern hives owned (1,139) by the respondents in this study, is an indication that more people used traditional beehives than modern hives. Traditional hives were more in areas where beekeeping had been practiced over a long period of time, while in the areas where respondents had practiced beekeeping for a short period, modern hives were the most preferred.…”

“…Bees are winged, flower-feeding insects with branched body hairs classified under phylum Arthropoda, class Insecta, and order Hymenoptera [1]. The order constitutes diverse species of bees, wasps, ants, and sawflies.…”

Development of Locally Fabricated Honey Extracting Machine

“…However, Akinnuli et al [4] observed that the traditional method of extracting honey leads to reduction in its nutritional value and quality detected by Babajide et al [2] and Vallianou et al [3]. This was because the unripe and capped honeycomb are collected at night and the extraction is achieved by squeezing manually with the hand.…”

“…As discovered by Akinwumi et al [4], different types of honey extractors such as tangential, radial and electrical driven have been developed in advanced countries like Italy, Germany, Australia, United States of America and Turkey. But the cost of purchase, importation and the technical knowhow are making peasant farmers in Nigeria not to have access to them, hence they extract their honey traditionally [4].…”

“…As discovered by Akinwumi et al [4], different types of honey extractors such as tangential, radial and electrical driven have been developed in advanced countries like Italy, Germany, Australia, United States of America and Turkey. But the cost of purchase, importation and the technical knowhow are making peasant farmers in Nigeria not to have access to them, hence they extract their honey traditionally [4]. Whereas Manyi-Lohi et al [5] discovered that honey extracted traditionally does not meet up with international market standard; therefore, there is the need to construct and evaluate a locally fabricated honey extracting machine; a mechanical device that extracts honey from the honeycomb without destroying the combs which are returned back to the beehives after the extraction.…”