Honey heating cum filtration machine for small bee keepers

摘要

Honey processing plays a vital role in maintaining the quality of honey, which depends on the type of honey as well as the machinery used for its processing. In order to maintain the natural quality and to prevent spoilage, it is necessary to processthe honey before marketing. Honey is processed in order to destroy yeast cells, reduce the moisture content, delay granulation and to remove the extraneous matter like pollen, bees wax, dirt, air bubbles and other solid particles. Such honeys are processed to retard granulation and inactivate or kill yeast cells that cause fermentation. The normally thick mellifera honeys need processing that includes light heating to bring down its viscosity for straining and bottling. At the producers level, heating of honey is usually done by keeping the container with honey in a large vessel filled with water, which is heated to provide indirect heating to the honey. During the heating process the honey is usually stirred by dry sticks. The crude process has no control over temperature to which the honey is to be heated. The beekeepers thus are left with no other alternative than either to sell their raw honey to the commercial honey processing plants at a cheaper rate or to process it with this crude method at their own place. The commercial plants available in the market are quite expensive and are out of reach of small/ medium beekeepers. To overcome these shortcomings a fully mechanized low cost honey heating cum filtration machine has been designed and developed in the department to help the producer to process and sell his honey for fetching maximum profit. This machine beingsimple in working and having optimum capacity of 50 kg/ batch will be helpful for both the entrepreneurs as well as beekeepers.