Day 18: Unboxing the Beast, The First Jar, & Help Us Name the Mega Machine!
Step aside, hand-cranks and forearm fatigue—the extraction room just got a massive mechanical promotion. Today, we are officially unboxing a shiny, stainless-steel beast of a machine that turns a sticky, hours-long chore into a high-speed, motorized dream. Dust off your jars and grab a spoon, because Day 18 is all about the glorious maiden voyage of the CIVAN honey extractor, a physics lesson in counterweights, and the official bottling of our very first jar of pure liquid gold!
Amanda Collins
6/14/20263 min read
There are days when you feel like a small-scale hobbyist tinkering in the backyard, and then there are days when you look at your setup and realize, “Oh, I am officially a honey mogul now.” Today was the latter. I finally unboxed, set up, and scrubbed down my brand-new CIVAN motorized honey extractor, and let me tell you—she is a masterpiece of stainless steel engineering.
Leveling Up: Meet the Mega Machine ⚡
If you’ve ever spun honey by hand, you know the romance wears off after about frame number three. This CIVAN machine completely changes the game and helps us officially "level up" the entire operation.
The crown jewel of this beast is the top-mounted motorized power drive, complete with a massive red emergency stop button. Instead of relying on muscle power, this machine lets you dial in the speed perfectly, gently ramping up the centrifugal force to sling every single drop of nectar out of the comb without blowing out the fragile wax. At the bottom, the liquid gold drains directly through a heavy-duty honey gate, passing straight through a nested, multi-stage stainless steel sieve sitting on top of the bottling bucket.
The Maiden Voyage & Our First Official Jar! 🍯✨
I was far too excited to wait for the end-of-summer harvest, so I headed out to grab a deep frame from The Ranch that was 90% capped and ready for a test spin.
Because the CIVAN is a tangential 3-frame extractor, running just one heavy deep frame (which can easily weigh 8 pounds!) is a massive imbalance hazard. It’s exactly like putting a single heavy wet towel on one side of your washing machine—it will spin wildly and rattle itself to pieces. To pull off the perfect maiden voyage, I used a classic beekeeper physics trick: The Counterweight. I slid an empty "dummy" frame into the basket slot directly opposite the honey frame to balance the center axis.
With the cappings shaved off and the balance locked in, I hit the switch. Starting on a gentle crawl so the heavy side wouldn't collapse the wax, I listened to that beautiful, unmistakable sound of the first thick droplets of Wisconsin honey splatting against the stainless steel walls. One frame flip later, the comb was spun completely clean.
And the payoff? I opened that honey gate and bottled our very first official jar of the season from the new machine. Holding that flawless, golden jar up to the light was an total dream. It’s pristine, clear, and tastes like pure mid-summer perfection!
🎓 Bee School: The Magic of the "Wet Frame"
So, what happens to that beautifully spun, sticky, honey-coated frame now? We don't wash it. We bring it right back out to the bee yard, and it acts like a massive shot of pure adrenaline for the colony.
Here is why returning "wet frames" to the hive gets the girls so incredibly buzzed (pun intended):
The Energy Shortcut: To secrete just 1 pound of pure wax to build comb, honeybees have to consume and digest roughly 8 pounds of honey. It is an exhausting, metabolically expensive, and time-consuming process for the hive’s young builders.
The Instant Pivot: By handing the bees a perfectly intact, fully drawn comb that is simply coated in sticky residue, you are handing them the ultimate structural shortcut. They don't have to waste a single day building walls. Instead, the workers frantically lick the frame clean—which instantly triggers their food-storage pheromones—and immediately pivot 100% of their workforce to flying out the front door to haul in more nectar.
🚨 WE NEED YOUR HELP: The Mega Machine Naming Poll! 🗳️
Every great piece of royalty in our apiary needs a name, and this motorized beast is no exception. We can't just call her "the extractor"—she’s got too much power, too much shine, and too much attitude.
We’ve narrowed down the top contenders to three awesome options, but we need our incredible community to help us make the final executive decision. Here are the choices on the ballot:
Sticky Twister (A fun, high-energy nod to the absolute whirlwind of sticky goodness happening inside that drum!)
Honey Runner (For the sleek, motorized speed demon that gets the liquid gold flowing from comb to bottle in record time.)
Head on over to our official Facebook page right now to cast your vote on the pinned poll! Drop your choice in the poll or leave a comment with your own custom suggestion!!
Make sure to check back in an upcoming blog post where we will officially tally the votes and crown the winner! 👑✨
📜 Moral of the Day
Work smarter, not harder—and always help your bees do the same.
The mega machine has officially tasted its first honey, the first jar is on the counter, and the harvest season is officially underway!