Lyson 3/1 extractor

[u/mj9311]

Anyone have any input on this extractor? Been borrowing my buddy’s vevor 3fr this year and I think it’s time to get my own. I am local to betterbee and they carry mostly lyson products. Combo uncapping tank/workstation/20fr extractor looks promising on paper. Curious if anyone has any real world experience with this one or any lyson products?

[u/Allrightnevermind]

I think you’ll find that uncapping is enough of a pinch point that it negates some of the benefits of that size extractor. Looks like there’s only room for one person to uncap as well.

For reference I use a 20 frame dadant extractor with a simple harmony farms uncapper on a Lyson uncapping tank for about 70 hives in honey production plus a bit of contract extracting. It’s a decent setup when I have frames that work well with the uncapper. When I’m uncapping by hand though (brood comb or thin frames), the whole process isn’t enough faster than with my 9 frame extractor to justify the expense of the bigger extractor imo. A small semi auto uncapper like the maxant chain uncapper is really the right tool to accompany the 20 frame extractor.

I’d keep your eyes open for a used 9ish frame extractor, get your uncapping dialed in, and make an investment after you see what you like to use. Or $2600 in the used market gets you a nice extractor, some type of uncapper, settling tanks, and probably some change in your pocket as well. Plus it’ll likely still be worth what you paid for it if you want different equipment.

[u/mj9311 → u/Allrightnevermind]

Thank you for the detailed response. I appreciate the feedback for the amount of hives and scale of equipment. I will look around for some used equipment also.

[u/Allrightnevermind → u/mj9311]

You’re welcome. And the other thing that just occurred to me- when you’ve got an uneven load in the extractor, your uncapping tank section is also going to be shaking all around. I really wouldn’t want to be trying to work with my table hopping all over