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Hire our extraction room

Our food-grade extraction room is available for members to hire from 1st December to 30th April. It holds a current NP1 certificate (certified by an independent verifier) confirming it complies with the Food Act 2014 as a certified premise to extract and jar honey.

Cost breakdown

Half Day Hire (4 hours maximum) $70, or

Full Day Hire (8 hours maximum) $120

• Please allow at least 1 hour within your booked time frame for cleaning up when you finish.
• Please ensure you work within your booked time, so that the volunteer Extraction Room Manager can inspect the room after your use to check it is ready for the next booking.
• The room should be cleaned to the standard in which it was in when you arrived.
• Fee must be prepaid in full to confirm your booking at least 3 days prior to your arrival.
• This cost is inclusive regardless of how many honey supers you will extract within your booked time frame. The fee covers the running costs of the extraction room during that time (i.e. generator fuel costs, disposable food grade gear and other consumable expenses)
• There must be at least two people for processing, one of them is required to have a safe food handling certificate (link to a recommended online provider).

Glass jars

If you wish to purchase glass jars please contact Prakash for purchase and collection.  Please contact him directly to arrange: 021 260 3875.

Lowering costs for smaller extraction runs

For those who only have a small quantity of frames to extract, contact the Extraction Manager to go into a group extraction where you can join one or more other people for an extraction run.  This makes it more cost-effective and shares the load for cleaning at the end of processing.

2-bucket extraction option: Using this 2-bucket extraction method at home if you don’t have plans to make a fortune selling your precious honey.

Commercial extraction operator option: Taking your box/es of honey to a commercial extraction operator (typically around $23 per box). Boring but easy. And you’ll miss out on all the fun of having a hot sticky hour or two extracting your own liquid gold in the company of friends.

How to book

Please contact Peter Ludlam by email bluepatch53@gmail.com or phone: 027 233 3232 or Jan Ludlam: 027 480 7968 with the following information:

 

• Extraction Room Duration Option (Full Day/Half Day)
• Preference date and time
• Full Name
• Best contact phone
• Best contact email
• Have you been inducted to use the extraction room?
• Have you got a Food Safety Handler certificate or a helper with one?

Payment details will be provided once your booking has been accepted.

Once you’ve booked

Once we receive payment confirmation, the Extraction Room Manager Pete Ludlam will call and give you the location and your unique code to our lockbox, so you can access the extraction room key and clubroom front door. Note: The portaloo is accessed from our apiary garden.

Your legal requirements

If you sell, donate or barter honey the law requires you must:

Extract and jar in a certified premise

• We recommend retaining a copy of our NP1 certificate because Auckland Council inspectors can go to farmers markets or drive past your front gate and could ask you to prove you extracted and jarred your honey in a certified premise. Our NP1 certificate is your proof  (hardcopies in the extractor room, or electronic copy can be downloaded here.) 

Be trained as a safe food handler before you extract

• These are some of the options available:
  • Basic Food Safety and Hygiene Certificate – Foodsafe.net.nz - $195
  • Basic Food Safety and Hygiene Certificate – Foodandwine.co.nz - $155
  • Basic Food Safety Training – NSF International – Online $90+gst
  • Introductory Food Safety Certificate & Hygiene Training – Online $165

Fill out a Harvest Declaration form

• Forms are available in our extraction room to fill in and leave (or download electronic copy here).
• Honey sample pots (non-screw lids) are available to fill, label and leave
  • a sample must be taken from each batch (e.g. bucket) regardless if they’re from one apiary/hive or from several i.e. if you have harvested 2 buckets of honey you must provide 2 samples.
  • label sample/s with your name, registration number and date.
  • leave sample/s in ‘honey sample’ container in our extraction room (we are required to hold your sample/s for up to 5 years with a copy of your food handler safety certificate).
  • note: the ‘honey sample’ container is different from the ‘tutin test’ container also in our extraction room which you are also required to leave samples in (see info below).

Test for Tutin if removing honey from your hives between 1st January and 31st July

• Tutin test form is available in our extraction room to fill in and leave.
• Tutin test pots (screw lids) are available to fill, label and leave
• A sample must be taken from each batch (e.g. bucket) regardless if they’re from one apiary/hive or from several i.e. if you have harvested 2 buckets of honey you must provide 2 samples.
• Label sample/s with your name, date, registration number.
• Leave sample/s in ‘tutin test’ container in our extraction room (we will send to Hamilton lab for composite testing).
• note: the ‘tutin test’ container is different from the ‘honey sample’ container also in our extraction room which you are also required to leave samples in (see info above).
• Testing through the club – click here for full information on the process.

Guidelines for use

• You are required to pay a hireage fee in full, at time of booking.
• You are responsible for cleaning the extraction room to at least the standard it was in when you arrived (photos showing expected standard are on our extraction room wall). Allow 1.5 hours for this.
• You are responsible for removing all your rubbish (i.e. remove entire rubbish bag) when you've finished. Take it away with you to avoid attracting ants.
• For health and safety purposes you must have at least one helper (they don’t have to be a club member) in the extraction room with you at all times and you are responsible for their safety.
• You or your helper must be a club member.
• You or your helper must hold a food handler safety certificate.
• Your honey boxes/frames must be free of bees. Tip: keep them warm to ease extraction.
• You and your helper must wear covered shoes inside the extraction room.
• You and your helper must wear a disposable hairnet, apron and shoe coverings inside the extraction room (provided by our club).
• No food (except your yummy honey!) can be consumed in the extraction room.
• No water is to be put inside the extractor at any time during the entire extraction season as this may mix with your (or the next member's) honey and may lead to the honey fermenting during storage.
• You are responsible for checking all equipment is operational prior to use as subsequent damage will be at your cost. Please report any damages to the committee.
• You must read our Extraction Room Induction summary (helpfully it includes troubleshooting points).
• You must fill out our Rate the Room form (once you’ve cleaned the extraction room and are about to lock it up) so the committee can monitor the food-grade standard of cleaning + monitor if/when things need replacing.

What our club provides:

• Protective clothing (disposable hairnet, apron and shoe coverings).
• Uncapping knives, cappings scratcher, uncapping bin, honey pricker, scrapers and spatulas.
• Buckets (2 have honey gates) to collect honey from the extractor.
• Cleaning chemicals.
• Optional 400ml/500g glass jars for pre-purchase.
• Harvest declaration form + sample pots (non-screw lids) for our records (we’re required to keep for up to 5 years).
• Tutin test form + test pots (screw lids) for composite lab testing.
• Steam cleaner to remove propolis off the floor.

What you provide:

• Buckets for your wax cappings.
• Buckets for your honey (if you're not jarring up on the day).
• An empty hive box for your extracted frames so you don’t mix them in with your yet-to-extract frames.
• A pair of dishwashing gloves as you’ll be handling hot water.
• A 3M green Scotch-Brite as you’ll be scrubbing sticky stuff (note: steel pot scrubs are non-compliant for food-grade cleaning).
• A clean tea towel (to dry utensils and buckets).
• Covered shoes.
• Lunch and drink. If you want a hot drink bring a thermos of hot water.
• A photocopy of your food handler safety certificate to leave for our records (we’re required to keep for up to 5 years with your honey sample pot).

In case of emergency

We have an EpiPen onsite in the first aid box beside the internal door leading out to our apiary. This is for extreme reactions only. If you use the Epipen you must call 111 and be taken to hospital. You must also advise us for our health and safety records plus we will replace it.