# Anyone care to take a stab at the make of this relic?



## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Cowen mini is the consensus from facebook.


























Motors are made by Dayton.


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## sharpdog (Jun 6, 2012)

looks my cowen silver queen without the 6 frame feeder.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Thanks Sharpdog. 
I got a lot of response on the facebook commercial beekeepers page. Several guys say they still have one and use it on a fairly large scale. Parts still available at Cowen.
May I ask you, is a hot water tank with circ pump is suitable for heating the knives or better to get a small boiler type set up?


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

Lauri said:


> Parts still available at Cowen.
> May I ask you, is a hot water tank with circ pump is suitable for heating the knives or better to get a small boiler type set up?


we use a 110 volt hot water tank with a pump, you can also get a small reservoir with a heater and pump from cowens, I assume it will fit this unit, they can tell you. My buddy has been using his for 30 years, works fine, only had to repair it once in the last 15 years, just keep greasing all the squeaks.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Would strongly recommend if you can, getting a chain feeder for it. Means you can just load frames onto it as you go, rather than hold each one and have to drop it in at the right moment.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

I purchased a Lyson uncapper that has very similar knives and it uses a Wagner Power Wallpaper Steamer as the heat source. Works great. It's an open loop design that just dumps the condensate into a plastic pail. For $50-$60 it's a pretty cheap a solution. One tank lasts about 1 hour, then you need to refill and wait about 10 minutes to get back up to temp.

Link to uncapper: https://www.betterbee.com/uncapping-tools-and-equipment/lyson-w20960.asp


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

It's a Cowen mini.


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## pascal (Oct 1, 2010)

I use the same one (mine is a parowan, not yet a cowen but same thing). I use a big presto with a gaz burner. With 4 gallons of water, I can safely extract for 3 hours. Blade are very hot. This allow me to extract alone something near 500 pounds of honey. sometime more, sometime less. I'm very satisfied with this machine.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Same here, use a pressure cooker on a propane turkey fryer stand.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Thanks everyone.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

One more question since I have your attention. 
The guy I am buying all this used equipment from has a _pallet_ of unopened large MAQS tubs that I see no expiration date on, but appear to be a few years old due to the barn dust and rat turd layers. Run from it or pick it up? Would be a hazmat disposal if useless.
I passed it up on the first load assuming it was no good or worse, but thought I'd ask before the next trip.


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

Dayton motors are carried by Grainger, among others. They show up on all sorts of small-run industrial equipment. The good news is, to replace one you don't need to go to the equipment manufacturer, just go to the Grainger website, or one of the other industrial parts companies. They should be pretty generic, and you can expect any pulleys, etc, used with them are as well.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Lauri said:


> One more question since I have your attention.
> The guy I am buying all this used equipment from has a _pallet_ of unopened large MAQS tubs that I see no expiration date on, but appear to be a few years old due to the barn dust and rat turd layers. Run from it or pick it up? Would be a hazmat disposal if useless.
> I passed it up on the first load assuming it was no good or worse, but thought I'd ask before the next trip.


FROM THEIR WEBSITE:

'MAQS has a one year shelf life when stored as per label. Each product pail has an expiry date printed on the label, after which it is no longer legal for use. Check pail expiry date before purchase.'


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

odfrank said:


> FROM THEIR WEBSITE:
> 
> 'MAQS has a one year shelf life when stored as per label. Each product pail has an expiry date printed on the label, after which it is no longer legal for use. Check pail expiry date before purchase.'


I will have to get my stronger glasses and look again.


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## Dan the bee guy (Jun 18, 2015)

Lauri said:


> I will have to get my stronger glasses and look again.


Yea I need new bifocals it sure does suck getting old.


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## GoodyFarms (Jul 10, 2016)

Lauri said:


> Would be a hazmat disposal if useless.


From: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/81-123/pdfs/0296.pdf

"Formic Acid may be disposed of by atomizing in a suitable combustion chamber equipped with an appropriate effluent gas cleaning device."

You can come to your own conclusions on how that could be interpreted.


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

I would suggest disposal of the MAQS by using it to treat your empty hive bodies. I mean, there might be a couple of mites in them. 

Seriously, had the formic acid been used on beehives, what do you think would have happened to it?

The reason for all that proper disposal wording is that it was sold as a pesticide. But what of formic acid sold for other uses, such as, no kidding, a "green eco-friendly de-icing agent"? Diluted, it is pretty innocuous. Dispersing it a little at a time, with nobody around to breathe strong fumes (which old strips probably don't make anyway) should be safe enough.

https://greenchemicalsblog.com/2013/02/04/formic-acid-as-eco-friendly-deicing-agent/


The dried out strips, according to the manufacturer's FAQs, may be composted.


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

The loss of potency of formic acid has bugged me since I first encountered it.

There are two possible breakdown pathways. When formic acid is a liquid, and dissolved in water, the dominant pathway is a breakdown to hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide. Pretty harmless, but maybe you don't want sparks or flames around when you open a container of MAQS in case there's hydrogen present. The paper below says water is a catalyst for this decomposition, and the formic acid in MAQS is about a 50% concentration in water. 

If the old MAQS don't smell like formic acid (using a cautious sniff test, because when fresh these are really strong and can be an irritant or even dangerous), it is probably mostly broken down to H2 and CO2.

http://epa.ohio.gov/portals/47/media/countywide/treatability1.pdf


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Thanks Phoebee

I did look at the containers again and still cannot find an expiration date or date of manufacturing. There appears to be a batch number so I may contact company with that info. There are about 80 large buckets or more. If it can still be used and I can pass it along, better than throwing in the landfill. They quit beekeeping 4 years ago so it is at least that old.


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## WBF (Apr 1, 2014)

Take this for what it is, and I am not an expert on MAQS or formic acid. I have however used it older than the expiration date. Issue I had was the patties seemed to be "wetter" and the paper between the gel was very difficult to differentiate between the two patties. Several I had a very difficult time separating and it was a lot messier than normal. That being said the formic acid smell was as strong as ever and from what I understand the offgassing of the formic acid is the issue with older treatments.

Hope that helps


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

Do not use old/expired/temperature abused MAQS. The substrate yellows and breaks down, the special BASF paper that slowly diffuses the formic over 3 days disintegrates. The end result is instead of getting 3 day treatment, you get very strong 1 day flash treatment. It will still kill mites, but will also take out a lot of queens.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Lauri said:


> Thanks Sharpdog.
> I got a lot of response on the facebook commercial beekeepers page. Several guys say they still have one and use it on a fairly large scale. Parts still available at Cowen.
> May I ask you, is a hot water tank with circ pump is suitable for heating the knives or better to get a small boiler type set up?


A small boiler would be better but I have heated my blades (and an infloor sump) for years with a small, overhead mounted water heater and recirculating pump. Be sure to put in an expansion tank.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Nothing wrong with using a small water heater. We have made our own out of a small tank, a Calrod, and the bulb thermostat that Kelly sold for years.

Crazy Roland


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