# New Construction - Honey House



## Grant (Jun 12, 2004)

I'm moving up the world and going to build a new honey house. Currently, my rough plans call for a garage to back my truck into to unload supers, a hot room w/dehumidifier, seperate extracting room, seperate bottling room (both air conditioned), and plenty of storage.

If you were building a new building, what kind of construction, what size, what details would you include?

Grant
Jackson, MO


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## alpha6 (May 12, 2008)

Make sure it is tall enough and the doors big enough for a forklift to move around in. Have a good drainage system for cleaning. Go one size bigger on pipes and I would recommend a gray water type system. Lots of hot water and have them put in extra circuts (50 amp 220) so if you want to add machines later you already have them in place. That's all I can think of at the moment.


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## gregstahlman (Oct 7, 2009)

bigger the better, never enough room!!! decent slope on floor to the drain, good lighting, good wall covering, and i love tankless water heaters.


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## Melissa B (Sep 30, 2010)

You may want to look into vortex spray on flooring and wall covering. You can literally spray the floor, walls, and ceiling - making a continuous waterproof barrier that can withstand any cleaning you need to do. It's the stuff they make truck bed liners from. I put it in my animal hospital and use a steam cleaning system to clean and sanitize with out using any chemicals.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

Currently I have a 15 by 30 building which is way too small. It has a wooden floor and it is way too small. Did I mention its too small? Its way too small. It is also too short inside. Its only like 6 1/2 foot ceiling. 

I am going to add an addition to the front. It will be be 14 feet wide, 20 feet long and will be no less than 10 feet high. I am going to put concrete floor in with radiant heat directly in concrete to serve as a warming room for my honey. I will also have a settling tank in there that will hold 6 barrels of honey at a time. Other than that I slightly slope the floor outside.


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## rainesridgefarm (Sep 4, 2001)

My honey house is 40x40 with 12 ft ceilings. I should have gone 2ft taller and another 20-30ft longer. If you do not have the money to go large to begin with consider building a partial open side that you can close up if you need to later when money allows. You can ue it for storage of thing that do not have to be inside but you still want under cover.


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## soupcan (Jan 2, 2005)

Why the back the pickup in & unload it deal???
If you have enough room, start out with your pad for your building site raised up so you can include a dock. Even a dock to back up to with your pickup that still has a truck box on it is a life saver.
As time progresses & if you expand your your business you can always remove the truck box & install a flatbed.
One of the best money spent for a small beek is a good quality 2 wheel cart. It's a life saver & a back saver. The fewer times you have to lift the entire weight of anything with your back & rely more on the use of a cart to do your heavy moving/lifting your body 
( back ) will thank you in the years to come.
Trust me As I am the proud owner of what is called " A Beekeepers Back "


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Air conditioned extracting room?


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

I second the "proper pitch to the extracting room floor". Having worked as a youth in a well sloped, epoxied floor, to the current poorly sloped epoxied floor, I realize how important it is. In the old room. with ample HOT water, you could stand in one spot and rinse most of the floor off. The mistake in the current floor came when a 2 story building was used, in an effort to replace the sump/pump with gravity. The spancrete used did not accommodate the slopes needed. Although gravity has yet to fail(current layout with tank downstairs), I would gladly trade the misery of the puddles on the floor for the small amount of time wasted attending the sump/pump. There must be a way to make a concrete upper floor that drains well. 

A temperature controlled (naturally?) super storage might be valuable, if one wished to avoid any paradiclorobenzene for wax moths.

Roland


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## Brent (Jun 22, 2009)

jim lyon said:


> Air conditioned extracting room?


Sounds good to me. Keeps sweat out of the honey


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## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

Climate control is a must, atless the guys in the extracting room say so. My new honey operation building is a 50X100 all steel building. Hopeing to add on a store in a few years. Setting the new shop up to wholesale by the case and buckets instead of by barrels. So more bottling, and warehousing in the new one for me.


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## Sweet to the Soul (Sep 1, 2010)

The Honey Householder said:


> Hopeing to add on a store in a few years.


I hope it does well then you'll run out of honey every year and I can sell ya some.


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## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

Sweet to the Soul said:


> I hope it does well then you'll run out of honey every year and I can sell ya some.


30+ years of producing and I produced 81 ton last year. Would love to get to the point of retailing over 80 ton a year out of my store. It hurts when you wholesale for $3800 a ton.:waiting:


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

The Honey Householder said:


> 30+ years of producing and I produced 81 ton last year. Would love to get to the point of retailing over 80 ton a year out of my store. It hurts when you wholesale for $3800 a ton.:waiting:


I wish I could feel bad for you having the need to wholesale 81 tons.

I do agree about the AC unit in the extracting house. That will go into my extracting room this coming season. Not a large unit, just a small window unit to blow on the guys extracting (which will probably be me again). Our extracting room ran right at 100 degrees this past year even though outside temps were in the 50s. I think its a must to help keep the hired hands cool enough to do a good job.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Grant said:


> a hot room w/dehumidifier, seperate extracting room,


Use radiant heat in the slab to heat the building. My hot room is 30x10 with extra heating tubes in the slab. I can put 50+ drums of crystallized honey in there, and it will be liquid in less than 2 weeks with thermostat set at 120. The heat comes from bottom so there are no cold spots in the room.


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