Mini Laboratory Centrifuge for Insemination & Pollen Analysis

01 · WHY SPIN THE POLLEN

A pollen grain takes far too long to settle on its own

The pollen grains in a honey measure from a few tens of microns upward, and in a sample diluted in water they would take hours to settle by gravity, if they settled at all. Centrifuging takes them to the bottom of the tube in minutes and leaves a sediment that can be mounted on a slide.

It is worth being clear about what it does and does not do: the machine prepares the sample. The botanical identification is then done by a trained person at the microscope, and it is that reading, not the machine, that says anything about the origin of a honey.

02 · IN INSEMINATION, HOMOGENISING

Collected semen is not a uniform mixture

In instrumental insemination the semen is collected from several drones and diluted; until it is homogenised, the charge that goes into the capillary does not represent every donor equally. The centrifuge is what makes that mixture uniform before the syringe is loaded.

It is a laboratory step, not an apiary one: it belongs on the same bench as the syringes and the capillaries, not out at the hives.

03 · WHAT TO CHECK WHEN BUYING

The tube format and the timer

The rotor is an angle rotor and takes 6 tubes of 15 ml, the most widespread conical laboratory tube format. If your protocols work with another volume, that is the first thing to check.

The timer runs from 0 to 60 minutes and the speed reaches 4000 rpm. It runs on 220 V and is a compact bench unit, meant for a worktable rather than a large laboratory bench.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

A laboratory device in a beekeeping shop: worth bounding.