Pollen dryer SAF®

01 · CAPACITY

How much pollen it really dries in a day

The dryer takes 500 g of pollen every 24 hours, split across two trays of 250 g. That figure decides the purchase: for the pollen off a few hives, or for your own use, it is more than enough. Once you are trapping ten hives at a time the daily crop outruns what this body dries in 24 hours, and pollen waiting its turn is pollen going off. With several dozen hives trapping, the kit you need is a different size altogether.

02 · DRYING

65 °C is the machine's ceiling, not the pollen's temperature

The switch gives you three drying levels over an armoured 475 W heating element, with the thermostat set at 65 °C. That number is the ceiling of the appliance, not the working setting: pollen dries on warm air and time, not on hard heat, and the lower you go the better the grain reaches the jar. The usual reference for drying pollen sits around 40 °C. Start on the lowest level, spread the pollen in a thin layer, two centimetres at most, and go by the final moisture rather than by the clock: the target is that 6-8%. Above 10% it is still open to fermenting; below 6% it turns brittle and loses acceptance.

03 · EXPANSION

It ships with two sieves and the body takes up to ten

It comes with two sieves of 300 mm diameter and 40 mm depth, stacked inside a 317 mm basket. The body accepts up to ten and the extra ones are ordered separately. The caveat, before you order eight in one go: the fan and the heating element are the same with two sieves as with ten. Adding trays does not multiply the daily capacity, it shares the same air between more pollen — each cycle runs longer and the upper sieves take more time, because the air reaches them cooler and already carrying moisture. With a tall stack, rotate them halfway through the cycle.

FROM THE APIARY

Before you take the pollen out, switch the heating element off and leave the fan moving cold air for ten or fifteen minutes. Taken out warm, the grain reabsorbs moisture from the room the moment you open it and you lose the whole night's work; cold, the pellet firms up and keeps.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

The box holds the body with its ventilation motor and thermostat, the basket and two sieves. A benchtop 230 V appliance for a domestic socket, weighing 2.64 kg.