🐝💗Our Backyard Beekeeping Journey!💗🐝

[5Australorpasaures]

The definitely didn't like it did they. That's a bunch of bees.

Everything has settled down, fanning crew busy on the "porch" while others are in and out working.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

That's awesome. You've got to do what you're comfortable with.

Looking forward to pictures.

Have to get DW on pics, I am totally TECH challenged, why you see very few pics from me. It is fun watching her frustration trying to "teach me"! Here's a PIC of DW

 

[5Australorpasaures]

I remove the caps and spin it all out.

I've never found it to really affect the honey. I usually will go no lighter than 65 to 70% though.

 

[drstratton]

Have to get DW on pics, I am totally TECH challenged, why you see very few pics from me. It is fun watching her frustration trying to "teach me"! Here's a PIC of DW

It's pretty much the same around here...lol

 

[drstratton]

Just curious,, Did you spot any wild bees while camping??You beat me to it. I think one is a fly, but both are some type of pollinator.

I didn't see any bees. I did spot a few other pollinators. You'll have to zoom in.
Hover Fly
Fazia (Allograpta) micrura

Tachinid fly

 

[drstratton]

Interesting! I see honeybees, bumble bees and a few different kinds of wasps on the buckwheat I planted just about any time of day. I'd run out and look now (5:30, EDT), but I'm about to go take a shower.

Hubby said he had buckwheat honey when he was a kid and thought it was the best honey of all.

Fingers crossed for Friday!

Maybe they're still collecting pollen? I don't know, but that's just something he read. You can't always trust everything on the internet...lol First hand reports are always better.

I'm excited for you!

 

[drstratton]

Here's a question. When we looked two weeks ago, there were 2 fully capped frames. We didn't want to do the set up/clean up for just two frames, so we decided to wait.

In addition to the two frames, there were 2? 3? 4? frames that were partially capped, but still had some open comb full of nectar.

If we have a frame like that, can we pull it, lay it flat (in a covered tote, I'm thinking) and let the uncapped stuff drain out so that we can harvest the capped stuff? Has anyone done this? Does it work, or is there a different/better way?

I remember one frame that had one side capped, and about half of the other side capped, while the rest was "work in progress."

I'd catch the nectar and leave it out for the girls. (We refer to the bees as "the girls." My chickens are "the ladies.")

My chickens and bees are both the girls, but my chickens are mostly my Darlin's...

I remove the caps and spin it all out.

I've never found it to really affect the honey. I usually will go no lighter than 65 to 70% though.

This is what we did too. It's okay if it's not fully capped, just mostly capped. Our climate is very dry.

 

[Apis mellifera]

Honey refractometers on Amazon are cheap. They work good to measure moisture content on frames your not sure about.

 

[drstratton]

Just finished the 3rd OAV treatment. Hubs is sick, so I went solo. We did it after dark the first two times, this time I did it while there was still some light. Much easier.

You can see a few bees coated with OA, the bee on the left really stands out.