🐝💗Our Backyard Beekeeping Journey!💗🐝

[drstratton]

Remember that you can only do this with frames that have fully drawn combs.

I didn't know that, thank you. We have plenty of fully drawn combs now. So, we should be good to go.

 

[drstratton]

Good morning all. Since our hives are doing so well, nice and heavy, we have decided that we won't be adding any supers back on. We will be extracting the last of the summer honey and then the buckwheat honey on Sunday. I think we have 14 frames of each. Hopefully they're in good condition, so we'll see. The end of season has not gone the way we planned.

 

[drstratton]

The bees are still busy harvesting whatever is remaining in our yard.

On the lavender.

 

[R2elk]

The bees are still busy harvesting whatever is remaining in our yard.

On the lavender.

I had one on this Johnny Jump Up right after I took the picture.

 

[drstratton]

I had one on this Johnny Jump Up right after I took the picture.View attachment 4235141

That's a beautiful color! We have those, but the color is not as deep.

 

[Sally PB]

Sorry, I never actually measured the difference but it is a noticable increase.

I'm thinking about running 7 instead of 8 in one of our hives next year to see if there's a big difference.

Remember that you can only do this with frames that have fully drawn combs.

Since I needed more honey, I bought some from my "bee guy" Ed. He runs 9 frames in his 10 frame boxes. I asked him if the yield is better, and he said definitely, but couldn't say by how much. He also said decapping with a hot knife is much easier. Since I used our hot knife once and was ready to give it away, I'll keep this in mind.

I'm going to mention this to hubby for next year. Maybe do one hive with 8 frames and one with 7.

Thank you for the point of using only frames with fully drawn comb!

 

[5Australorpasaures]

This (retirement) is why I don't want to start selling it...lol. I'm glad you have a good market.

I hemmed and hawed about selling, then DW said time for the bees to pay the bill. It just worked out. No honor box or people coming to the house. I don't want to handle any more than 5 hives though. I did find out on average with a 9 frame medium 10 lbs +/- more honey. This will also give extra drawn frames for the 2 splits I'm thinking about. Of course, the winter will make that decision for me.

 

[Sally PB]

I'd like to have enough honey someday (next year? ) to be able to sell some when someone asks me. I already have had two people tell me they'd love to buy some.

 

[drstratton]

I hemmed and hawed about selling, then DW said time for the bees to pay the bill. It just worked out. No honor box or people coming to the house. I don't want to handle any more than 5 hives though. I did find out on average with a 9 frame medium 10 lbs +/- more honey. This will also give extra drawn frames for the 2 splits I'm thinking about. Of course, the winter will make that decision for me.

I hope it's profitable for you and stays enjoyable.
I really want to keep it to 3 or even just 2 hives and a resource hive. 4 full hives was more than we wanted.
Here's hoping to a good overwinter for all of us here.

 

[drstratton]

I'd like to have enough honey someday (next year? ) to be able to sell some when someone asks me. I already have had two people tell me they'd love to buy some.

I hope that works out for you. I've had quite a few people ask me also.