A BEE thread....for those interested in beekeeping.

[Amiga]

Okay, progress setting up the apiary today.

Took down a couple of very small trees - just a bit larger than saplings, maybe 5 inch diameter. My beloved did the deed, with me providing support. Mostly moral support, but at one point I needed to pull the saw out when he leaned on the tree. Hey, we are amateurs but we practice as much safety as we know how.

I put the first coat of paint on the top of the roof - I got the optional roof for my top bar hive. Nice color. Mediterranean Teal. Mythic non-toxic paint. Pics when I finish.

This feels good, to make more progress. I have the electric fence, want to get some half inch metal hardware cloth to lay flat around the outside of the fence for some extra added kick if needed.

Still some to-do items - bunches of them. But we are getting closer to ready!

I heard the neighbors' lawnmowers today, and recalled hearing that sometimes bees go after loud things like lawnmowers? Someone please tell me this is a myth.

 

[Amiga]

We had snow here today - and I just got notice that my bees are in transit. Please tell me if they are going to need any special care in this unseasonably cold spring. They are coming from Maine, so at least are used to cold.

From the little I know - I have not even got the bees yet, just learning - they'll need protection from the elements, and plenty of liquid food for calories. I think if they have those things they will be fine. Do you have a feeder?

I just got done with the first coat of a nice dark green for the roof - to help keep the hive a tad warmer with some passive solar heating.

 

[Happy Chooks]

@sgtmom52 Do you harvest honey all at once in the fall? I was thinking of adding another super to the top of my hive and doing it all at once. Also, how do you get the bees out of the super before you harvest? Do you use a bee escape? This will be my first honey harvest, so any tips would be great! We will be borrowing an extractor from a friend.

 

[Deb B]

@sgtmom52 Do you harvest honey all at once in the fall? I was thinking of adding another super to the top of my hive and doing it all at once. Also, how do you get the bees out of the super before you harvest? Do you use a bee escape? This will be my first honey harvest, so any tips would be great! We will be borrowing an extractor from a friend.

Once a frame is completely capped, you'll find that there aren't very many bees on it. I never had more than thirty frames to harvest at one time. So what I do is just lift out the frame, give it a good shake over the hive so the loose bees fall back in, and then blow off the occasional hanger on as I walk the frame over to a rubber maid tub that I put the frames into once the bees are off it. (I also place the rubber maid container in the wheel barrow. It's uphill from the hives to the house and full frames are heavy!)

I wouldn't recommend this method if you have lots of frames to do, but it works if all you have to harvest is a couple of supers.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Once a frame is completely capped, you'll find that there aren't very many bees on it. I never had more than thirty frames to harvest at one time. So what I do is just lift out the frame, give it a good shake over the hive so the loose bees fall back in, and then blow off the occasional hanger on as I walk the frame over to a rubber maid tub that I put the frames into once the bees are off it. (I also place the rubber maid container in the wheel barrow. It's uphill from the hives to the house and full frames are heavy!)

I wouldn't recommend this method if you have lots of frames to do, but it works if all you have to harvest is a couple of supers.

Thanks! I only have 1 hive currently, so there won't be many at once.

 

[OHhappychicks]

Glad to see there is a bee thread. I started with one hive of Italians last year but by winter they where gone. This year I got two hives I bought from a seller in Los Banos, CA I live in CA Central Coast and had to go that far buying them as any local beekeeper was three times more expensive. I am hoping to learn a lot here. I really don't have a clue on what to do but really want keep bees.

I wonder why they left? That is interesting. Anyone on here know the answer? I'm waiting on a swarm here, so no bees yet. I'm hoping in the next week or two to have some. I'm hoping that if I don't get a swarm, I can still go somewhere to get some. There are a couple of places not to terribly far from me that sell them. I really don't want to wait until next year!

btw, what breed of hen laid the eggs in your avatar? I assume they are from your flock!

I guess it could just be a pic, but they are awesome. That is the color I want. I have french copper marans, and cuckoo marans. They aren't that dark. The fcm are a couple years old though.

 

[OHhappychicks]

It was time to inspect the hive today, while it was cool. I was very surprised at how quickly they are fillling up the super.

It's difficult to hold a heavy frame of honey with bees on it in one hand and take pictures through a veil with the other hand. But here's what I got:









Looks like it won't be long before I need to do some extraction.

How long have you had it "up and running"? Nice!

 

[afigy]

I wonder why they left? That is interesting.  Anyone on here know the answer?  I'm waiting on a swarm here, so no bees yet.  I'm hoping in the next week or two to have some.  I'm hoping that if I don't get a swarm, I can still go somewhere to get some.  There are a couple of places not to terribly far from me that sell them.  I really don't want to wait until next year!
btw, what breed of hen laid the eggs in your avatar? I assume they are from your flock! I guess it could just be a pic, but they are awesome.  That is the color I want.  I have french copper marans, and cuckoo marans.  They aren't that dark.  The fcm are a couple years old though.

They eggs are from my BCM when they started laying this spring. At the moment they are not as dark but still a beautiful colour. I checked with one of my friends that has bees too and he thinks they left because not enough food. We will se what happens this year.

 

[sgtmom52]

@sgtmom52 Do you harvest honey all at once in the fall? I was thinking of adding another super to the top of my hive and doing it all at once. Also, how do you get the bees out of the super before you harvest? Do you use a bee escape? This will be my first honey harvest, so any tips would be great! We will be borrowing an extractor from a friend.

We usually harvest all at once ~ it is a long day as we have 20 hives at 3 different locations. We usually pull the supers one day and extract the next. If you do this you must have the supers stored in a "bee tight" location or the bees will rob it out really fast if they can get to it.

Bee escapes are ok if you only have a few hive and can take your time as they can take days.
We also tried blowing them out with a shop vac ~ works ok, but stirs up the bees.
We finally settled on using a fume board and "Honey Robber". It uses a liquid called Butyric acid which is made from fermented sugars or starches. It smells bad and will clear a super in minutes. The bees don't like it & it doesn't effect the capped honey.
"Butyric acid is present in, and is the main distinctive smell of, human vomit. Butyric acid is found in milk, especially goat, sheep and buffalo milk, butter, Parmesan cheese, and as a product of anaerobic fermentation (including in the colon and as body odor). It has an unpleasant smell and acrid taste, with a sweetish aftertaste."

We fume the supers to get the bees out then put them in on our truck bed and cover them with netting to keep the bees out. We keep them in our closed garage, where we also extract. We have a sink with hot water in the garage which is handy for cleanup. When extracting honey ~ the hotter day the better as the honey flows better although you will be hotter.

We extract and store our honey in food grade white plastic buckets. We have several buckets which have "honey gates" which we use to bottle jars from as needed.

If you plan to sell honey ~ check your State regulations for rules. In Pennsylvania we can sell from our home without State Health Inspections. If we want to sell to another store or at a farm market you need to have a annual Health Inspection ~ which is similar to the ones they do for other food sales including a special extraction area which must meet strict guidelines. That is too much for people like me to deal with. We only sell to regular customers from our home.

 

[sgtmom52]

Yesterday I checked the hive with the swarm from last Thursday ~ In 3 days they had drawn out a lot of comb and the queen was laying. I put them in an 8 frame hive with 2 deep boxes. They had 3 frames of old drawn comb to start and 13 frames of undrawn comb. They have mostly drawn about 8 frames of the new comb and are still hard at work. I wouldn't be surprised if I can put a super on these girls in a couple of weeks. This swarm came from one of our heavy producing hives and I am glad we caught it.

The 2013 marked queen ~ eggs in the cells