Colorado

[COChix]

Uzi,
You are most welcome. It is always informative for us and I am sure for others to share experiences. Knowing what did or did not work for others is a good jumping off spot for those of us having similar issues.
What a super pretty little lady she is! Congrats on the teeny tiny little eggs.

X2

 

[Latestarter]

Well, finally got up and took care of the bees. Lessons learned include but are not limited to:

#1 Get a fume board and USE IT! The smoke brought the bees up into the super to eat honey... NOT the ideal when you're trying to get the bees OUT of the super...
#2 Do NOT use a swifer duster to remove the bees from the removed honey frames... they stick to it... like dust, (and spilled honey) but better! They definitely do NOT like it! (Who knew right?)
#3 Do NOT go bare handed when stealing their honey! Got hit 3 times, all on the left hand (which was holding the frame at the top center.) Have a little minor swelling by the last one, right on the index finger knuckle. Hope this helps the arthritis there... Took a couple of Benedryl, just in case.
#4 Make sure if using the smoker, that there's enough fuel to last the entire evolution. Sucks if you run out before you go back out to open the hive and put the scraped clean frames back in for Bee cleaning. They remember you from 10 minutes earlier. They are still decidedly UN-happy!
#5 do NOT even THINK about doing the powdered sugar thing when stealing honey... plan on stealing the honey and making a hasty get-away! The bees are ******, and there's leaking honey all over the place that the sugar will stick to and make a mess.
#6 Propolis gets stuck to EVERY thing! Propolis is hard to remove once on something (like laundry basket handles).
#7 A full frame of honey is HEAVY! A full medium honey super is up to10 times as heavy!






I left the box on the hive and put the frames into a laundry basket to carry to the house. I had 6 full and two 1/2 frames (1 side full, the other sides were 1/2 uncapped, so only scraped the capped honey and left the rest for the bees.) Only had one un-drawn frame in the super!

Altogether a rather good start since this is my first year. I had been told to not expect any honey or maybe just a little. That pot 1/2 full weighed out at 26.2 pounds (wax & honey combined)! If there's 6 pounds of wax there, that leaves me with 20 pounds of honey! I'm very happy with those results! I just wish I had been more of a bee keeper and less of a "bee haver" The other hive might have survived and I'd have twice this amount.

There is still a lot of alfalfa blooming around here so they can still collect more nectar/pollen to stock up before the first hard frost/freeze. I'll go back and remove the super in a week or so, hopefully dust with powdered sugar, remove the honey super frames, in there and start feeding them 2:1 sugar water so they can fill voids. After the first hard freeze, I'll swap over to just plain sugar for the winter.

In the process of straining it out now, then will bottle it up. YUM!

 

[Mtn Margie]

Congrats on the honey harvest!
Welcome all you new CO people.

 

[intangible04]

Well, finally got up and took care of the bees. Lessons learned include but are not limited to: #1 Get a fume board and USE IT! The smoke brought the bees up into the super to eat honey... NOT the ideal when you're trying to get the bees OUT of the super... #2 Do NOT use a swifer duster to remove the bees from the removed honey frames... they stick to it... like dust, (and spilled honey) but better! They definitely do NOT like it! (Who knew right?) #3 Do NOT go bare handed when stealing their honey! Got hit 3 times, all on the left hand (which was holding the frame at the top center.) Have a little minor swelling by the last one, right on the index finger knuckle. Hope this helps the arthritis there... Took a couple of Benedryl, just in case. #4 Make sure if using the smoker, that there's enough fuel to last the entire evolution. Sucks if you run out before you go back out to open the hive and put the scraped clean frames back in for Bee cleaning. They remember you from 10 minutes earlier. They are still decidedly UN-happy! #5 do NOT even THINK about doing the powdered sugar thing when stealing honey... plan on stealing the honey and making a hasty get-away! The bees are ******, and there's leaking honey all over the place that the sugar will stick to and make a mess. #6 Propolis gets stuck to EVERY thing! Propolis is hard to remove once on something (like laundry basket handles). #7 A full frame of honey is HEAVY! A full medium honey super is up to10 times as heavy! I left the box on the hive and put the frames into a laundry basket to carry to the house. I had 6 full and two 1/2 frames (1 side full, the other sides were 1/2 uncapped, so only scraped the capped honey and left the rest for the bees.) Only had one un-drawn frame in the super! Altogether a rather good start since this is my first year. I had been told to not expect any honey or maybe just a little. That pot 1/2 full weighed out at 26.2 pounds (wax & honey combined)! If there's 6 pounds of wax there, that leaves me with 20 pounds of honey! I'm very happy with those results! I just wish I had been more of a bee keeper and less of a "bee haver" The other hive might have survived and I'd have twice this amount. There is still a lot of alfalfa blooming around here so they can still collect more nectar/pollen to stock up before the first hard frost/freeze. I'll go back and remove the super in a week or so, hopefully dust with powdered sugar, remove the honey super frames, in there and start feeding them 2:1 sugar water so they can fill voids. After the first hard freeze, I'll swap over to just plain sugar for the winter. In the process of straining it out now, then will bottle it up. YUM!

Is this your first time beekeeping? I was so close to pulling the trigger this spring.

 

[Latestarter]

Yes, first year. I started with 2 hives, package bees, and all new lang boxes and frames. Lost one hive for some unknown reason. It just died on me. This one however did quite well. If it survives the winter, I should be able to fill 2 supers next year. Depending on how they make it through the winter, I'll either split this hive to create another, or buy another package and re-install in the hive that died out next spring. Don't hold back next time... just do it!

 

[cluckylady812]

Well, finally got up and took care of the bees. Lessons learned include but are not limited to: #1 Get a fume board and USE IT! The smoke brought the bees up into the super to eat honey... NOT the ideal when you're trying to get the bees OUT of the super... #2 Do NOT use a swifer duster to remove the bees from the removed honey frames... they stick to it... like dust, (and spilled honey) but better! They definitely do NOT like it! (Who knew right?) #3 Do NOT go bare handed when stealing their honey! Got hit 3 times, all on the left hand (which was holding the frame at the top center.) Have a little minor swelling by the last one, right on the index finger knuckle. Hope this helps the arthritis there... Took a couple of Benedryl, just in case. #4 Make sure if using the smoker, that there's enough fuel to last the entire evolution. Sucks if you run out before you go back out to open the hive and put the scraped clean frames back in for Bee cleaning. They remember you from 10 minutes earlier. They are still decidedly UN-happy! #5 do NOT even THINK about doing the powdered sugar thing when stealing honey... plan on stealing the honey and making a hasty get-away! The bees are ******, and there's leaking honey all over the place that the sugar will stick to and make a mess. #6 Propolis gets stuck to EVERY thing! Propolis is hard to remove once on something (like laundry basket handles). #7 A full frame of honey is HEAVY! A full medium honey super is up to10 times as heavy! I left the box on the hive and put the frames into a laundry basket to carry to the house. I had 6 full and two 1/2 frames (1 side full, the other sides were 1/2 uncapped, so only scraped the capped honey and left the rest for the bees.) Only had one un-drawn frame in the super! Altogether a rather good start since this is my first year. I had been told to not expect any honey or maybe just a little. That pot 1/2 full weighed out at 26.2 pounds (wax & honey combined)! If there's 6 pounds of wax there, that leaves me with 20 pounds of honey! I'm very happy with those results! I just wish I had been more of a bee keeper and less of a "bee haver" The other hive might have survived and I'd have twice this amount. There is still a lot of alfalfa blooming around here so they can still collect more nectar/pollen to stock up before the first hard frost/freeze. I'll go back and remove the super in a week or so, hopefully dust with powdered sugar, remove the honey super frames, in there and start feeding them 2:1 sugar water so they can fill voids. After the first hard freeze, I'll swap over to just plain sugar for the winter. In the process of straining it out now, then will bottle it up. YUM!

Congrats on the bees! Those are impressive results! Ive always wanted to keep a hive, but dh is allergic and i want to keep him more btw, do you sell any of those glorious 20 gallons? I would much prefer to purchase from a byc member than box store.

 

[Latestarter]

Thanks

It wasn't 20 gallons... it was about 20 POUNDS... I WISH it was 20 gallons!! I'm still straining the wax out. It is straining very slow!

 

[suncatcher]

Congrats on your first honey!!! Next year you will know how to deal with it much better..... everything is a learning experience, and knowledge is power!

 

[Guvnah]

Some day I want to take on beekeeping!

You mentioned that one hive failed. I don't know a lot about it, but some studies point to other organisms (like mites) or other microbes that cause (or contribute to) a hive failing. If you're going to try resurrecting that hive with new bees, perhaps some sort of disinfecting would be in order first.

But I'm sure you're already on top of that. Just wanted to throw it out there.

 

[COChix]

@Latestarter Good job on the honey and beeswax! If you don't think you will use the beeswax, I will gladly take it off your hands. Or maybe we could barter, give me your beeswax and I will turn it into salves. For a fee or for some product, just a thought. PM me if interested.

Also on the failed hive, make sure your spraying your gardens, yards, trees and such with non neonicitoid products. Also any plants or perennials (flowers) that you buy from the big box stores like HD, all contain neonicitoid inside the plant themselves. Bad stuff!

Wow we are in slow down mode with egg production, yesterday we got 3 eggs from 7 girls. We are currently getting eggs more consistently from our 3 EE than our 4 brown egg layers. They are 18 months and going through their first hard molt, boy can I tell. Come on young pullets, we want eggs! I refuse to buy! Going to do an egg dance soon to the chicken gods to appease them.

Edited - low and behold I heard a bunch of egg songs a bit ago and went out to find our first brown pullet egg!