How the bee was made, the bee made honey

[Reinbeau]

Quote:
Well, that's a little extreme. What usually happens if you harvest too early is the moisture content is too high and the honey ferments - we joking say we 'made mead' if that happens (although it doesn't taste like mead at that point!). If you can eat it at all it'll taste pretty bad! The moisture content is 18% or lower when the honey is capped, although when you're extracting, if you've got uncapped honey, you can test the moisture content by shaking the frame- if no honey comes out, it's ready, they just didn't get around to capping it. With top bar hive frames, I think you have to be really careful, the shake test won't work, you'll break the comb.

 

[KrisRose]

I'm suffering from hive envy!! I've always wanted a bee hive but I'm too overwhelmed with everything else this year. Think I'll invest in the book "Bee Keeping Fer Dummies".

 

[Dixiedoodle]

Chelc, Honey production is relative to the strength of your hive, the weather conditions, if you are using new foundation or drawn foundation and your area.

A really strong hive , with prefect weather condititon , with drawn foundation and great forage can produce anywhere from 4-7 honey supers full--each super will weighing AROUND 45 lbs each.

In 12 yrs, I have NEVER had the same quaility of honey or the same amount of honey.1996, I got NO honey--you have to leave at least one full super of honey for the bees to make it thru the winter in MY area. 1997, there were more rain than we had in YEARS, blooms rotted and the bees were unable to forage--I got 43lbs.. In 2006, I harvested 463 lbs. of honey from 10 hives--three being new hives. In 2007, with the drought and the loss of one hive I harvested 169 lbs of honey!

5 of our 'old' beekeepers (some have been keeping for 50yrs) lost most or all of their hives to CCD or other dieases or pests! One had 300hives and lost over half!

Dixie

 

[domromer]

Quote:
Miss prissy,


Can you recommend any good bee keeping books? I want to try bee keeping next but know next to nothing about it and don't know where to begin!

 

[domromer]

Are bees more or less work then chickens?

 

[MissPrissy]

Quote:
Beekeeping for Dummies is where I started.

I have no idea if they are more work. I just got them Monday.

 

[domromer]

I was thinking maybe some of the other bee keepers could chime in on that question.


Thanks for the recommendation MP.

 

[MissPrissy]

It was really amazing to stand in the middle of those bees and not get stung.

My dh built these top bar hives.

This is going to be a great journey learning something new.

 

[Reinbeau]

Quote:
Much less work than chickens, you can basically ignore them for a week or two at a time, during the winter, you don't fuss with them at all, during spring it's important to prevent swarming and to add supers when the flow happens....there are seasonal chores, but not daily. However, sitting down there watching them go about their business is so calming - as much as watching chickens, I would imagine

 

[domromer]

Sounds like me kind of pet.

I'll have to read up on them. When's the right season to start?

I's it best to wait until next spring? Or is summer or fall ok?