Sally's GF3 thread

[Sally PB]

We pulled 6 frames. At least one had a full side and an empty side (the side toward the wall of the box).

I'm going to tone down my estimate to say 2 1/2 gallons, but I'm more than ecstatic about that! I buy 2 gallons at a time from Ed.

Wow, did the box weigh a LOT! I can see why we wanted to use medium boxes instead of deep. I think we will replace the deep box with a medium soon.

The difference is how tall the frames are. Deeps are 9 1/4", Mediums are about 6 1/2" (close, don't remember the exact number).

 

[Sally PB]

The boxes are made to fit the frames, so deep frames go in deep boxes, medium frames in medium boxes. There are actually shallow frames and boxes, but that seems a little too small.

We (and maybe most) beekeepers use the deep boxes as "brood boxes," ie, where the bees live and raise more bees. Some people use medium boxes as the honey supers to keep the weight more manageable.

The president of the local bee club uses all medium boxes on his hives. He messed up one of his shoulders, so he needs to keep the weight down for that reason. I can see why! A deep box full of honey can weigh over 60 pounds.

 

[Sally PB]

We put the emptied honey frames back in the box on the hive. You never get all the honey out of the comb when you extract, so the ladies have a treat in store! I'm not sure what they do with frames like that.

I think they will "fix" the comb so that it's nice and neat again, and start laying in more nectar. I don't know if they eat the honey while they fix the comb, or not. I wouldn't blame them if they did!

I don't know if I've ever had "spring" honey before. This is a light amber color, much lighter than the stuff I bought from Ed last fall. It tastes different too.

 

[Sally PB]

We're giving our neighbors jars of honey. I realized as I walked over to one house how really beautiful a jar of honey is in sunlight!

 

[Sally PB]

Linden, aka, Basswood, is a tree that honey bees like. We have three mature ones within 100 feet of the hives. They don't bloom every year, and they are taking this year off.

What I didn't realize is that there are at least two more way off across the field. Very close, as the bees fly. And they are blooming! I think they're right on the property line (not that that matters to the bees!), so I never really looked to see what they were. They're part of "the line of trees at the edge of the field."

 

[pertnear09]

Linden, aka, Basswood, is a tree that honey bees like. We have three mature ones within 100 feet of the hives. They don't bloom every year, and they are taking this year off.

What I didn't realize is that there are at least two more way off across the field. Very close, as the bees fly. And they are blooming! I think they're right on the property line (not that that matters to the bees!), so I never really looked to see what they were. They're part of "the line of trees at the edge of the field."

Well that's a stroke of luck. Any bees trying to take over the box the others swarmed from or does it work that way?

 

[Sally PB]

Hubby and I disagree about which box the swarm came from. He thinks it was the new hive; I'm quite sure it was the original hive.

The swarm was a lot of bees. I think if that many bees had left the new hive two weeks after we'd gotten them in, the hive would have been nearly empty. As it is, it looks like there are more bees than when we got them. Which is as it should be; there was a laying queen and capped brood in the frames we bought.

The original hive has a lot of bees in it too. I think they got overcrowded, raised a new queen, and some of them swarmed and left for parts unknown.

 

[pertnear09]

Sounds like y'all are still in pretty good shape and considering the honey you just harvested.

 

[Sally PB]

In the original hive, the bottom brood box wasn't nearly as full as the top one. So we swapped their locations. Bees build up, not down. Now they have more space in the upper brood box.

We did that as quickly as we could, put everything back together, and got out of there. The ladies weren't happy with us rearranging the furniture, so to speak.

Well, how would you feel if you lived on the top floor, and all your stuff was moved to the ground floor?

One thing that blows my mind when I think of it... there is very little light inside a hive. They do all their magic in the dark. But have no problem flying out into a bright sunny day.

 

[Sally PB]

Sounds like y'all are still in pretty good shape and considering the honey you just harvested.

Really hope so. We'll leave them alone for a week or so, and then check on them again.