The Honey Factory

[Apis mellifera]

He thinks I should try to find the queen in the swarm hive, kill her and reunite the hive. He said or try to reunite the hive and let the queens fight it out.

The old beekeepers saying:
A swarm in May is worth a load of hay;
a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon;
but a swarm in July is not worth a fly.

Your mentor is right. But I would snuff out the queen in the swarm and paper combine the bees with the young queen in the parent hive. And give them the deep frames of honey.

 

[jerryse]

https://youtube.com/shorts/DKDNQUh660c?feature=share

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At least you caught them . Better than losing them . When I caught mine I pruned off the branch and gently lowered into a deep with 5 frames . Next day I removed branch and put in the other 5 frames . Whatever works .

 

[jerryse]

I used all my swarm trap frames and put the traps away for the year . I have enough hives and do not want to use resources pulling a July swarm through the winter .

 

[jerryse]

Ralphie get you a metal honey screen . I had to order mine as local only had cloth . Has extendable arms and fits oner a 5 gallon bucket or similar .Last year I used a ice cream scoop ( nearly flat ) to scrape comb of of foundation . Only stole a couple of deeps from them .

 

[R2elk]

Ralphie get you a metal honey screen . I had to order mine as local only had cloth . Has extendable arms and fits oner a 5 gallon bucket or similar .Last year I used a ice cream scoop ( nearly flat ) to scrape comb of of foundation . Only stole a couple of deeps from them .

Currently on sale.

https://www.mannlakeltd.com/stainless-steel-double-sieve

 

[duluthralphie]

Ralphie get you a metal honey screen . I had to order mine as local only had cloth . Has extendable arms and fits oner a 5 gallon bucket or similar .Last year I used a ice cream scoop ( nearly flat ) to scrape comb of of foundation . Only stole a couple of deeps from them .

Got one.. Fleetfarm had it… I got this a few weeks ago.. the WW was with when I bought it, so I didn’t need to win it.

 

[jerryse]

Tried to mow around the hives . Couple of stings . I think it was from the last swarm hive . These may not be as gentle . If so off with her head .

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

My bees are still in the box I put them in last night.

Maybe I got the queen into the box somehow..

I took 25 frames to be spun out. I did not get them all spun out.

My “mentor” who owns the extractor told me I should not spin out the deeps. He said to keep those and give them back to the bees this fall for over wintering. I think that is good advice.


I had some frames I was going to make cut comb out of, and tried to spin them out…. That was a failure. No more cut comb or at least not as many.

I also had 10 frames in some of my honey supers. He decaps with a hot knife. No more 10 frame honey supers. They make nice looking cut comb but were hard to decap.

I have about 8-10 frames I need to crush the honey out, and drain, or make cut comb,


I had already bought wax covered plastic foundation for those frames. I will be putting it in those frames. I think I will only keep one or two cut comb frames a year from now on.

So much to learn about bees and honey.

He thinks I should try to find the queen in the swarm hive, kill her and reunite the hive. He said or try to reunite the hive and let the queens fight it out.

You can also do chunk honey. You take a chunk of comb and put it in a jar and then fill it up with liquid honey. It's a nice alternative and a lot of people like it, I've done it quite a few times.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

Adding my first honey super tomorrow. One hive is strong enough. The other needs more time.

My mentor plans to come out next weekend to see how that hive is doing.

 

[jerryse]

Mowed around the hives again . Swarm hive still a little aggressive . After they nearly got me I put on my bee suit to finish mowing . Not super aggressive but no mowing around them uprotected . They were not aggressive until the new brood became workers .