The Honey Factory

[R2elk]

I pulled 3 completely full supers from the one hive that is doing good. I had pulled a full super earlier making 4 supers taken from this hive. I hope this hive makes it through the winter.

The first hive of Italians has produced no honey in the supers. At the first inspection of the hive, they were doing very good. I suspect that I inadvertently killed the queen during that inspection. The traffic in and out of the hive this summer was abysmal. I ordered a Russian Carniolan queen without looking inside the hive. Days before the queen was to arrive I checked the hive for a queen. There was no queen and no brood but there was some honey.

I took 3 frames of brood from the good Italian hive and put them in there along with a partially filled super and all the bees that were in it.

The new queen arrived and was placed in the hive. An inspection after 5 days showed the queen had not been released. I released her. She dived right down into the hive. In early September when the brood from her first eggs should have been showing up, a number of small dark colored bees showed up coming from the hive. It wasn't a huge hatch but showed that she had survived to lay eggs.

Unfortunately almost all the bees using that hive are now Italian looking bees. Maybe I got lucky and they made their own queen. Circumstantial evidence says the Russian Carniolan queen didn't make it.

 

[R2elk]

The Saskatraz hive is on its own. They filled 4 frames in the lower super and nothing in the upper super. It looks like they have plenty of honey to survive the winter as the second deep hive body appears to be full of honey. There are also plenty of bees in there to provide warmth through the winter. I would say that the Saskatraz queen is definitely a hybrid since 50% of the bees are dark colored and 50% are Italian colored. Last year's Saskatraz were all Italian colored.

 

[duluthralphie]

I spun out 5 gallons of honey yesterday. I very dark Rich tasting honey.

I have 25-30 medium frames to spin out this week.

 

[R2elk]

I'm too cheap to buy an electric heated decapping knife. I use this.

 

[duluthralphie]

I'm too cheap to buy an electric heated decapping knife. I use this.
View attachment 2855262

I have one of them, and I think it works better than the knife on some frames. Most frames.

 

[R2elk]

Hand cranking.

 

[duluthralphie]

I finally bottled the honey I spun out Saturday.

Look how dark it is compared to the July honey.

14 quarts and 10 pints. And 20 frames to go, I think.

 

[R2elk]

My first batch and the batch i am currently working on are a light, delicate honey. The in between batch was about the color of what you see in stores labeled as sweet clover honey. It is really good but not as delicate as the really light stuff.

I currently have bottled 32 twelve oz. honey bears = 24 lbs. and 16 one and a half pound honey bears = 24 lbs. for a total of 48 lbs.

Right now I have about 2 1/2 gallons in the bucket and more supers to do.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

I finally bottled the honey I spun out Saturday.

Look how dark it is compared to the July honey.

14 quarts and 10 pints. And 20 frames to go, I think.View attachment 2856806

Wow!
Those bees really went to town.
Is this considered "raw honey"
As in...
Good for wounds and home remedies?

 

[R2elk]

Wow!
Those bees really went to town.
Is this considered "raw honey"
As in...
Good for wounds and home remedies?

As long as he didn't heat it over 160°F it is good for wounds and home remedies. It is even better for eating, as a sweetener and added to baking goods as both a sweetener and preservative.