The Honey Factory

[5Australorpasaures]

I received a new honey super from Hoover-Hives today. It needs assembly which will have to wait a couple of days due to a duckling issue here but the quality of the wood looks fine to me. Everything on that box is coated in wax, the box itself, the frame-parts and the plastic foundation. And to my nose that wax foundation smells like bee's wax… We'll see what the bee's opinion will bee.

Leaves me still with two options:

1. Remove the full honey super for harvest and replace it with the new, empty box
2. Add the second honey super to the top of the hive and harvest both supers in two months or when full.

What would you do?

 

[5Australorpasaures]

When I pull supers for extracting I waste no time. I put the extracted box right back on the hive for the bees to glean any honey residue and start right back to work. I don't give them foundation as R2elk said until 70-80%, but as we are looking at a 7-10 day stretch of temps in the 90s the bees won't be all that keen on drawing any comb, for them it's like trying to shape soft butter. Here where I am June is the big swarm month and I'm monitoring for Queen cells and cups, making sure they have storage and the Queen has room to lay. My big plus is I have a good supply of drawn frames

 

[R2elk]

When I pull supers for extracting I waste no time. I put the extracted box right back on the hive for the bees to glean any honey residue and start right back to work.

I do the same except that I am doing it at the end of the season and all they do is the clean up. It's surprising how fast they can clean up an empty frame.

I don't give them foundation as R2elk said until 70-80%, but as we are looking at a 7-10 day stretch of temps in the 90s the bees won't be all that keen on drawing any comb, for them it's like trying to shape soft butter.

The only reason for giving new foundation is if you don't have any drawn comb to give them. In my case, I've been doing this long enough that I am giving drawn comb. I put 9 frames of drawn comb spaced evenly in a ten frame super.

I was surprised the first time when I saw how much more honey they can put in 9 frames than they can get in ten frames. Of course you can't do it without having drawn comb because just spreading out 9 frames of foundation in a ten frame super doesn't stick with the required "bee space".

 

[5Australorpasaures]

I do the same except that I am doing it at the end of the season and all they do is the clean up. It's surprising how fast they can clean up an empty frame.

The only reason for giving new foundation is if you don't have any drawn comb to give them. In my case, I've been doing this long enough that I am giving drawn comb. I put 9 frames of drawn comb spaced evenly in a ten frame super.

I was surprised the first time when I saw how much more honey they can put in 9 frames than they can get in ten frames. Of course you can't do it without having drawn comb because just spreading out 9 frames of foundation in a ten frame super doesn't stick with the required "bee space".

For the fall flow I'm going with the 9 Frame on established hive and probably going to carry over for next spring. Today is the first day for the Cranberry pollen blast and they are coming in loaded, some will get mixed in with the honey that I'll be pulling in a week or so, do a Varroa count and go from there. NUC is still taking syrup so I won't be pulling any thing from them.

 

[Apis mellifera]

Sumac is blooming here now. Its light and has a kind of a vanilla flavor.

 

[R2elk]

It stinks here because the Russian olives have started blooming.

 

[WallyG74]

Sumac is blooming here now. Its light and has a kind of a vanilla flavor.
View attachment 3862239

Only sumac here is poison. Good times!

 

[R2elk]

It stinks here because the Russian olives have started blooming.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

Only sumac here is poison. Good times!

X2

 

[5Australorpasaures]

Went to let the chickens out at daybreak, took a quick glance at the hives and noticed no one going to work but the ones that got caught working overtime at sunset were bringing home the pollen. When I pollenated Blue Berries we would remove the hives at night. The next day the bees that got left out on the bloom overnight were not happy and would sting if you walked near the former hive site. Farmers always commented on all the angry bees buzzing around. Good Times