The Honey Factory

[jerryse]

Guess I'm following this, I inherited an established hive.
For winter I figured just leave the girls alone- they have tons of honey (no one has been here to collect any and I think the entire hive is probably loaded). Do I need to do anything else for them?

Do a mite treatment .

 

[jerryse]

I think I made creamed honey in the extractor . Nearly impossible to strain . I heated some and it helped the straining . Never had this happen before .

So it was whipped not creamed due to too full of extractor . Returned to normal after a day . So much for cool weather extracting .

 

[R2elk]

So it was whipped not creamed due to too full of extractor . Returned to normal after a day . So much for cool weather extracting .

That's the advantage of a hand crank extractor. If it gets too full, it gets too hard to turn. I have mine set up so that the extractor is draining while I am cranking it.

 

[CLSranch]

Guess I'm following this, I inherited an established hive.
For winter I figured just leave the girls alone- they have tons of honey (no one has been here to collect any and I think the entire hive is probably loaded). Do I need to do anything else for them?

If you haven't done so yet (or your already beeking) it's time to read. Grab some beginner bee keeping books. Beekeeping for dummies, the practical Beekeeper etc...
And I'd do a hive inspection just to make sure they really do have honey to get them through the winter and you can get an overall look at the health of the hive.

 

[R2elk]

I am up to 101 lbs. of honey bottled. Hopefully I will be able to pull the last 2 supers today.

 

[R2elk]

Happy Birthday

@BirdsBeesTrees ​

 

[jerryse]

Wind has letup . So I painted some supers and brood boxes . I spray painted . So much easier .

 

[itsasmallfarm]

well down to 4 hives, wrapped them up about maybe 3 weeks ago.
one hive went queen less, so we put news paper down and added it to another hive, the remaining bees. (this was about mid to late summer.
got i want to say about 300 lbs plus of honey this year from 5 hives. planning to split this coming spring hoping they all make it through the winter.

 

[jerryse]

61 today 55 yesterday . Bees have been flying . All seems well .

 

[CLSranch]

I did a little inspection yesterday. They are not looking strong. I never took any honey and started feeding a little in Sept and they perked right up. I was gone Aug-early Sept. I know that's late, but I thought they were built up enough after the spring feeding.

I'm still feeding. Been in a severe drought since June here. Once the rain finally came in Oct, most everything was already dead, even the grasses for livestock, even with some watering.