More End Of Year- and Extraction
I'm getting ready for winter already- and I've extracted almost everything for the year- though maybe there will be 3 or 4 supers of knotweed. Its very irregular, some hives seem to be pulling it in, while other hives, seemingly equal in strength, have none. Knotweed comes at a time when I want to be prepping for winter, and I don't want to wait too long into September.
Below are 9 of the 15 baby hives I started in June. Half are full of bees and three supers high, while other are just filling two. Those that are three high are packed. I am feeding syrup and pollen, but its a balancing act, allowing room for growth and not feeding too much. I haven't really figured that part out.
One of the hives was pulled out with EFB- but it seems cured now, after a strong dose of Terramyacin. Which one can't get anymore- or at least, I haven't figure out how. I called the local vet and they said they wouldn't do prescribe it (actually, a VFD, but they weren't aware of this regulation)- as they "only had a small animal license".
Which struck me funny, as, of course, I bet my animals are smaller than theirs. I don't even know if there are vets for animals smaller than bees.
I borrow my friend Jim's honey house- and it sure is nice to have a space that's easy to clean, and has both cold and hot water. Over the years I've developed my own technique for extracting as quick as I can- its not fun when there's lots to do- so I don't want to fool around. Its all about making it a production line- and eliminating bottlenecks.
Basically, I stack up the supers next to me so they are shoulder high, and pull out 5 frames from the top one, lay them flat on a stainless counter (supported on their ends so the face of the comb is off the counter), and all tight together, and then I scrape their shoulders of propolis. 2 seconds. I flip them, and scrape the other side. 5 seconds. Then, I take a spiked roller, and roll all the faces on one side. I place the roller in warm water. Then, I comb all the faces, just to be sure the cells are open.
Then I flip them all over, and repeat. Then I put them into an empty super right next to the extractor, and pull out the next five. As soon as I have twenty, I load the extractor and start spinning. The whole process of doing two supers takes about as long as spinning two, so when I am done with the next two, the extractor is ready. I think its about 10 minutes per 2 supers, if I am on top of it.
However, I don't filter the honey at this point, which is a total bottleneck if one does, I just periodically let it pour into buckets with all the wax and bug parts until I am completely done.
Then, I tilt the extractor up so it is at an angle - and Jim has hinged his- and pour all the buckets back into the extractor. In this case, I extracted 45 gallons, and this is what it looks like once poured back. Its at about a 10 degree tilt here.
Almost immediately, all the wax floats to the top- but I leave it overnight. Jim's extractor has a heater, and one of the best things I've learned from him is to let it all heat up for the night, and come back the next day.
When I come back, I pour the honey through the stainless screens- and it's not super hot, just warm, but it flows like water almost. And its almost crystal clear- no screens to clean until the very end. Tilting the extractor allows one to pour out almost all the honey without hitting the layer of wax at top- because it makes sort of a triangle of honey at the bottom.
I pour them out into boxes, then fill the buckets just below the brim with the last bucket.
Then, I load everybody back on the truck and strap the supers down. I take these wet supers and put them on top of my hives, maybe three at a time, above an inner cover. Next day I put in a one way extractor board, and the day after that, take the empty supers back home.
One thing that didn't really occur to me when raising the baby hives, is how much equipment it would eat up. With 15 new hives, each with either two or three supers, I'm 30 supers short of what I need in a normal year- or last year, when I had all those supers on fewer hives. Which means, of course, I need to decide how many hives I really do want, and what I have room for. Cooking for two, they say, is as easy as cooking for one, but at some point with bees- too many hives is too much for one person with a full time day job.
Below are 9 of the 15 baby hives I started in June. Half are full of bees and three supers high, while other are just filling two. Those that are three high are packed. I am feeding syrup and pollen, but its a balancing act, allowing room for growth and not feeding too much. I haven't really figured that part out.
One of the hives was pulled out with EFB- but it seems cured now, after a strong dose of Terramyacin. Which one can't get anymore- or at least, I haven't figure out how. I called the local vet and they said they wouldn't do prescribe it (actually, a VFD, but they weren't aware of this regulation)- as they "only had a small animal license".
Which struck me funny, as, of course, I bet my animals are smaller than theirs. I don't even know if there are vets for animals smaller than bees.
Below are the supers ready for extraction a month ago- all I got from 25 or so hives- and not all full. It's half of what I had last year with blackberry, and I had fewer hives then. I was sort of glad- less work! But also a mystery of why there was less blackberry.
Basically, I stack up the supers next to me so they are shoulder high, and pull out 5 frames from the top one, lay them flat on a stainless counter (supported on their ends so the face of the comb is off the counter), and all tight together, and then I scrape their shoulders of propolis. 2 seconds. I flip them, and scrape the other side. 5 seconds. Then, I take a spiked roller, and roll all the faces on one side. I place the roller in warm water. Then, I comb all the faces, just to be sure the cells are open.
Then I flip them all over, and repeat. Then I put them into an empty super right next to the extractor, and pull out the next five. As soon as I have twenty, I load the extractor and start spinning. The whole process of doing two supers takes about as long as spinning two, so when I am done with the next two, the extractor is ready. I think its about 10 minutes per 2 supers, if I am on top of it.
However, I don't filter the honey at this point, which is a total bottleneck if one does, I just periodically let it pour into buckets with all the wax and bug parts until I am completely done.
Then, I tilt the extractor up so it is at an angle - and Jim has hinged his- and pour all the buckets back into the extractor. In this case, I extracted 45 gallons, and this is what it looks like once poured back. Its at about a 10 degree tilt here.
Almost immediately, all the wax floats to the top- but I leave it overnight. Jim's extractor has a heater, and one of the best things I've learned from him is to let it all heat up for the night, and come back the next day.
When I come back, I pour the honey through the stainless screens- and it's not super hot, just warm, but it flows like water almost. And its almost crystal clear- no screens to clean until the very end. Tilting the extractor allows one to pour out almost all the honey without hitting the layer of wax at top- because it makes sort of a triangle of honey at the bottom.
I pour them out into boxes, then fill the buckets just below the brim with the last bucket.
Then, I load everybody back on the truck and strap the supers down. I take these wet supers and put them on top of my hives, maybe three at a time, above an inner cover. Next day I put in a one way extractor board, and the day after that, take the empty supers back home.
One thing that didn't really occur to me when raising the baby hives, is how much equipment it would eat up. With 15 new hives, each with either two or three supers, I'm 30 supers short of what I need in a normal year- or last year, when I had all those supers on fewer hives. Which means, of course, I need to decide how many hives I really do want, and what I have room for. Cooking for two, they say, is as easy as cooking for one, but at some point with bees- too many hives is too much for one person with a full time day job.
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