Summer Update #1 - Honey Harvest

Well it took a few years but we finally got a decent honey harvest.  On July 9th we pulled off the Supers that were on Mary & Myrina; a Medium Super each.  Neither was completely drawn or filled.  About 8 frames out of each with only most of them fully drawn.  There were a few Deep frames to.

We were able to borrow back the same extractor we used in 2008 when we first spun honey.  A hand crank job that fits 4 Deep frames tangentially.  We tried using a capping knife for the first time.  Warmed it up on a hot plate before using it on a frame.  It didn't do that great so we went back to the capping fork.  The knife cut off a lot of wax & cooled down too quickly.  Though it was extremely sharp!  The neighbor lent us her capping bucket too.

Uncapping a Deep Frame

Last time we used a pot to collect the honey.  Fortunately I started brewing beer in January.  So this time we used my 6.5 gallon bottling bucket that has a spout.  Also different was the strainer.  Last time we used the 600 micron mesh and were left with very fine wax particles in the honey.  This time we nested the 200 micron mesh into the 600.  The honey came out perfectly clear.  Although it took Forever to pass through the strainers.

Outside at the Spinning Party

In all we got 4.5 gallons of honey.  Not the greatest haul but we're very happy with it.  After the first year of eating honey EVERY DAY we couldn't stop so had to buy honey when the bees didn't deliver.  Now we have a good supply of our own honey and it's as good as can be.  The main source here is Tulip Poplar & Black Locust.  The honey has a very fragrant woodland taste to it.  It's not pure sweet either, plenty of flavor, which I like.

The bottling didn't go as planned.  I thought the spout on the beer bucket would be great but it was to narrow.  The honey was too thick to flow quickly; like 30 minutes to fill a pint jar!!!  So I ladled it.  Which is fine.  The kids got another spoon to lick clean.

Filling a pint jar

There are many people i want to give honey to but we don't have enough for everyone.  Fortunately we didn't promise anything.  A good bit went to family, dear friends, and helpers though. 

I think the main reason the bees didn't make more honey was the screwy main flow.  The Poplars always bloom at once by the millions.  That, of course, draws all the bees to the trees.  This year the trees bloomed Almost singularly.  One would pop then another later on.  It lasted longer but nothing ever got the bees motors running.  The bees would instead concentrate on some non-major flow sources.  Also those darn Queen Excluders.  I thought clipping the sides would help, and it did, but not enough.  Lets see what I come up with next year.  Hopefully I've learned my lesson but I can be a bit thick.

Not the most but definitely the Best!

After all the fun one super and all the equipment were left out for the bees to rob clean.  Wow! was that crazy.  Two days of, "Don't go outside!".  It was a great show though.  At the time i had 8 colonies and my neighbor had 5.  That's a bunch of bees.

Nom nom nom nom...

Next year I hope to have four hives to put Supers on.  If its a decent year we could end up with more then we can eat for once.  Awww Yeah!...

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More Honey Supers

Both Mary & Myrina are actually in the mood to make surplus honey this year, \\ Hallelujah! //  Not much but it looks like we may see 2 Medium Supers worth; one from each.  Not leaving it to chance I added a second super to Myrina today.  I'll add a second to Mary in a day or so.  I don't expect them to fill up the new supers but they might as well start drawing them out for next year.  There is little over a month left to our major flow.  Could be enough time to do the job.  If there comes a Fall flow we'll be ready.

The second super on Myrina went beneath the current one.  It is wired foundationless blasted with sugar spray.  I placed the Imirie Shim between the 2 Supers.  The bees have used it but sparingly.  I might block the bottom entrance tomorrow to motivate them to use it in earnest.  I'll do the same thing with Mary when she gets her's.

Two Honey Supers

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I also got around to changing out the brood boxes on Melissa.  The yellow one (Heléna's) came off and the companion white one went on.  It's now clean and mold free.  Here too I placed the new brood box beneath the current one.  Now the bees will be near to top of the new frames where they need to start drawing comb instead of climbing up to it first.

Speaking of Heléna, she will get her second brood box this week too.  Another busy week but a good start to June.

Sweet Melissa

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Swarm, Queen in Super, & Other Notes

Keeping up with the bees has been a daily chore lately.  Catching the Swarm on Wednesday (5/18) was great but all the equipment had to be borrowed.  The issue with that was the neighbor uses Mediums only.  Yesterday (5/20) the medium frames and the Medium Nuc were traded out for all Deep equipment; the quiet box is now in service.  On a good note the new bees had drawn almost a full frame already.  I like these bees.

The full story on the swarm is straight forward.  The Wife saw the swarm before Noon then called me at work.  After work we went back and hived them.  They were very cooperative in that the swarm quickly accepted the nuc.  They were all in it and calm within an hour.  We came home, put them on the stand, and fed them.  They've been busy since.  When i traded all the equipment they were calm and passive.  I guess the swarm was at about 2 pounds.  Good haul!  Oh, and the tree the bees were swarming on was a bee tree.  I marked it with flagging and notified everyone in the club.  We'll all watch it for years to come.  Welcome Nuc #5.

Equipment issues:
I'm out of  woodenware.  This Spring i started with 2 full hives.  The plan was to add one more full hive, via package, and make 2 Nucs.  The equipment for all was made and ready to go.  However what happened was more than i had hoped for.  On top of the what was planned I made a third Nuc and caught two swarms; the third Nuc is insanely productive and will be made into a full hive as soon as another box is available.

I have decided to make all the woodenware I need instead of buying it.  4 Nuc bodies, 2 Nuc covers, 2 Nuc Inner Covers, 2 Nuc Screened Bottom Board., 2 Nuc Slatted Racks, all for 5 frame Deeps.  Also I need 2 Screened Bottom Boards, 1 Slatted Rack, 1 Cover, all for 10 frame Deeps to fix a few issues with the full hives.  All of this is needed this year, NOW!, but the budget has been used up.  SO...I'll make everything from plywood.  Not ideal but doable. Plywood is more susceptible to water damage but is much cheaper.  To deal with the water issues I'll need to make sure the end grains are covered and well sealed.  If done properly the plywood boxes will last as long as solid wood.

Honey Production:
Queen Mary got into the Honey Super.  I notice on Monday (5/16) the bees had drawn a few frames out down to the bottom.  I wanted to put the Excluder on then but a rain storm shut me down then and for the rest of the week.  Yesterday (5/20) I went to put it in but it was to late.  She had gotten to 3 frames, mostly drone cells.  Not a problem though.  I made sure the Queen was not in the Super then swept the bees off the egg frames and culled them.  They went directly into the deep freezer.  Left them in for 2+ hours.  I figured by then the eggs were sufficiently chilled.   Then put the frames back into the Super.  The Excluder went on as soon as I culled the frames.  I'll check the Super again in a few days.

Queen Excluders are mostly called 'Honey' Excluders around here.  Seems bees don't like to pass through the bars and many Supers never get drawn out.  To remedy this I modified the Excluders.  I cut off the bars on the last inch of each side.  That way the Queen won't be in a position to crawl through while worker bees on both side can pass without hindrance.

Clipped off the sides

Other beeks like to place the Excluder sideways on the box.  It does the same thing while allowing for additional ventilation.  I'd rather keep the sides of the hives closed off.  The gap opens up the outside & the top of the last frames.  It closes off the inside of the last frames and everything in between.  When placing the chilled frames back in I saw the bees actively passing through the gaps.

Myrina is still having a problem drawing out honey comb.  To motivate her more I put her Honey Super in between the top & bottom brood boxes.  I'll check back in a week for improvement.

The Small Swarm:
Nuc #4, this swarm nuc was still doing nothing.  To boost their instinct to act like bees I added a brood frame from Nuc #3 and an entrance feeder.  A check in a few days will tell me if it worked.  Fingers crossed...

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Honey Super and More

 Ready to go on
 

Myrina got her Medium Honey Super put on today.  It was from last year and has drawn out comb on Plasticell foundation.  I added spacers to it so now it's a 9-frame supper.  All the frames were sprayed with syrup before they went it.  Since the frames are drawn I went ahead & put the Queen Excluder on.  I will check in a week to see how they're doing.  Her bees were defensive as usual. 

 New Super & New Stand

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Mary got another gallon of 1:1 syrup.  The first gallon was about gone.  I had hoped see would have repaired the damaged comb in  Deep Hive Box-2.  But no new comb there.  Her bees are still very active.  She has the earliest flying bees in the yard each morning.

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The new colony (Duchess) has a small ant problem.  They are getting into the HTF through a gap.  All the equipment is new and because of the HTF the bees do not access to the Inner Cover, Vent Box, & T-cover.  SO, they can't seal everything with propolis.  I flicked out the dead ants.  They are not taking the syrup as fast as Mary but they're still taking it.  I looked in the new DHB and found frames 5 & 6 were almost all the way drawn out.  There was a small piece of bur comb on the top of frame 5 in the first DHB. It was removed.
 

Invaders!

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Frame 6 in DHB2

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 Bur Comb

And since the bees have not sealed all the interior wood there has developed a mold problem on the T-cover.  A big green spot of mold above the hole in the Inner Cover.

 Wood not sealed by the bees

I put what wax I had left right on top of the mold spot.  I didn't have enough to treat the whole T-cover.  If the mold gets worse I'll buy some wax and do the all of it. 

Bees wax over the mold.  Problem solved

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Inspection 7/25/9

Mary & Myrina
89 F
Sunny

Mary - The honey frames that where filled with nectar are now partially filled with brood. Not much but some. Enough to tell me the young queen is very healthy. Perfect brood pattern. Also much of the honey is now capped. So I put that honey super back on top and reinstalled the queen excluder. I then put the undrawn honey super from the top down between the brood boxes. Hoping for similar results. This Plasticell really doesn't do the job.

NO boiling over of Mary during smoking. However she seemed more aggressive than usual. This is honey season so I think it will pass.

Myrina - Still has not drawn any frames. She is still badly understaffed from the late swarm. There is uncapped brood in a weak pattern in the boxes. I'm sure there are also eggs in the boxes but without glasses I can't say positively. Will leave everything alone for now. All I'll do with her is monitor her activity. I did pull out some more bur comb though. Also I put in a longer sceened reducer at the entrance.

I used the syrup water on Myrina again, along with the smoke. Heavy, heavy, heavy spray. I'm very impressed with how well it works on the mean bees.

I've taken to feeding the bees syrup every time it rains. Which as it turns out is almost non-stop. The rains continue here even though we are in our dry season. I saw a few girls up in the Ventilator box on Mary. Hopefully they are propolising all joints finally.

Venting Top Box - for Summer

I finished building a venting top box for both hives. It is 2.5 inches deep with 3 holes on each side but the back. Each hole is 1.25 inches in width. I used the same gauge screen used on screened bottom boards. I'm not worried about rain since the telescoping cover covers most of the vent holes (still there's enough of a gap for passive air circulation). It's my hope that this will cool the hives and prevent moisture build up.

My next step will be to build a screened bottom board for each hive. I'm still considering what features it will have. Boards with the tray for checking Varroa mites don't seem to vent as well as the boards without the extra tray. Maybe a taller board with side vents below the screen will do. I'll figure it out.

Also new is the use of sugar spray for inspections. I tried it tonight when looking at each hive. It did not work very well by itself. When sprayed the girls stayed where they were and began to lick up the sugar. What I wanted them to do was move further into the hive & relax. Even Mary had several bees get angry and come looking for me. She's always a calm hive but it's late in the year. SO, I added smoke to the sugar spray; a sort of double whammy. The combo worked very well as expected. The bees moved away from the work area then stayed there to clean off the sugar. This rates well with me and I will continue the practice.

Did I say I was in the hives? I checked to see if the bees were drawing out any of the honey frames now that the excluder was gone. Answer is NO. Linda, the lady from the last post, seemed convinced that the Plasticell was the problem. She also stressed that once the girls refuse a frame it's over and they'll never take it. She highly recommended that I scrap the plasticell and revert to wax & wire. So this is my last trick. I put the honey suppers between the brood boxes. I hope this will compel the girls to draw out the comb. All the deep frames I've put into the brood boxes with Plasticell have been drawn out successfully. So I hope they will get confused and draw out these too. I'll let you know.

Oddly they were making bur comb sideways on top of the brood boxes. Go figure.


I'm still excited about the up coming club meeting. I'll meet so many keepers at once plus all the questions I have. I'll likely chatter like an idiot until they just plain run from me. I should make up a list of questions and rank them. The meeting lasts an hour & a half so if I can get 10 answered I'll be doing good. Can't wait...

What If...

With the realization that I'm looking at a No Honey year I wonder what I did wrong. Likely many things. I notice in the last two inspections that the excluders were some what packed with bur comb. I put on the excluders when I added the honey supers. Neither supper had any drawn comb; all plasticell. Could it be that I should have waited until the frames were drawn before adding the excluders? Might this explain the heavy bur comb on the bottoms of the frames?

Well at this point it doesn't matter but today I will remove the excluders on both hives. If the bees begin to draw out comb I'll have my answer.

A year without honey is going to be very unpleasant.

Inspection 4/19/09

Mary
70 F
Cloudy

Well on Sunday I was able to get a look at Mary. First I saw the unmistakable sign of chalkbrood on the front porch. Second they had gummed up the hive frames with lots of burr comb. Third I found many unopened swarm cells. Fourth I found one opened swarm cell.

I pulled out every frame in the hive looking for chalkbrood. Fortunately there was very, very little. It centered in where the Winter bee ball would have been. I pluck out the ones I found (less than 10). The bees can take care of the rest. The wet Spring & cool temps are to blame. Soon it will be dry & hot.

The burr comb I scraped off of everywhere but the bottom board. The board will be replaced in May with a screened board.

It's Spring so the swarm cells are plenty. I found 8 of them mostly in the bottom brood chamber. they where removed.

(Can you see the opened cell to the right?)

Yes I'm sure the previous Swarm in the yard was from Mary as I found one opened swarm cell. I hope she's a good queen as she's in charge of Mary now. Mary's attitude had changed over the Winter as to make me think the re-queening exercise may have worked. Population was up. They stopped exhibiting that odd 'everyone out of the hive now' trait. Had I inspected a week ago I'd still have her. Bad weather, cold & rainy, delayed me.

The brood looked good in pattern & amount. Their stores lasted them through the Winter with surplus. I made great use of the entrance feeders. There seems to bee plenty of bees left in the colony to do there job. Job 1, of course, is make more bees.


I replaced 3 frames in Mary's bottom chamber. They are very old and falling apart. I intend to replace the remaining 7 frames in that box later this year. Then all will be new, plus she gets a new box for that chamber too (back ordered).


All medication is complete. All I did this year was Apistan & Fumidil. I hope that's enough.

I plan to put 2 Honey suppers on each hive this year. That should net me 120 lbs of honey, or so. I also want to make a third hive from one of these swarm cells. I pulled 2 honey filled deep frams from Myrina to put in the Nuc. I'll add the frame with the last swarm cell (and bees) and hope for the best. If it works i'll kick myself for not getting 2 Nucs. I did, however, put the excluder plus 1 honey super on each hive. I get to inspecting Myrina on the next warm day.

Speaking of Myrina I opened her up briefly. Then the drizzle shut me down. All I had time to notice was that the last pollen patty I put in her last Fall was still there. That got thrown away. With all the honey that was left in these hives, from what was a sturdy Winter, I don't think pattys are necessary.