The bee keeper diaries

[Iowanian]

It's a great time to buy stock in eppy pens.

This thread is a repository for bee keepers or those interested.

A couple of years ago, a couple of friends an my brother started puttering with honey bees. I didn't buy off because, well, I've never been a big fan of bees or getting stung by them. Last summer I tagged along a couple of times to check their hives and to remove honey bees from a house, public building and an old garage.

I realized at the end of the summer when I was helping them process some, that it's actually pretty interesting, and fits into my expanding "grow my own" logic. I'm not full blown hippy but I see a lot of logic in the self sustaining food thing and I'm doing some of that too.

That said, this thread is about bees, honey bees, bee keeping and bee fighting war stories.

I'm taking the leap and plan to get 2-3 hives this spring and maybe build some bee swarm traps to make it cheaper or to make a few bucks.

Join me and I'll share the real life lessons of an ameture bee keeper. I'm sure I'm going to learn some things the hard way.

[Iowanian]

As mentioned above, one of the colonies I obtained in a cutout did t have a queen.

I was driving on business and found myself 20 miles from a large producer (3500hives) that sell online. I decided to stop and buy a queen for my that hive. I chose to become saskatraz *fist bump* brothers with red. I bought a saskatraz queen. They are supposed to be fast starters in the spring, good honey producers, decent temperament, winter well and are mite resistant. I suited up a couple of my kids and took them down to help me with the install. Weather and bees were sketchy but they figured out she was there pretty quick. Hopefully they chew out the candy plug and she gets to work.

I relocated the swarm I captured to my brothers farm for a few days and will probably bring it home Friday. Glad to have that one to replace my dying, shitty colony.

[Groves]

Here’s the hive we started from a swarm on Easter Sunday.

There was zero comb that day, and now they’ve filled 3 boxes and now are building in the 4th.

Strong.




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[Iowanian]

I finally got a call to get a swarm today. I had just been grumbling that I hadn't really even heard of a local swarm this year. A couple of weeks ago I had a text about one an hour away and loaded up to leave to go get it, and some damn hippy heard about it and beat me to it.

This one turned out to be at a farm where I had gotten one of my first swarms. They have a giant maple with a hive up high in a limb that I considered trying to remove a couple of years ago but decided against.

The owner called as he was leaving and said they were swarming out around the yard. I found them 100' from the tree on a limb about 12' off the ground. The owner happens to have a step ladder nearby that I could use and I placed a box on top which ended up being a foot under the ball of bees. I risked them off with a dust pan and a small broom. Out of there with almost all of the bees in about 20 minutes.

When putting these in my bee yard I checked my boxes to see if I needed to add supers....but I didn't yet. Rain is slowing them down I think.

Nice swarm catch, just wish it had been 6-8' closer to the ground.

Haven't gotten anything in my other traps yet but you can bet your ass I'm placing a trap on the farm in this story next year. Maybe this year in case it swarms again.

[ChiefGator]

I thought this was interesting. There was a short article about it in the recent Acres magazine.

http://www.bermondseystreetbees.co.uk/

Beekeepers in the streets of London. Seriously, that is pretty cool.. I like seeing urban farming of all kinds.

In Florida, one of the most popular types of honey is Orange Blossom Honey. What would you call honey from pollen collected in the streets of London? City Scum Honey?

[ChiefGator]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

I finally got a call to get a swarm today. I had just been grumbling that I hadn't really even heard of a local swarm this year...

Man, I wish I lived in you area.. would love to see a swarm capture.

Got my last bee training class from the local ag extension office in a couple weeks. Sadly, I missed the most interesting one perhaps.. honey collection.

[Iowanian]

It was too hot but I needed to go through my boxes tonight.

They are roaring right now after a late start. Excess rain in June washed a lot of pollen off of flowers and slowed down the honey flow and development in my area. Right now it's dry and hot but white clover is bloomed everywhere and my alfalfa field has been bloomed all week and the guy who is getting it isn't mowing...not my problem but the bees love it.

I've got a couple of hives with 4 honey supers and a couple with 2-3.

3 weeks ago I had made a box for comb honey and put it on a hive. They had t touched it for 2 weeks, it this week they had 8 frames full, so I'll have at least 30 pieces of comb honey to sell. I'm going to make some more frames and try to get another 10-20 frames of that because it sells for more money.

I weed eater around the hives, opened every box and they were as calm as could be. The saskatraz queen is doing work and they look great. If it rains and holds off the dirth a little while I'll have a great production year even if I don't have as many hives as I'd hoped.

[ChiefGator]

So, I was just wondering this the other day... How do you actually get the comb part of comb honey? By putting in a special foundation, or just an empty frame that they build all the way out? The frames I keep seeing have plastic or artificial wax foundations in them.

[Iowanian]

Comb honey is all bees wax and there are different methods to get it. This is my first attempt so I'm not an expert at all.

Plastic foundation makes it easier for the bees to build comb, but you can't cut the complete comb out. You're using those foundations to let the bees build comb that you'll scrape the wax cappings off and extract honey and have comb for bees to reuse. By not having to build the comb they can produce honey much faster.

As for comb honey, it's what bees do when there aren't plastic foundations. What I did was remove the plastic foundations from frames. I had purchased some wax foundations. I cut a couple of those into 1" strips and I placed the wax foundations in the top slot of the frame and then used the strips like caulking to smash it into place. I just wanted it tight enough to hold and knew the bees would built it up solid. It seemed like a dismal failure for 2 weeks, but this week the bees went ape shit and had the comb built and almost full.

Another guy told me yesterday that he just removes frames 3 and 7 from a box. He'll take the foundation out of those and replace them but space them out a little further and says the bees will do their magic even without starter strips. I'll probably try that next to get a few more.

Some people do starter strips along the top of the frames. The method Groves is using is ONLY comb honey from what I understand.

I'm thinking more about building a horizontal hives because it will be easier to manage and remove frames as people need it....and I just think they are cool and want to try one.

As for how you "get it" you pull the frame out, measure it and cut the squares with a fillet knife.

I should be able to cut (3) 4x5/6" squares of comb honey out of each frame. You can buy plastic containers that look like something you'd buy a breakfast biscuit in at a gas station, or something more like a sandwich tupperware with a lid to sell it. I'm doing this because Comb honey sells for a lot more than regular spun honey.

[ChiefGator]

Thanks for the great explanation man..

Originally Posted by Iowanian

I'm doing this because Comb honey sells for a lot more than regular spun honey.

Seems a helluva lot more rare down here in Florida now too. I see jars of honey, but almost never do I see comb honey any more.

Mark

[Iowanian]

I got a call tonight. Sunday a guy was tearing down a house and ripped open a wall of bees. They had destroyed the comb(ugh)...and said a large ball of bees had gathered on a tree. Today they were on the ground in the rubble of the flat house near the former hive entrance location.

I put a box near them and most of them marched in, but I didn't catch a queen that I saw.

The colony is in a box in my yard, it this late in the season I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I might try to look for a queen tomorrow, I might pull a couple of brood frames from other hives and I'm considering spraying them with sugar water and dumping them I to my newest/smallest hive.

Thoughts?

[Mennonite]

All I have to contribute to this thread is the cover of the Ohio Players classic 1975 album Honey:

[Groves]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

I might try to look for a queen tomorrow, I might pull a couple of brood frames from other hives and I'm considering spraying them with sugar water and dumping them I to my newest/smallest hive.

Thoughts?

You can always as a last resort use them to bolster a weak hive. Use the newsprint trick. Add them to the other hive with a layer of newspaper between them. They will not like the scent of each other, but they’ll get used to the scent of the Queen by the time they chew through the paper in a few days.

Could be plenty of breeders with spare queens still. You never know.

Did you leave a box at the old location to pick up the stragglers?

Keep us posted!


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[Iowanian]

M unfamiliar with the newsprint method.

I went down tonight and dug through the box and couldn't find a queen. Doesn't mean there wasn't one but I didn't see her and they were cleaning the old shitty comb I had put in their box. I dug into another strong hive and dug out a frame with some capped brood and some visible larvae. It was getting too late and the bees were getting pissy so I only added that single frame. Still not sure there is a hive that will be sound to survive a winter.


On the bright side, I opened some other to check and they made honey this week. I'll have 10-15 frames of comb honey. Maybe I'll have time tomorrow night to harvest some of that.

[Iowanian]

Honey snack

I've been taking spoons of honey for allergy reasons and I think it's helping.

I've also started watching what I eat and I've figured out a new breakfast snack I like. Toast with peanut butter and a drizzle of honey on it. Honey goes great with peanut butter.

I'm trying to cut way back on soda. A glass of crushed ice with a good drizzle of honey and filled with water is making it easier to drink more water....and the ice with a little honey is a satisfying snack.

I'm working with a local ice cream shop...exploring using honey for their ice cream sweetener instead of sugar and maybe honey lemonade.

[eDave]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

Honey snack

I've been taking spoons of honey for allergy reasons and I think it's helping.

I've also started watching what I eat and I've figured out a new breakfast snack I like. Toast with peanut butter and a drizzle of honey on it. Honey goes great with peanut butter.

I'm trying to cut way back on soda. A glass of crushed ice with a good drizzle of honey and filled with water is making it easier to drink more water....and the ice with a little honey is a satisfying snack.

I'm working with a local ice cream shop...exploring using honey for their ice cream sweetener instead of sugar and maybe honey lemonade.

I grew up on peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Parents are from Tennessee so it might be a southern thing. Or an economical thing (resuming honey is cheaper than jellies).

My fave is peanut butter and marshmallow cream.