Bees, wonderful bees!!

[lesa]

Hiker, that is great news! That is just what we did. You are sure to meet some interesting folks. The beeks at our meetings were very helpful. Our queen is from Hawaii. These bees are so docile, I really never would have believed it. We harvested 39 pounds of honey from two supers. Be sure and report back- love to hear your progress!

 

[lesa]

Hi this is Dh, Brian. I am working on a honey extractor using a ceiling fan for next years harvest. I have already got some pointers from a bee forum so before I get to use it I am going to make some minor changes. Compared to most extractors this one is real cheap for those that are trying to eek into the hobby.

 

[bid]

Okay, this is making me seriously consider bees. Very cool homemade extractor Brian. One of the drawbacks for me is the start up costs. I have plenty of wild bees, but I am not fixin to try and stealing their honey!

Lesa you got 39 pounds of honey; that is just a bit over 3 gallons isn't it?

Do you use the comb after extracting the honey?

 

[JimWWhite]

We have just one hive at the moment that we started with last April. We started with a beginners kit with a hive body, a deep super and two shallows. To this we added one 3 lb package of bees and a queen. A week ago we took the two shallows off and extracted them and we got 4-1/2 gallons of beautiful golden wildflower honey. And we estimate the bees have at least 70 lbs left in the hive body and deep super. It was so cool being a couple of novices that we were able to do the extraction ourselves. A couple of months ago we were invited by a friend to come over one Saturday morning and help him extract his two hives so we learned from that experience. He loaned us his extractor which was a big help.

Our next step is in the spring to do a split of the hive ourselves and start a second hive that we already have built and ready to go. Eventually we want to have 20 hives ringing our 3 acres plus maybe put some others on our neighbor's land.

One thing our neighbor made a big deal of a few weeks ago was that her flowers and vegetables were the most beautiful and productive than she has ever had. She attributed it to our bees!!!

 

[JimWWhite]

I got a hive a few weeks ago. I'm kind of scared of them, they're being more aggressive than I expected. We've only gotten a couple of stings, but they swarm around my face as soon as I get near the hive! I was going to get the honey before it got cold, but winter snuck up on us suddenly, and made the bees angrier, we have days that are warm, nights are all down into the 40s-30s (colder than usual for this time of year!) and then other days are cold and windy, I think they are confused since they have lived in comfortable, warm Las Vegas until now. So...I think I will leave them alone until spring!

One, don't wear dark colors, especially black around the hive. Bees see dark colors and they think bear. Then they go into defense mode and the guard bees call out the hive. So no dark colors. Also, if you have an aggressive hive you can change that immediately by replacing the queen with a new one. We have Italians and they are totally non-aggressive. The Russian and Minnesota bees are more aggressive than the Italians but I understand they'll settle down in a week or two after you install them in a hive. No one's ever been stung by our Gals and I can't believe anyone would unless they perceived someone being a predator.

 

[JimWWhite]

vfem, he is so talented with all that beautiful wood working- let him have at it! I would recommend building the hive boxes and purchasing the frames...They are very tedious to build (though not impossible...) Have you tried a "wanted" listing on Craigslist? I bet your bees would fly year round, with your beautiful weather...

I'm on craigslist all the time. Most people have hives with bees that are ready to go for over $200. I don't have that kind of money right now. I figured we'd start small and grow by introducing our own hive.

My complicated husband wants to build a Warre Hive!

You should be able to get a complete starter hive setup for about $125 plus the cost of the bees and a queen, which will set you back about another $70. Anyways, you can order by Brushy Mountain Bees in N. WIlkesboro, NC. There's also Miller Bees, from up that way too. Plus I know of a man in Advance, NC whose name is Bobby Jenkins who'll set you up for probably less than the retailers will. I buy the HFCS from him to feed our bees with and he had a bunch of hives set up outside his shop he was selling. Check him out at:

Bobby Jenkins
140 Naenae Ln, Advance, NC 27006
(336) 998-6097

Hope it helps!!!
Jim

 

[lesa]

...Lesa you got 39 pounds of honey; that is just a bit over 3 gallons isn't it?

Do you use the comb after extracting the honey?

<Brian here>

I will answer that. The weight is by calculation. I took one of our quart Ball jars filled with honey and weighed it (tare subtracted of course) and it came out to 4.9 pounds. We filled 8 quarts + so that calculates to over 39 pounds. It is possible that the jars do not hold a full quart (not knowing where the fill line is). But if they do, that should be slightly above 2 gallons.

Normally we would just put the frames back into the super except this year I goofed with the heat extraction technique and lost the foundation from eight frames. So for these eight frames I will have the bees clean what is left and then replace the foundation. We are newbies at beekeeping however I would say most keepers don't consider taking honey from the upper suppers as stealing. This is excess honey that the bees provide because the space exist. If the space wasn't there they would probably swarm.

Last year we had the nephews over about this time and I did a project with them making a wooden mold to make a candle out of the left over capping's and wax. They had a ball and it kept them out of trouble for quite some time.

With the lost foundations we have a lot more wax this year. I have read about companies that will take your wax and make wired foundations at a lower costs. Not that foundation is very expensive to begin with.

I hope I answered your questions.

Brian

 

[bid]

Very good info, thank you. Yes it answers my questions, but also makes me think of many others. Harvesting the honey tends to keep them from swarming? Fascinating. No excess food supply, no multiple new queens?

I think I will research beekeeping a bit more in depth and decide whether or not this is something I really want to try. Thank you!

 

[Bethanial]

Bees are something I'm considering, but I'm still not decided yet. I'm looking into top-bar hives, though. (I've had back surgery, and the weight of a full super could be detrimental.) Thoughts?

 

[lesa]

The top bar hives, look very interesting. We have not used them. The hive bodies should weigh about 90 pounds when full. That being said, I can't see that you would have to move them. The only thing we move around are the supers. Full, they might weigh 20 pounds. No reason to lift the entire weight, though. We just remove the frames, one at a time...Do you have a local beekeepers association? You might meet someone there, that uses the top bar hive.
Bid, I don't think it is the harvesting of the honey, that keeps them from swarming- more that they have that space available for storing honey, thus don't have to look for larger digs... When spring comes we'll put the empty supers back out for them to expand into.