For the record, this is how the math teacher determines how many pints are in the bottling bucket.
The volume of a cylinder: volume =Pi * radius squared * height.
Volume answer is in cubic inches...google for table of "cubic inches to pints" conversion.
The radius of our bottling bucket is 5.5 inches.
Another measurement of this harvest: the bees filled their top deep and two supers with honey. We harvested from the two supers (small boxes): five frames from one, six frames from the other.
We put the supers back on the hives, including five partially filled frames. At least a couple of the frames we returned to the bees had capped honey on one side and uncapped honey on the other side.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Postscript on DRAT
I'm to report that the assistant bee keeper "is NOT limping." She says that makes her sound like a wuss. Actually, you can barely see where she was stung, so that is a good thing.
We had further thoughts on the new hive. It could be that this hive was the source of the swarm, and that instead of having no queen, they may just have a NEW queen, who hasn't gotten her egg laying groove on yet. We're hopeful. But we're also trying to find someplace to buy a queen, just in case. If we can be sure of a queen in that hive, we may recombine it with the swarm hive, which we believe to be completely a queenless mess.
Poor bees. We just figure it all out as we go along.
We had further thoughts on the new hive. It could be that this hive was the source of the swarm, and that instead of having no queen, they may just have a NEW queen, who hasn't gotten her egg laying groove on yet. We're hopeful. But we're also trying to find someplace to buy a queen, just in case. If we can be sure of a queen in that hive, we may recombine it with the swarm hive, which we believe to be completely a queenless mess.
Poor bees. We just figure it all out as we go along.
Well, drat all around.
A problematic day in beekeeping.
1. The good news: I have still not been stung. The bad news: the assistant beekeeper suffered our first sting. We made it over a year with no injuries. Today a bee crawled up her pants' leg and got squashed and gave its life and its stinger. The ABK is limping around with a baking soda poultice on her leg.
2. The good news: The swarm hive has drawn out frame throughout their box. The bad news: they are looking suspiciously queenless. Not much uncapped brood, too many drone cells and drones hanging out. Could we have another laying worker hive?
3. The good news: The original hive is chock full of honey. We put on a bee escape to see if we can harvest honey from the two supers on Monday. The bees should go out of the bee escape into the rest of the hive and not be able to get back up into the supers, so we should be able to just lift the supers off and take them in the house in a couple days. Their top deep is also chock full of honey. The uneasy news: we couldn't get into the bottom deep to check on things there. The top deep was REALLY HEAVY, and seemed to have frames stuck to the bottom box, so we gave up without fully assessing the situation of the hive. We are hopeful that the bottom box is not full of honey and that there is a queen and brood and a normal situation down there. We should have harvested honey a week or two ago, but have been out of town and unavailable.
4. The good news: well, heck, let's just skip to the worries of the hive that we started this spring. "The new hive," not to be confused with "the swarm hive." We didn't find a remarkable lot of brood or honey in the new hive's box. The bottom deep box had lots of bees in it, but not much of anything in the cells. The top deep box had honey around the top edges, but we didn't see much evidence of a queen. Could we be losing both of our two newest hives?
Drat. I took a couple pictures of the swarm hive frames, but was having trouble with the blogging program, so I'll maybe post those separately.
1. The good news: I have still not been stung. The bad news: the assistant beekeeper suffered our first sting. We made it over a year with no injuries. Today a bee crawled up her pants' leg and got squashed and gave its life and its stinger. The ABK is limping around with a baking soda poultice on her leg.
2. The good news: The swarm hive has drawn out frame throughout their box. The bad news: they are looking suspiciously queenless. Not much uncapped brood, too many drone cells and drones hanging out. Could we have another laying worker hive?
3. The good news: The original hive is chock full of honey. We put on a bee escape to see if we can harvest honey from the two supers on Monday. The bees should go out of the bee escape into the rest of the hive and not be able to get back up into the supers, so we should be able to just lift the supers off and take them in the house in a couple days. Their top deep is also chock full of honey. The uneasy news: we couldn't get into the bottom deep to check on things there. The top deep was REALLY HEAVY, and seemed to have frames stuck to the bottom box, so we gave up without fully assessing the situation of the hive. We are hopeful that the bottom box is not full of honey and that there is a queen and brood and a normal situation down there. We should have harvested honey a week or two ago, but have been out of town and unavailable.
4. The good news: well, heck, let's just skip to the worries of the hive that we started this spring. "The new hive," not to be confused with "the swarm hive." We didn't find a remarkable lot of brood or honey in the new hive's box. The bottom deep box had lots of bees in it, but not much of anything in the cells. The top deep box had honey around the top edges, but we didn't see much evidence of a queen. Could we be losing both of our two newest hives?
Drat. I took a couple pictures of the swarm hive frames, but was having trouble with the blogging program, so I'll maybe post those separately.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Swarm
So yesterday, I'm sitting in my living room drinking my morning coffee, enjoying the peace and quiet of the morning, when my next door neighbor comes over and rings the doorbell. "I think I've got something of yours," she says.
We trudge next door and she points to a small pile of bees on the ground, probably fifty or so bees, a pile the size of a small hand. "Huh," I said. "That's not a swarm. There's not enough bees. Plus, swarms usually aren't sitting on the ground. They're up in a clump in a tree." I pointed upward, vaguely. We all looked up. My neighbor took a few involuntary steps back toward her house. There, up in the tree, was a swarm, tens of thousands of bees clinging together.
We all paused for a quick think. Then I launched into reassurances. "Hey, wow. No problem. Swarms are not looking to sting anyone. They just want a home. We can call a local beekeeper, and they'll be glad to come get them. Free bees!
We would have thought about getting them ourselves, but they were twenty feet up, and we didn't have any equipment...no swarm catching bucket on a pole, no big ladder, no hive. We called our friend who keeps bees professionally. He was on his way out the door to go camping with his family, but said he would call someone. By the time we got a call back, it was too late. We had a plan.
*We made some sugar water and put some of it in a spray bottle. We got the cardboard nuc (small box holding five frames of bees) that our latest bees came in. We put on our bee suits. We went in one of our hives and stole a frame of drawn out comb full of baby bees (see below) and put it in the nuc, along with four brand new frames with wax foundation. We grabbed an old white bedspread, a small ladder, and the tree trimming extension pole that has a hook on the end.
The assistant bee keeper climbed up the small ladder with the pole. I held the ladder and helped with the pole. We hooked the branch, looked at each other and counted to three. On three we gave the branch a huge jerk. KERFLUMP! Down came the bees, mostly on the blanket.
We hit the bees with fast squirts of sugar water. We figured they were hungry, and bees licking sugar water off themselves are usually too busy and happy to sting you. Then we picked up the bedspread and dumped a bunch of bees in the cardboard nuc onto the frames.
The bees figured out that they had arrived, and that there were BABY BEES that needed their care. The old beekeepers in the area tell me that if you hive a swarm with baby bees, they will almost always stay put and not swarm out again. Sure enough, they had hardly hit the box when some of the bees put their tail ends in the air to send out pheromones indicating that this was home and everyone else should come.
We put the top on the box, leaving the little round entrance open. Pretty soon the vast majority of the swarm was in or on the box. Then we went home to wait a spell.
When we returned around four, most everybody was inside the box. We corked the entrance and took them to the backyard.
We trudge next door and she points to a small pile of bees on the ground, probably fifty or so bees, a pile the size of a small hand. "Huh," I said. "That's not a swarm. There's not enough bees. Plus, swarms usually aren't sitting on the ground. They're up in a clump in a tree." I pointed upward, vaguely. We all looked up. My neighbor took a few involuntary steps back toward her house. There, up in the tree, was a swarm, tens of thousands of bees clinging together.
We all paused for a quick think. Then I launched into reassurances. "Hey, wow. No problem. Swarms are not looking to sting anyone. They just want a home. We can call a local beekeeper, and they'll be glad to come get them. Free bees!
We would have thought about getting them ourselves, but they were twenty feet up, and we didn't have any equipment...no swarm catching bucket on a pole, no big ladder, no hive. We called our friend who keeps bees professionally. He was on his way out the door to go camping with his family, but said he would call someone. By the time we got a call back, it was too late. We had a plan.*We made some sugar water and put some of it in a spray bottle. We got the cardboard nuc (small box holding five frames of bees) that our latest bees came in. We put on our bee suits. We went in one of our hives and stole a frame of drawn out comb full of baby bees (see below) and put it in the nuc, along with four brand new frames with wax foundation. We grabbed an old white bedspread, a small ladder, and the tree trimming extension pole that has a hook on the end.
The assistant bee keeper climbed up the small ladder with the pole. I held the ladder and helped with the pole. We hooked the branch, looked at each other and counted to three. On three we gave the branch a huge jerk. KERFLUMP! Down came the bees, mostly on the blanket.
We hit the bees with fast squirts of sugar water. We figured they were hungry, and bees licking sugar water off themselves are usually too busy and happy to sting you. Then we picked up the bedspread and dumped a bunch of bees in the cardboard nuc onto the frames.
The bees figured out that they had arrived, and that there were BABY BEES that needed their care. The old beekeepers in the area tell me that if you hive a swarm with baby bees, they will almost always stay put and not swarm out again. Sure enough, they had hardly hit the box when some of the bees put their tail ends in the air to send out pheromones indicating that this was home and everyone else should come.
We put the top on the box, leaving the little round entrance open. Pretty soon the vast majority of the swarm was in or on the box. Then we went home to wait a spell.
When we returned around four, most everybody was inside the box. We corked the entrance and took them to the backyard. (Meanwhile, I had spent some frantic time on the phone trying to find a hive. Many thanks to Orr Bee Supply in Old Fort, North Carolina, for opening on a Saturday to help me deal with my emergency.)
We transferred the five frames into the new hive, spraying everybody with sugar water as we went. We dumped the bees out of the bottom of the box into the hive, put a sugar water feeder on top, and left the box near the entrance for any stragglers to find their way home.
I just checked the neighbor's tree. The morning after there is a fist sized clump of bees hanging there. They were the bees that were out and about gathering and hunting when we moved the cardboard nuc. I'm sad about them, but these things happen. For a hive, it is not the loss of the individual bees, but the survival of the hive. This hive has a happy new home.
We transferred the five frames into the new hive, spraying everybody with sugar water as we went. We dumped the bees out of the bottom of the box into the hive, put a sugar water feeder on top, and left the box near the entrance for any stragglers to find their way home.
I just checked the neighbor's tree. The morning after there is a fist sized clump of bees hanging there. They were the bees that were out and about gathering and hunting when we moved the cardboard nuc. I'm sad about them, but these things happen. For a hive, it is not the loss of the individual bees, but the survival of the hive. This hive has a happy new home. *I'm not sure how my neighbor feels about the remaining small clump of bees, but I'm sure this is preferable to tens of thousands.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Chapstick Postponed
I saved the wax cappings that we cut off of the honey comb last year, and they spent the year in the freezer. One package from each honey harvest. Recently, I got all motivated to MAKE CHAPSTICK.
We thawed the cappings, then I put them on the strainers in the bottling bucket and ran water over them to rinse out some of the excess honey that was still stuck to them. I left them to drip dry.
During a house cleaning that week for company, someone (probably me) put the lid on the bucket and moved it to the basement out of the way.
I went to find it last night and discovered that the wax cappings had turned to a pile of science project looking mildewed mess. I did not take a picture. I just threw out the mess, strainers and all.
Here's what I've figured out. Honey keeps forever, but if you add water, it ferments. We fermented those cappings and then closed them up and grew some wicked mildew.
I'm eventually going to try again with either the cappings in the freezer or the new ones when we collect honey in the next couple weeks. But I'll consult with some experts first about how to avoid this mess.
I put in an order last night for metal strainers. The bucket is fine, polished clean and ready to go. I also ordered a fancy uncapping tray that will be a little easier to use than last year's frying pan arrangement, and will allow the honey to drip through a built in strainer below. The honey from the cappings is reported to be the best honey, so we'll be able to bottle it separately.
I'll stick with Burt's Bees for now.
We thawed the cappings, then I put them on the strainers in the bottling bucket and ran water over them to rinse out some of the excess honey that was still stuck to them. I left them to drip dry.
During a house cleaning that week for company, someone (probably me) put the lid on the bucket and moved it to the basement out of the way.
I went to find it last night and discovered that the wax cappings had turned to a pile of science project looking mildewed mess. I did not take a picture. I just threw out the mess, strainers and all.
Here's what I've figured out. Honey keeps forever, but if you add water, it ferments. We fermented those cappings and then closed them up and grew some wicked mildew.
I'm eventually going to try again with either the cappings in the freezer or the new ones when we collect honey in the next couple weeks. But I'll consult with some experts first about how to avoid this mess.
I put in an order last night for metal strainers. The bucket is fine, polished clean and ready to go. I also ordered a fancy uncapping tray that will be a little easier to use than last year's frying pan arrangement, and will allow the honey to drip through a built in strainer below. The honey from the cappings is reported to be the best honey, so we'll be able to bottle it separately.
I'll stick with Burt's Bees for now.
Friday, May 15, 2009
May 12, Two Honey Supers on Each Hive
For my own records: The Junior Hive bottom super has nine frames of drawn out honey comb from last year, with one frame of capped honey that was in the freezer all winter. The Junior Hive also has a queen excluder below the bottom honey super.
The top honey super on the Junior Hive has six new frames of foundation only and three frames of drawn out honey comb from last year.
The bottom super of the Senior Hive (pictured in a previous blog) has all new foundation except for the one frame of capped honey from last year. There were bees all over the frame with honey, but not much going on with the foundation frames, so we removed the queen excluder on this hive. The top honey super, added on May 12, has four frames of new foundation and five drawn out frames from last year.
The top honey super on the Junior Hive has six new frames of foundation only and three frames of drawn out honey comb from last year.
The bottom super of the Senior Hive (pictured in a previous blog) has all new foundation except for the one frame of capped honey from last year. There were bees all over the frame with honey, but not much going on with the foundation frames, so we removed the queen excluder on this hive. The top honey super, added on May 12, has four frames of new foundation and five drawn out frames from last year.
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