Beekeeping
Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2020 11:56 am
Any other beekeepers on the forums? Any interest in apiary? Here is a bit of a write up this weekends harvest, it's pic heavy and has some bee terms in there so if you need anything elaborated on then let me know.
Last weekend Heimir, another friend and I robbed my beehive, it was the first harvest from this hive even though it has been active for almost two years. We started the hive with a wild swarm and as often happens with them the Queen was a bit too old to start a new thriving hive and needed to be replaced.
Then about six months ago I disastrously I developed anaphylaxis to bees meaning the hive needed to be moved from my home and Heimir kindly offered to house them on his property. They have flourished since and this weekend it was time to take some honey before they began to think about swarming.
The hive is a flow hive (Anderson hive) but we had placed an 'ideal' (a half sized traditional Langstroth hive) full of harvested frames on top of it. These frames are called 'stickies' as they are covered in honey and the wax comb is still present in them. These are often put on top of a new hive to give the bees a bit of a kick start, they can take the leftover honey off them and they can also reuse the honeycomb which saves them a lot of production time and energy.
Once we had suited up (extremely in my case) we smoked the bees which doesn't calm them as is commonly thought, in fact it blocks and confounds the attack pheromones that the bees release into the air.
We then took the ideal off, and then the flow hive super (the full size honey storage box) and then inspected the health of the hive. We found a few hive beetle and some wax moth grubs but thankfully nothing serious as Australia is thankfully still free of the pests wreaking havoc on bees elsewhere in the world. The Queen had been incredibly busy and the frames in the brood box (the one of the bottom) were full of grub waiting to hatch.
By this stage the girls were getting quite agitated despite our smoker and so we put the hive back together and beat a hasty retreat with our ill gotten ideal full of honey.
At this stage Heimir had to be off to fathers day activities so he missed out on the fun part of the day - Extraction!
Using a hot blade you cut the wax capping off the top of the comb and then place the frame into a large centrifuge drum where you spin the frames until all of the honey flies out and then runs down the side of the drum through holes in the base where it is sieved.
Once you have spun all the honey out, you need to wait for it to all drain down (ideally overnight) and then you can tap the drum into containers of whatever size you want. This waiting phase consisted of drinking mead and eating fresh honeycomb so was a real ordeal.
I have some pics here, it can be hard to get good ones when fully suited and it can be hard to get them while extracting as everything is covered in honey. If there is something you wan to see closer let me know for next time.
I used to tend in a veil and normal clothes but now have to wear this monstrosity.
The front of the hive as we begin the process.
Opening up the hive and starting to smoke, this can be tricky as the bees glue up any gap in the hive to keep the temperature steady. You effectively have to crack the seal to lift a box off. The job can easily be done solo but it's made easier by more hands.
The front of the hive at the end of the process.
See this bee? She has a huge pollen baskets! Also known as corbicula these sacs are how they bring pollen back to the hive. The bee up the top is sporting a similar fashion.
The frames as they look after having been taken out of the ideal.
The comb with its wax capping on, the funky mess underneath is a combination of wax and honey. After the extraction you can take that mix and refine it into various grades of beeswax for candles etc. The fork is for roughing up and decapping sections that you can't get to with the heated blade.
Putting the now uncapped frames into the spinner
Spinning! takes about 60 or so seconds of medium pace spinning. You don't go too fast or you can destroy the comb.
The frames after the honey has been spun, you can see the comb is empty and the honey in the bottom of the barrel. These frames are now the stickies that i mentioned above and will go back on the hive.
The bottom of the spinner with the last of the honey draining out.
Tapping the honey. This harvest yielded around 12kg of honey and I imagine a further 1kg drained out overnight. That's from the equivalent of 3 full frames.
To give you an idea on yield a normal beehive super has 6 frames but you would never rob all six at once, you want to leave the bees with plenty of honey in case of a dry summer or a harsh winter. Even a very wet summer will see them just sit in the hive all day, they don't work in the rain and a greedy beekeeper invites disaster.
One of my friends has two established hives with double supers (12 frames each) and he yields 80-100kg (176-220 pounds) of honey a summer.
I know this is all done all using modern equipment but I have made a study of traditional bee keeping as well. In fact I have a really old video somewhere of a man smoking his skep hives with his pipe as he tends them. I'm tempted but not that brave.
And yes, it tastes amazing
Last weekend Heimir, another friend and I robbed my beehive, it was the first harvest from this hive even though it has been active for almost two years. We started the hive with a wild swarm and as often happens with them the Queen was a bit too old to start a new thriving hive and needed to be replaced.
Then about six months ago I disastrously I developed anaphylaxis to bees meaning the hive needed to be moved from my home and Heimir kindly offered to house them on his property. They have flourished since and this weekend it was time to take some honey before they began to think about swarming.
The hive is a flow hive (Anderson hive) but we had placed an 'ideal' (a half sized traditional Langstroth hive) full of harvested frames on top of it. These frames are called 'stickies' as they are covered in honey and the wax comb is still present in them. These are often put on top of a new hive to give the bees a bit of a kick start, they can take the leftover honey off them and they can also reuse the honeycomb which saves them a lot of production time and energy.
Once we had suited up (extremely in my case) we smoked the bees which doesn't calm them as is commonly thought, in fact it blocks and confounds the attack pheromones that the bees release into the air.
We then took the ideal off, and then the flow hive super (the full size honey storage box) and then inspected the health of the hive. We found a few hive beetle and some wax moth grubs but thankfully nothing serious as Australia is thankfully still free of the pests wreaking havoc on bees elsewhere in the world. The Queen had been incredibly busy and the frames in the brood box (the one of the bottom) were full of grub waiting to hatch.
By this stage the girls were getting quite agitated despite our smoker and so we put the hive back together and beat a hasty retreat with our ill gotten ideal full of honey.
At this stage Heimir had to be off to fathers day activities so he missed out on the fun part of the day - Extraction!
Using a hot blade you cut the wax capping off the top of the comb and then place the frame into a large centrifuge drum where you spin the frames until all of the honey flies out and then runs down the side of the drum through holes in the base where it is sieved.
Once you have spun all the honey out, you need to wait for it to all drain down (ideally overnight) and then you can tap the drum into containers of whatever size you want. This waiting phase consisted of drinking mead and eating fresh honeycomb so was a real ordeal.
I have some pics here, it can be hard to get good ones when fully suited and it can be hard to get them while extracting as everything is covered in honey. If there is something you wan to see closer let me know for next time.
I used to tend in a veil and normal clothes but now have to wear this monstrosity.
The front of the hive as we begin the process.
Opening up the hive and starting to smoke, this can be tricky as the bees glue up any gap in the hive to keep the temperature steady. You effectively have to crack the seal to lift a box off. The job can easily be done solo but it's made easier by more hands.
The front of the hive at the end of the process.
See this bee? She has a huge pollen baskets! Also known as corbicula these sacs are how they bring pollen back to the hive. The bee up the top is sporting a similar fashion.
The frames as they look after having been taken out of the ideal.
The comb with its wax capping on, the funky mess underneath is a combination of wax and honey. After the extraction you can take that mix and refine it into various grades of beeswax for candles etc. The fork is for roughing up and decapping sections that you can't get to with the heated blade.
Putting the now uncapped frames into the spinner
Spinning! takes about 60 or so seconds of medium pace spinning. You don't go too fast or you can destroy the comb.
The frames after the honey has been spun, you can see the comb is empty and the honey in the bottom of the barrel. These frames are now the stickies that i mentioned above and will go back on the hive.
The bottom of the spinner with the last of the honey draining out.
Tapping the honey. This harvest yielded around 12kg of honey and I imagine a further 1kg drained out overnight. That's from the equivalent of 3 full frames.
To give you an idea on yield a normal beehive super has 6 frames but you would never rob all six at once, you want to leave the bees with plenty of honey in case of a dry summer or a harsh winter. Even a very wet summer will see them just sit in the hive all day, they don't work in the rain and a greedy beekeeper invites disaster.
One of my friends has two established hives with double supers (12 frames each) and he yields 80-100kg (176-220 pounds) of honey a summer.
I know this is all done all using modern equipment but I have made a study of traditional bee keeping as well. In fact I have a really old video somewhere of a man smoking his skep hives with his pipe as he tends them. I'm tempted but not that brave.
And yes, it tastes amazing