The Prodigal Queen

[.30WCF]

So I pulled 10 gallons of honey tonight. Still got a little more to go tomorrow. Funny thing is, that middle hive. It had a QX on it and had was queenless , but making cells a few weeks ago. I pulled all the beloved above the QX tonight. Shook them out. Blew them with a leaf blower and took them inside. 
I got to a stopping point because I needed another bucket and it was already 8:30. There were still a fair amount of bees in the deep box on the table so I took it back out and blew it out again with the leaf blower. I pulled a frame to make more room for the blower and saw some brood. I checked a couple more frames and yep, eggs and larvae. No queen. I already spun 3 boxes of honey above the QX out. So I looked around where I used the blower and found a small circle of bees all facing the center. I put her back in the hive. I looked. There was nothing under the QX. I?ll check back in a week or so. She had a rough day.
There is no upper entrance and using migratory covers. I suspect when she came back from mating, she went upstairs before the plumped up. She still isn?t super fat.






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[Ben Framed]

I had a queen get above an excluder once. I figured I 'must have' made am era during an inspection, some way placing the queen above rather than below.. I never really got to the bottom of the mystery as I called myself being aware, striving to not let this happen..

Phillip

[Michael Bush]

When I inspect a hive with an excluder on, I always unstack the boxes and when I get to the excluder I flip it so that the queen side stays facing the brood nest and flip it back over when restacking so if the queen is on the excluder she is still in the brood nest.  It's easy to get her on the wrong side otherwise.

[Ben Framed]

Thanks Michael.

Phillip

[.30WCF]

I?ll be all over 15 gallons once the caps drain.


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[.30WCF]

I got one batch of cappings on its last bath, and just starting the second batch.
















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[The15thMember]

I got one batch of cappings on its last bath, and just starting the second batch.

What do you have on the stove there?

[.30WCF]

Cooking down the wax. I boil it a couple times. The wax floats. The cocoons stick to the bottom. It takes a couple cycles, but then you have a clean disk of wax. This one is shaping up to be an inch thick by eight inches wide when it cools completely.
EDIT: I put water in the pot too. The wax floats on the water and you dump the dirty water out.



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[.30WCF]

I forgot. I?ll melt it in water a time or two and let it separate and scrape the junk off, then run it through a paper towel one time and melt if a final time.



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[The15thMember]

Nice.  I do it the same way, just in the crock pot.  I'm nervous about heating something flammable like that on the stove. 

[.30WCF]

Oh, to be fair, I never said it was a good idea. ;)


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[BeeMaster2]

The best way to melt the wax is with a pot with built in heating element and a spout drilled into the side high enough to have water in the bottom and a little bit of wax below the spout. This way pure wax comes out without the trash or propolis. Before I do this all of my wax goes through my solar wax melter. That gets rid of most of the trash.
Bill Murray made one and one of these days I?m going to make one.
Judy and I are planning on make a bunch of candles to give away at our 50th wedding anniversary next year so I need to make one soon.
Jim Altmiller

[The15thMember]

Judy and I are planning on make a bunch of candles to give away at our 50th wedding anniversary next year so I need to make one soon.

Congratulations!  What a thing to celebrate!