What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

[Michael Bush]

Mating nucs, queen cells, grafting, shaking a lot of bees for all of that.  And getting stung of course...

[Bill Murray]

Almost succumbed to the heat.

[Michael Bush]

>Almost succumbed to the heat.

Easy to do in the beeyard...

[The15thMember]

The sourwood flow is basically over, so I put my first round of sourwood frames above my triangle escape board today.  Some of these frames are drawn SO dumb.  Anyone else have bees who decide to make that crazy super fat honeycomb during a strong flow?     

[Ben Framed]

The sourwood flow is basically over, so I put my first round of sourwood frames above my triangle escape board today.  Some of these frames are drawn SO dumb.  Anyone else have bees who decide to make that crazy super fat honeycomb during a strong flow?     

I haven't tried it but I recall "eltalia" (Bill) from Australia saying he loved fat honey combs. He said he liked to use 9 frames spaced out in unisons in a ten frame box.

Phillip

[The15thMember]

I haven't tried it but I recall "eltalia" (Bill) from Australia saying he loved fat honey combs. He said he liked to use 9 frames spaced out in unisons in a ten frame box.

Phillip

I do that sometimes, use 7 frames in my 8 frame boxes, when it's apparent the bees are in that kind of mood.  The trouble is that if they aren't, then the spacing is often off, and they cross-connect them for that reason instead.  Sometimes you just can't win with bees. 

[FloridaGardener]

Yep I've got an entire super in my garage (went into freezer first) full of crazy comb.  They did so well with the first (foundationless) box I didn't checkerboard the frames.   Now it looks like a Spirograph in there.  I'm afraid I can't cut the virgin comb in squares. It will have to be chunks.  No way am I going to crush and strain all that. 

[Bill Murray]

I love them also, first year I run them in 10 frames to get them drawn out correctly. Once drawn or (second year) they go into a 10 frame box with 8 frame spacers.

[The15thMember]

Yep I've got an entire super in my garage (went into freezer first) full of crazy comb.  They did so well with the first (foundationless) box I didn't checkerboard the frames.   Now it looks like a Spirograph in there.  I'm afraid I can't cut the virgin comb in squares. It will have to be chunks.  No way am I going to crush and strain all that. 

Haha!  I checkerboarded mine, but it didn't make a difference to them.   

I love them also, first year I run them in 10 frames to get them drawn out correctly. Once drawn or (second year) they go into a 10 frame box with 8 frame spacers.

So you reduce your boxes by two frames instead of one, interesting.  I bet those combs get nice and fat!  If I could just get my bees to make the WHOLE frame fat it wouldn't be so much of a problem, but they just decide to make a particular section of the comb fat, which leads to wavy drawing of the frame next door. 

It's not a huge deal for me, as I do all crush and strain, so as long as I can somehow removed the frames that are connected together without busting the comb wide open, I can make it work.  The problem comes when I'd like to leave the bees the honey, or donate the frames to a struggling colony, because it's impossible to inspect with cross comb. 

[NigelP]

Moved about a dozen hives onto the moors for heather honey. It's the last main crop in the UK. All is looking good.
It's a strange honey though , it's thixotropic, meaning it' is a gel when stood, but goes to liquid when stirred.
Can't be easily centrifuged out, needs to be pressed out. Lose most of the comb, but well worth it as it's a premium honey.

[The15thMember]

Moved about a dozen hives onto the moors for heather honey. It's the last main crop in the UK. All is looking good.
It's a strange honey though , it's thixotropic, meaning it' is a gel when stood, but goes to liquid when stirred.
Can't be easily centrifuged out, needs to be pressed out. Lose most of the comb, but well worth it as it's a premium honey.

What a beautiful picture!  And that's extremely interesting about the heather honey!  When I was shopping for flowers earlier in the year with my mom, we found some heather for sale at a local greenhouse, and I remembered you and other UK beekeepers talking about how much the bees like it, so we planted a little patch of it in one of her tomato beds.  It's not a whole moor (yet!) but the little sweat bees sure do love it.  I just thought it was funny that you have all that, and we've got this.     
 
   

[yes2matt]

So you reduce your boxes by two frames instead of one, interesting.  I bet those combs get nice and fat!  If I could just get my bees to make the WHOLE frame fat it wouldn't be so much of a problem, but they just decide to make a particular section of the comb fat, which leads to wavy drawing of the frame next door. 

It's not a huge deal for me, as I do all crush and strain, so as long as I can somehow removed the frames that are connected together without busting the comb wide open, I can make it work.  The problem comes when I'd like to leave the bees the honey, or donate the frames to a struggling colony, because it's impossible to inspect with cross comb.

This is easier to do with a helper. But sometimes I stand the super up tall-ways, frames on end, so I can see what I've got for a mess. Then two or three at a time (or more with a helper) I can push out the frames from the bottom as a stack/block. Then once they're out of the box I can usually figure a way to get them apart without making a bigger mess than necessary. It is maybe easiest to do indoors.

[yes2matt]

Dropped a box of glass jars I was about to swap empty feeders for full.  They banged on the hive and angry them off so that I couldn't even get down there to salvage the mess. It's hard dearth at the home yard here so now I've got the neighbor's bees trained to come rob mine. 

[Bill Murray]

If I could just get my bees to make the WHOLE frame fat it wouldn't be so much of a problem, but they just decide to make a particular section of the comb fat, which leads to wavy drawing of the frame next door. 

I tried it without predrawn comb 1st year and it was a disaster. But my theory on this is I actually get more honey out of each super, (I should weigh each and verify that) but with same amount of space taken up and 2 less frames? Also less for the bees to cap. Makes uncapping way easier, and you are handling 2 frames less per box, to me the last 2 reasons made it a no brainer.

The drawback was less cappings, hence less wax.

[AustinB]

Started pulling summer honey supers (although it was yesterday not today). Darn hot out there, even in a vented jacket and shorts I was soaked through.

[Lesgold]

Wish I had your problem AustinB. I have started pulling honey but the weather is cool. (About 17 C. ) 4 boxes per day. Extracted asap before they lose to much heat.



Two boxes in the bucket and two on the carryall at the back. Slow work at this time of the year with the honey being quite thick and slow to drain. I could heat the room I suppose but I just take my time and enjoy the experience. Won?t have any more winter honey for another four years.

[AustinB]

Wish I had your problem AustinB. I have started pulling honey but the weather is cool. (About 17 C. ) 4 boxes per day. Extracted asap before they lose to much heat.

I don't know which problem I would rather have, thick honey or high heat haha! I love that you run deeps for your honey supers.

Won?t have any more winter honey for another four years.

Can you explain? I'm interested

[Lesgold]

Hi AustinB

Yes I do run deeps for supers. The advantages are obvious. The BIG disadvantage is also obvious. Those supers are quite heavy when full. The honey that I?m harvesting comes from the spotted gum. It only flowers once every four years. It?s the only winter flowering tree in my area that produces a flow. The majority of honey produced in my region comes from flowering eucalypts. Each species has a different flowering cycle. Some flower every year, others every two, three or four years. As I don?t move bees to follow a flow, my seasons vary considerably according to what is going to flower that year. Some years are quite poor. I may only extract about 20kg of honey per hive for those seasons.

[AustinB]

The honey that I?m harvesting comes from the spotted gum. It only flowers once every four years. It?s the only winter flowering tree in my area that produces a flow. The majority of honey produced in my region comes from flowering eucalypts. Each species has a different flowering cycle. Some flower every year, others every two, three or four years. As I don?t move bees to follow a flow, my seasons vary considerably according to what is going to flower that year. Some years are quite poor. I may only extract about 20kg of honey per hive for those seasons.

Thats very interesting, I didn't know that so I'm glad I asked. I'm fortunate to be in an area that has a (generally speaking) pretty heavy flow from early spring all the way through summer, and some years a good fall flow as well.

edit: BTW I mowed the bee yard today 

[Michael Bush]

I run all eight frame mediums.  I don't see any disadvantages.
https://bushfarms.com/beeseightframemedium.htm
https://bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#uniformframesize