Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: bwdenen on September 17, 2012, 07:05:21 pm
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Took the supers off 6 of my hives and extracted the honey this weekend. We ended up with a tad less than 240 pounds! Not bad considering 3 of them were new package starts this spring, 2 were swarms I caught in April and only one was an established hive. The girls did real good. But I must say they were none too happy with me for stealing their stuff. I pulled 20+ stingers from my gloves and suit. Only 5 got through to me. I no sooner had my fingers on the frames and my hands were COVERED with stinging mad (ahem), ladies. I had to break out the old rusty hardly used frame grip. And then they tried to sting that! I used smoke and even tried misting them with sugar water with HBH, nothing would calm them down. One hive was pretty good, had a queen from the COBA Queen Project here in central Ohio. The rest, not so much.
I would like to extend a challenge to all you “au natural’ folks out there who don’t wear gloves, or veils or anything; those who like to get “closer to the bees” to come and deal with those angry girls!! They’ll give you a close encounter you’ll never forget.
These are the same hives I worked all summer with only a veil and thin gloves, and wondered if I needed all that a couple of times. Funny how things change with the seasons. But anyway, it was a good day.