Honey Harvest

Big R just got home from his work trip to Kobenhaven aka Copenhagen.  Since it was a weekend without kid soccer tourney and weather was warm, it was time to harvest!

Supplies:

• bee suits
• smoker
• hive tongs
• hive scraper
• flow hive accessories - tubes, key, pliers, etc
• Jars!  (11 jars of 16 oz with lids, 6 24 oz jars)

We harvested from the OG hive first since we saw capped honey through the side window and was able to see honey in the frames.

Lessons learned from the OG hive while taking honey:

1. Put cap back on where the key is so the bees don't go in it
2. Put the tubes in right away and try to seal them as best as possible so bees don't go in
1. The 16 oz jars worked the best for this
3. One of the tubes is shorter than the other and needs additional height for collection
1. Note - need more tubes for multi-hive collection
4. One frame was uneven and allowed for the bees to get in/out the side and made for a challenging collection.

We have 3 flow frames to collect from.  We were able to get about 11 jars nearly full from the OG flow hive.

Next up... Big Blue.

So this was the big test this year since Big R bought some knock off flow hives.  They were less expensive but just different enough to wonder if they would really work.  While watching Big Blue and these frames we noticed that they just didn't really seem to like them.  They were not filling the outside frames and it seemed like they just were not as busy.  Big R unlocked the flow frames to gather on frame 1 and got nothing.  (It was on the far left or outside) when looking at the frames.)  He then unlocked 2 and 3 and while lil momma was inside, he was unprepared for the honey to flow.  Lil momma ended up having to run to give a collection jar for the honey.  These girls were also a little more testy... the bees kicked it up a notch in the activity level and the head butting.

We had 5 frames and filled about 3 24 oz jars from frames 2 and 3.  There was not really much honey to speak of in frames 1, 4 and 5.  They do fill from the middle out, so it may have been a matter of time and resources.

Lessons learned:

1. Fishing the bees out of the jars is not fun and leaves trails of honey to attract predators (yellow jackets/hornets/wasps)
2. Large mouth jars can have two tubes but the seal is not great
3. The knock off frames are just different enough that they don't have the tubes with the lip so can't go directly from one hive to the other
4. Need better smoker fuel.  The little pellets just don't last very long.
1. Don't use cardboard since there are chemicals in the cardboard.  

My bee lessons

• per some of the members of the PSBKA, it has been a high swarm season.  
• Don't inspect in the early morning/evening when it is cold and partially dark. It makes them very angry (from a beek Q&A)
• wear jeans.

So I got home on Friday around lunch time to eat and then attend a work meeting before packing up and heading to a soccer tournament with my girls. Best laid plans... 

I get a text from my neighbor asking if we have a lot of bees. I respond with yes and then look outside at her tree.  There is a swarm in her tree and then I go to our OG flow hive and see that the top box looks nearly empty.  I call Big R and try to figure out the plan of action... yep, our bees have swarmed, how do I capture the swarm or lure them back home.  I search and find a makeshift hive box and put it on a ladder with some empty frames.  Then find a frame of honey and put it in the lure hive. Mark my neighbor is available and I ask for help to make a bottom for the lure hive.  We move it to the ground because there is no way I would be able to move it if it were full of bees.  Not much else to do but wait and hope.

Next day, the lure hive is empty and the bees are still swarmed in neighbors tree.  I call the PSBKA and Ken is really kind at 8:30 on a Saturday morning.  He talks to me about the lure hive, putting a brood frame on a pole (since the swarm is about 30 feet off the ground), or trying to drop the swarm into a bucket and putting them in a new hive.  Also, I should cull some queen cells to prevent future swarms.  All options are not possible because I have to leave for soccer.  I figure the lure hive is our best bet and leave for soccer.

Sunday am.  We still have a swarm in neighbor's tree and we leave for soccer.

Sunday pm.  The swarm is gone. So I decide to service the OG flow hive.  I want to put the empty comb into the OG flow and try to move a brood frame into the top box.  Well, I suit up and put on pants... running pants.  I get the top open and have my little helper.  I have her holding a frame but she is getting nervous so I put it on the ground.  I then am bombarded and get stung in the rear end and the thigh.  Uh oh... they are not happy with me.  I go change into jeans and try to close the hive.  I may have some death on my hands but got the box closed back up.

Bees

We added a new addition last year and upped it to 2 this year.  Hives, that is.  I don't remember how this all started.  We talked about getting chickens.  We talked about getting bees.  We talked about Papa G having bee hives at the cabin. I think Papa G was the one that originally wanted bees but we got them first.
I have mentioned that I wanted to blog about it, but just haven't done it. I guessed I put that ownership on my spouse since he is the one doing the heavy lifting with the bee girls. But, I am going to try to put down notes here so that we have a bee reference. We love our bee girls.  We love our bee channel. We also love our bee honey.


Quick Log:

• Picked up 2 NUC's from Wenatchee in April 2018
• Put NUC's and frames into 2 brood boxes
• Added 2nd brood box in May
• Added honey supers in May (prior to Big R's work trip)
• Did 1 OXA treatment in May (**prior to honey supers)

Big R has been on a work trip for the past 3 weeks and I have had to do the bee upkeep.  It hasn't been much, but I do my best.  My last check I looked in on Flow Hive and it was super beezy!  Big Blue was less beezy but they were definitely in the top honey super and starting to work on the frames.

Flow Hive on May 20th (new empty frame)

Flow Hive on June 11th... BEEZY!