Don't know where to post this typically, but wanted to share my harvest, this is my second year, didn't harvest last year, and harvested 4 supers and 1 deep, Got a total of 12 gallons of honey, the picture is just one pail. The Bee Club I belong to has an extractor to rent, so that saved me. Can't imagine the crush and squeeze I read about, the extractor is big enough mess.
Steve
Excellent! 12 gallons is alot of honey.
Your harvest was on how many hives?
Quote from: SteveM on October 10, 2010, 03:53:17 PM
Don't know where to post this typically, but wanted to share my harvest, this is my second year, didn't harvest last year, and harvested 4 supers and 1 deep, Got a total of 12 gallons of honey, the picture is just one pail. The Bee Club I belong to has an extractor to rent, so that saved me. Can't imagine the crush and squeeze I read about, the extractor is big enough mess.
Steve
Congrats
I can't wait to make this type Post
I hope its next year not two
Btw The Picture is not showing
SteveM won't be able to post a picture for a while. Forum moderators monitor that. You can't post pictures until you have so many written posts (not sure how many). This is a safety precaution to keep people from just jumping on the forum and posting naughty stuff. :shock:
Congrats on your harvest. You are lucky your bee club has an extractor to rent. Ours doesn't. I have always done the crush and strain method. It is not that messy. Don't really have to mess with the decapping. Just cut out the capped foundation and start crushing away with a potato masher, then
ump it all in the strainer in the top of a 5 gallong bucket. d(http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/7412/augsept2010034.jpg) (http://img832.imageshack.us/i/augsept2010034.jpg/)
(http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/8110/augsept2010035.jpg) (http://img801.imageshack.us/i/augsept2010035.jpg/)
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(http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/5329/augsept2010037.jpg) (http://img689.imageshack.us/i/augsept2010037.jpg/)
URL=http://img190.imageshack.us/i/augsept2010041.jpg/](http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/7986/augsept2010041.jpg)[/URL]
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(http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/4358/augsept2010044.jpg) (http://img137.imageshack.us/i/augsept2010044.jpg/)
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The girls sure enjoyed licking the pan clean!
Crush and strain is no more mess than the extractor. Both are equally messy.
ldaxon
Nice Photos
Do you have a shot of your Frames
I think I like what I see
You have NO foundation correct
and is your entire Hive set that way
or just supers
Thanks
Tom
Tommy,
I have a system where I use only totally plastic frames in my brood chambers and wood frames in my honey supers. That way I can always tell if the frame has ever been exposed to chemicals since you aren't supposed to use chemicals when the honey supers are on. ( My equipment is all 8 frame mediums so everything is interchangeable. Very handy way to go, right Michael B?)
This year, my first keeping bees again since the 1980s, I used the thin foundation for my honey supers since I only crush and strain and like to do some cut comb. But when I harvested, I knew I wanted to experiment with foundationless next year, so when I cut the capped honey out of the frame to process, I left a little bit of foundation all the way around the edge for the bees to use as a guide next year (of course I let the girls clean up the honey left on the frames which they did nicely.)
As luck would have it, about that same time I caught a small swarm and having mostly the wood frames available, I put a couple of them in the one empty box I had on hand and used my wood frames until I could get some more plastic ones ordered. The picture below shows what happend in about 2 weeks, the bees drew out this foundation and there were actually eggs in the cells. (They drew out several other frames similar to this.) I pulled this when my plastic frames arrived. But it is very clear that going foundationless works well and that is the way I will go in my honey supers from here on out. [IMG=http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/9311/hemryfrtbeeframe006.jpg][/IMG] (http://img687.imageshack.us/i/hemryfrtbeeframe006.jpg/)
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Sorry, don't know why that picture posted as a link.
URL=http://img829.imageshack.us/i/hemryfrtbeeframe006.jpg/](http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/9311/hemryfrtbeeframe006.jpg)[/URL]
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And before anyone chimes in: Yes I know the bees can always move some of the wax exposed to chemicals from the brood chamber up to the honey super, but that would only be a small amount, if any, and to the extent I can control it, I have done my part to try and minimize the exposure (short of never using any kind of chemical or additive in my hives.)
Sorry again, Steve. Didn't mean to hijack your thread.
Linda D
Thanks for taking the time to post those
I am starting both a KTBH and a lang I have decided to keep everything Chem free and foundation-less
Thats what I thought I saw in your Pictures and why I asked
I like your Idea about leaving comb around the edges
Thanks
Tom
You probably don't have to leave as much foundation all the way around as I did but I thought it might encourage them to build out to the edges more, and make sure the foundation eventually gets attached on all 4 sides. I think that is important if you ever use and extractor. Since I crush and strain it is not as big a deal. (But I would sure like to make friends with someone who has an extractor I can use next year. Crushing all your super wax each year sure makes the bees work harder and cuts back on total honey production.)
I want to stay as chemical free as possible but I got such a bad case of varroa that I ended up putting on Apigard this fall. I tried a couple of powdered sugar shakes but that seemed to disturb the hive too much. And when you only have 1 or 2 hives, a loss of one or both means a 50% to 100% loss of your production for a year or more. If you have 6 to 10 hives and you lose one or two or even more it is not as big a deal cause you will still get some production, and you can do splits, etc. I just don't want to be starting with new colonies again next spring.
All those pics are making my mouth water. I think I'll go get some biscuits.