I extracted today for the first time! All went well and we have about six gallons of beautiful honey --all from only 18 medium frames. I was amazed at how much honey came from so few frames.
I put the extractor, capping tray and some tubs I used outside for the bees to clean up. I also put the extracted frames back into two supers and put one on each of my hives. I am wondering how long I should leave those frames on the hive? I thought I would leave them several days....but seeing how fast those girls cleaned up my equipment (4 hours!) I am wondering if I should/can pull the "cleaned" frames off the hive tomorrow?
I plan to put the empty frames in our freezer for awhile and then put them back into a box and wrap in plastic for storage in our basement. I am hoping this will keep the moths at bay.
They'll have those supers cleaned in a day. I harvested last weekend, put wet frames on Sunday, and by Monday they were clean. Personally, I'll leave them on there, above the inner cover but below the outer cover for them to defend but not refill (if there's any flow). After the first freeze I'll remove them to storage. If they do happen to store anything in them I turn them upside down (uncap any capped cells) and because they can't store honey in there and the honey is actually dribbling out they'll defend the comb but won't lay or put honey in it.
Thanks! I wish I could leave them on the hive as you suggest. But I am leaving for Vietnam next week and need to get the hives "winterized" as much as possible. I won't be back until late November so the ladies are going to have to be on their own for the next couple of months.
I now have four mediums on each hive. At least one medium is all honey with other honey stores on the frames around the brood. I tried to move the brood downward last week...pulled the hive apart and moved a bottom box to the top (it was pretty empty). I wanted to get back to check this box--to see if I could pull it and get the hive to three mediums, but darn, those bees are very grumpy right now. My body has healed from the last batch of stings and I am not too excited about getting dinged again. So, once I pull off the cleaned frames, I think that they will be on their own for the winter. We do have a chest freezer, so I may just dump the frames with comb in there while I am gone.
Overnight/8 hours freezing is all that is needed IMHO. I overwinter with three mediums with the top box all honey (if possible, or with the least brood.) Do not forget to put your mouse guard in before you go. -Mike
I don't usually leave the empties on the hives for clean-up. They tend to start using those for storage again right away, and I don't want more honey on the supers, but down in the brood boxes this time of year. Even after a day they'll have nectar in sometimes. Keep the honey below, girls, keep it below!
I leave my supers outside for a day or two, and they'll be all cleaned up. The downside is dealing with a cloud of bees for a few days, but it usually isn't too bad and they disperse soon after. What I don't like are all the wasps it attracts, but they too soon leave.
I was storing a super with 8 med. frames of honey in the shed and wax moths got into two of the frames. I put those two frames (almost 6 pounds of honey) out in the front yard. It took 3 hours, 45 minutes and they were totally cleaned out! I mean, not even a moist spot of honey left! The other six frames went into the freezer. I just got an extractor today, so I know what I will be doing soon!
Reading these comments made me realize I should have pulled the supers off the hive today. I will do it the first thing tomorrow and get them into the freezer. Hopefully they haven't started using them for storage yet. One thing I realized after extracting for the first time.... it doesn't take long to get the honey out of the frames. But it is the prep and clean-up that takes a long time. I finally got everything washed and put away today.
....and thanks for the reminder to get the mouse guard on the entrances before I leave. I did forget about them.
I do not put the extracted frames for cleaning directly on the hive. I have a plastic sheet with a hole of about 1" in the middle. The bees can access the frames through the hole but they do not consider them as storage place, rather as an external cavity.
In this way they clean up quickly the last drop of honey and then leave the frames alone. When only a couple of bees wander around the frames I can pull them out.
Here is a better explanation:
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/feedhole.html (http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/feedhole.html)
Just to follow up --- I pulled the two supers this afternoon. I was amazed how quickly the bees cleaned up the frames of the old honey and mangled comb. They had started repairing the comb and had most of the frames looking pretty good. A few cells had honey in them...but not enough to worry about. I put the frames into the freezer.
Originally I was going to leave the extracted frames on the hive over the weekend....but the advice given by others on this forum was "spot-on". You need to pull those frames after a day or two because the bees start filling the comb again. Thanks to all for the great comments!
I gave my "girls" a final goodbye and wished them the best. I am off to Vietnam next week and won't be back until Thanksgiving. Hopefully they will do ok while I am away.
Be safe Gailmo. -Mike
HHmmm I guess I'm in the minority here. :-* I extracted from one hive yesterday (got to 101°F so I quit) and plan on doing the other two this am. I put my empties back on and leave 'em... On all winter until the next extraction. Seems to work for me.
...DOUG
KD4MOJ