I need to harvest honey, but it's in the 90s right now. Can I do part of the work, close the hive, cool down and reopen the hives (maybe several times) to resume work without totally messing up the bees' day?
Dallas,
I pulled honey in the heat and in a dearth with over 128 commercial hives on top of me. as soon I pulled 2 supers the robbing started. I had to shut down, close up and run a couple hundred feet of hose to set sprinklers on my hives to get them to stop. I waited a while and again as soon as I started pulling it would start back up. I then put the sprinklers back on. i did this several times in order to get done.
The last 2 supers, after I fume boards were on, I just pulled the supers with what ever bees were on them and put them in the truck. I had bees in my garage in full robbing mode where I had stacked the supers. They were doing their best to get in the supers with lids on.
I did loose one queen from the robbing in a rather new swarm.
The last hive got very grumpy when I tried to return an uncapped super of nectar. My hands and arms took a beating that day.
Stopping and starting was not the problem, the robbing was.
Jim
Thanks, Jim. Fortunately, I don't have any commercial beekeepers in the area, but I'll watch for robbing anyway. I'm 80 years old and can't take the heat like I used to, and have concerns about the heat in a suit of armor this time of year. I'll just go slow and try to cool down between times working the hive. We still have a lot of flowers here in the city, so maybe other hives in the area will be busy minding their own business.
My bees have a lot more food in town than at my farm. Having a good flow on makes it a lot easier. I have done a removal from a truck tool box in the middle of a dozen hives in my apiary with no robbing what so ever with broken combs of honey everywhere.
take your time and good luck.
Jim
I doubt I will make honey this year being my first year and all but if you were in a flow would there have been robbing to worry about?
If you are in a good flow, no. You can put out a honey feeder and the bees will pretty much ignore it.
Jim
I pulled 3 times this year. I have several hives out front and 20-30ish in the back. My production hives are in the back. The first two times the other hives totally ignored me. The third I had to keep the supers covered as much as possible because of the robbing.
Thanks
I pulled some wonky drone comb from some foundationless frames from a cutout and set it out the other day for the girls to rob it back and there is still nectar and capped honey in it 2 days later....with 12 hives in the area...I guess we are still in a flow LOL.
I am trying to think of how I will deal with this when I move to FL. First I am going to pick the coolest period of the day. That has to be sunrise. Then I was thinking of pulling off one box of honey and close up the hive (use a towel). Instead of blowing the bees out what about spraying water on them? Would it take the bees out of the supers and keep them busy for a moment so you could close the box off. My whacked out theory is if they didn't drown they would go back to the hive. Any chance of this working?
Quote from: Dallasbeek on June 30, 2016, 01:44:52 PM
Thanks, Jim. Fortunately, I don't have any commercial beekeepers in the area, but I'll watch for robbing anyway. I'm 80 years old and can't take the heat like I used to, and have concerns about the heat in a suit of armor this time of year. I'll just go slow and try to cool down between times working the hive. We still have a lot of flowers here in the city, so maybe other hives in the area will be busy minding their own business.
Get your mentee(s) to do it. New beek like me would jump at the chance to do the work under supervision.
Quote from: Acebird on July 06, 2016, 08:35:24 PM
I am trying to think of how I will deal with this when I move to FL. First I am going to pick the coolest period of the day. That has to be sunrise. Then I was thinking of pulling off one box of honey and close up the hive (use a towel). Instead of blowing the bees out what about spraying water on them? Would it take the bees out of the supers and keep them busy for a moment so you could close the box off. My whacked out theory is if they didn't drown they would go back to the hive. Any chance of this working?
I barely know one end of a bee from the other so my advice is worth what you are paying for it.
I did a hive inspection today and while the hive was open it started to sprinkle just a little. The ladies were not happy and let me know it. One even followed me out of the apiary cussing in my ear. I don't know where she learned language like that.