Me against my bees

JP · July 04, 2007, 10:13:19 PM

Took 2 mediums off hives 2 days ago and bees won't leave them alone. I extracted all but 5 frames, but it was like a war zone. The bees are all over my supers and have uncapped quite a few frames to rob the honey. There are hundreds of bees in the air, in my hair and up my shorts, of course my wife thinks I've lost it but if I don't do something they will rob all of the honey. Obviously I am in a dearth, because the last two times I harvested it was nothing like this, not even a smidgeon. Oh well, I'm taking a lil break right now in hopes they will go back to their hives after dark.

doak · July 04, 2007, 10:27:27 PM

Are you working outside or inside?
Sounds like a stupid ? but I had to ask.
I do mine inside most times at night.
Hope you get tuned up.
doak

fcderosa · July 04, 2007, 10:29:57 PM

Sounds like the bees are winning :-D

JP · July 04, 2007, 10:35:31 PM

Outside, not set up to extract inside, but I will give the idea some thought. Don't see why I couldn't, just have to protect the floor and secure the extractor so it doesn't walk. And have to have a table with a pan under it with medium on top where I can place extracted frames. It could work, like I said I would have to give it some thought.

doak · July 04, 2007, 11:01:07 PM

The last thing I would do is give thought to extracting outside.
Work something out and get inside to do the job.
Sorry for being so blunt.
doak

sean · July 04, 2007, 11:13:35 PM

Usually do my extracting on a sunday when the beesare in church. They seem to be sunday worshippers for the most part. :-D. Seriously did my first extraction on a saturday it was hell, the next one was on a sunday, never had a problem. Third one was also a sunday, extraction went ok no bees until i was ready to leave. Had to be signalling people to wind up their windows on the way back to the apiary, people were driving me down and cursing me about my bees etc. pity they weren't my bees.

But i am designing a tent made out of green-house cloth and pvc pipes soi can dismantle it and carry it when i expand.

Cindi · July 04, 2007, 11:19:35 PM

JP, honestly, you have got to get a set up inside somehow, being outside is not a good thing to do to get honey from your combs. The bees will come from everywhere, not even your own hives, and they might cause you more grief than you could ever imagine, just picture what you have gone through already. Do you want more? Like Doak said, sorry to be blunt, but extracting outside is a dangerous activity. Have a wonderful day, get inside to extract. Cindi

rdy-b · July 04, 2007, 11:34:22 PM

yes I think that about says it :lol: time to up grade you will be much happier 8-) then you could expand and double your pleasure double your fun :-D RDY-B

JP · July 05, 2007, 01:29:24 AM

Well, good people, I went back after dark and the bees had all gone to bed. Will get about 5 gallons of pure honey, honey still straining, and I can see at the line its more than 4 and a half gallons. You guys and gals made some fine points and I like the idea with the tent, but ya know I like having bees around me and on me, so I'll probably continue to extract outside for a while. Sounds crazy, but I love my bees and they were very happy, just a lil in the way of what I was doing. I like Finsky's original avatar with all the bees on him. Oh, I will guess that the bees robbed about 1/4 to 1/2 gallon of honey, so it wasn't that bad.

Cindi · July 05, 2007, 06:46:47 AM

JP, well, my hat off to you. You have the guts and that is admirable.

I remember last summer when I extracted my honey I froze all the frames after I was finished and I placed them all in my husband's garage (lucky guy eh? :evil:). One fine day he forgot to close the door, eeh gads!!! My poor son-in-law, who claims he his deathly allergic to bees went in to work on his Harley. He came roaring out and told me that the garage was full of bees. I grinned, reminded my husband that he must not leave the door open, bees can smell the aroma of honey a far distance away, this was the proof in the pudding.

Anyways, to make a long story short. We left the door open until nightfall. All the bees left. Needless to say, my son-in-law didn't work on his bike that day. That was a lesson learned. And I sure was doing a laughy thing each time I thought about my son-in-law just comin' out of the garage with the fear of death on his face.

He is not that allergic to bees. I probed his mind to find out how he reacts and he said that he swells up a little bit. Not to say that I am not ever careful with his life, I respect that and would protect him to the end of time. I have been keeping bees two years now and he has not been stung once. I am sure that he is amazed himself.

He has actually even nowadays come up to the apiary site when we are up there having conversations, watching the bees, mulling over life. That surprises me to this day, the guy that thought he would die if he ever got close to the bees, and the chance of a death sting. He is quite an embelliser, and I do get a real kick out of him so many times. He enlightens my life, my family, where would I be without my family. Have a wonderful day, great life, lovin' this life I'm livin'. Cindi

bluegrass · July 05, 2007, 09:21:03 AM

I do my shopping on sunday while everybody is in church :-D

My extracting gets done in the kitchen......I have three honey hounds who help clean the floor up when I am done.

JP · July 05, 2007, 02:31:41 PM

Think for now I will harvest at night when the bees are in under the covers, oh and I misread my mark on my 5 gallon bucket, looks like I'm right under the 4 gallon mark. Having hundreds of bees on me gives me a rush and makes me feel one with nature, a true religious experience for me. They only get mad when protecting the hive anyway.

Deb-Bee · July 05, 2007, 04:21:44 PM

JP, thinking about you extracting honey surrounded by a cloud of bees makes me smile. I'm glad it is a fulfilling experience for you! This will be our first year to extract honey. We are going to wimp out and set up in our greenhouse which is located just next to the hives! It is pretty warm in the greenhouse and we were told that the heat/warmth makes the honey easier to extract. Having the bees on me doesn't bother me but I have found that almost all my stings have come because I have inadvertently gotten a bee pinched between my body and arm or in the crook of my elbow or I have squatted down and pinched her on my leg. Trying to move around and extract seems like I would be setting myself for more stings. We will probably close the doors and vents of the greenhouse to keep the bees from finding out what we are doing in there! The floor is just pea gravel so we are just planning to hose it all down when done. Hoping if we wash down and dilute everything sufficiently, we will not create an ant problem! Our concern is finding a solid place for the extractor. We'll probably have to build some kind of base to hold it securely. We probably won't get a lot of honey this year but it will be a great learning experience for our family and we are looking forward to it!!

JP · July 05, 2007, 09:20:47 PM

Deb-Bee, you should see me on swarm calls. These are by far my favorite type of call, you can make the bees pretty much do what you want, as long as they haven't already picked out a new home to go to. I usually bring a swarm trap or a cardboard box with queen pheremone. Kinda makes you feel like a hero when you remove a swarm cluster and take it with you. The people think I'm nuts, I have a new hive, and I got to play with bees. Now how fun is that!

Bennettoid · July 05, 2007, 09:53:30 PM

Quote from: JP on July 05, 2007, 09:20:47 PM
Deb-Bee, you should see me on swarm calls. These are by far my favorite type of call, you can make the bees pretty much do what you want, as long as they haven't already picked out a new home to go to. I usually bring a swarm trap or a cardboard box with queen pheremone. Kinda makes you feel like a hero when you remove a swarm cluster and take it with you. The people think I'm nuts, I have a new hive, and I got to play with bees. Now how fun is that!

I can relate to that.

rdy-b · July 05, 2007, 10:56:03 PM

http://www.draperbee.com/info/photo%20album/suitofbeeswtext.jpg

Michael Bush · July 05, 2007, 11:01:37 PM

As you now should be aware, extracting is not an outdoor sport. It will set off a frenzy that will frighten the most astute beekeeper.

JP · July 05, 2007, 11:11:36 PM

Rdy-b, that could definitely be me, I would not have a problem with it. That will be ne one day.

Michael, I did a removal 3yrs ago in Covington, Louisiana. It was late July if I recall, and I had clear plastic on the front porch, that I was laying the honeycombs on. I am sure I had 4 different hives, including the one I was removing, robbing honey, it was totally awesome and I will never forget that experience. You could see bees coming and going in different directions back to their hives. Thousands of bees everywhere, and me right in the middle of the chaos. Oh, and the guy would not pay anyone to remove the bees, He said to the best of his knowledge they had been there perhaps, 2-3 months. The combs were black!