Need to get my Honey Supers off, thoughts for a firstimer???

[TapStoneBees]

So  this weekend is when it has to happen, the weather is supposed to be suitable for tomorrow, Friday, then Ernesto swings by for some Foul weather..... is it bees or birds?????

I will need to get the honey supers off tomorrow or on Monday when the weather clears up.  I need to know, I have never done this before, I have the tools, both herbal liquid, and escape board.  Wanted to try both to see what works best, though not at the same time.........

What do I need to expect, and where exactly should I be taking the honey supers when I take them off....the Garage, the house, the barn???, Inquiring minds want to know.  After that, how long do supers sit before you have to or can extract????

I can only expect that I may have lots of stickiness and stings per chance in my future.....I only hope that they both are learning lessons, and neither terribly painful.   I appreciate insite, though I know doing so opens a hive of 20K Opinions!!

Thank you all for your time.
Cheers from UDRV/NY

[2-Wheeler]

As another first timer who did mine last week, we also had both options but went with the BeeQuick (herbal) the first time, since the weather window looked like it wasn't going to hold.  Less lifting since we didn't have to lifter the supers off first to put the escape board under and didn't have to wait an extra day.  

We waited about 5 minutes and that cleared about 80% of the bees. We brushed the rest off. Once all the bees were clear, we carefully brought the entire super into the house so that not one bee followed.

One mistake we made, was getting in a hurry to extract the honey. The weather was cool and the mud-room where we did the work was only about 65F. We tried to use some heat lamps to warm things up, but even that was not enough. I think the room where you extract should probably be closer to 85F.

One of the two supers wasn't fully capped, so we left it and will go back with the escape board next weekend.

The bees got a bit excited, but nobody got stung.  I'm certainly no expert, but hope that helps. Enjoy the sweet harvest!

[Brian D. Bray]

Take them to a room where it is hard for the bees to get into.  One thing about extracting honey--you find out for sure just how porous your house, shed, or barn is.

[Scadsobees]

The first time I made the mistake of extracting in the driveway....I think I still have hearing loss from the extreme buzzing!!!

Nowadays it is done in the garage (very sticky job), doors closed.  There is one window where the bees fly to.  It is nice too that way because I don't worry about the supers being 100% cleared.

I would recommend going to a bakery and asking about getting their old frosting pails....I use a lot of them...for cappings, honey both filtered and not.

Make sure that if you use beequick that you have a nice black fume board and a sunny day, otherwise it doesn't work so well.  Keep the bee brush handy in that case, you can just brush them all off, although that is a pain to do it does work nice.

Extract as soon as possible if it isn't a warm day, honey flows better warm.  Don't leave them set too long (days) or the SHB will wreck it.  If you leave them sit make sure that they are pretty airtight, bees and wasps are hungry for sweets this time of year.

And enjoy the fresh honey!

-rick

[Michael Bush]

Always extract somewhere that is BEEPROOF!

[Grant]

Always extract somewhere that is BEEPROOF!

When your extracting I dont think there is a place. :P

[John Quixote]

:lol: I extracted this year out in the driveway because the sun was beating down and kept things nice and warm.  I just worked methodically and avoided any fast movements.  The bees, hornets, and wasps that came around were more interested in the honey than in me, thank goodness.

One humourous thing I noticed is that those honey bees coming in had their "tongue" extended as if in anticipation of a romanesque feast!

I only had to scoop out 10 or so bugs out of the filtered honey, but then again, I had only two deep supers that I was extracting.