Capped Honey Already?

[Sean Kelly]

My girls have been working overtime!  It's been less than 3 weeks since I installed my bees from a package into a brand new hive with no drawn comb and they already have the box pretty much full, mostly of honey and pollen.  Out of 10 frames there are only like 3 frames of brood.  Is this bad?  Couldnt find any eggs cause everything was already full of capped brood and honey.  I'm guessing it's time to add a second box, right?  When I add a second deep, should I just stack it on top with the undrawn foundation it comes with, or should I take a few frames from the current box and move them up top?

I also had a huge chunk of bridge comb that I plucked off.  Got looking at it and noticed it was full of capped honey!  So I ate it!  Holy crow, I had no idea how awesome honey right out of the hive could be!!!

I took a killer picture of some capped and uncapped honey.  I didnt even know what a macro setting was until I read a post on here by ZuniBee.  Thought I'd share it with ya!

Sean Kelly

[ctsoth]

You should add another box as soon as possible, your are quite a bit late as it is.  You want to add a new box before the old one is completely drawn out.

I personally would move some of the honey stores up to the new box, and put new frames between the brood area and the outer honey frames.  I would not split up the brood nest.

[Michael Bush]

Fresh, unheated, unfiltered, unprocessed honey is a delight most people have never had and once they have had it they will never go back to the store to buy honey.

[Sean Kelly]

Ok, I'll order a new hive body this coming pay day.  I figured it was time, I just didn't think that they would fill it up so quickly.  I must be in a good location cause after 1 week they quit taking sugar syrup and they've been hauling in pollen pellets the size of peas.  I think this is going to be a great year.

Michael Bush, you couldn't be more right!  I'm hooked!!!  When I was out doing an inspection yesterday, it was all I could do to not steal some more!  I just gota be patient and the girls will reward me soon enough.  I saw on your website something about the "Crush & Strain" method of extracting.  It sounds like a great, cheap alternative.  Now I have Rite-Cell plastic foundation, will this make any difference?  How do you get the comb off of the plastic foundation or do you use all wax foundation?  I still might buy an extractor (the Chinese one for $100 from Dadant) but thought your method sounded really cool anyway.

Thanks again guys!

Sean Kelly

[ctsoth]

Your hive must be in a fantastic location!  The only downside to crush and strain is that your bees will have to produce more wax yearly.  If you use the wax for cosmetics and soap and such, in my opinion, there is no downside besides the increased labor.

You -could- scrape the comb off of the plastic foundation, but I think that  you would end up with a impressively large mess, and a bit of wasted honey.  If you would like to do crush and strain, for your honey supers use all wax foundation with no wires.

Good Luck

Chris

[UtahBees]

Very beautiful! Congratulations!!

I also went out today and took a deep dive. I didn't take photos of the honey (sugar water-based for me), but of the new eggs and brood:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/barl0w/sets/72157600194779293/

Keep up the great work -

UtahBees

[Michael Bush]

>Now I have Rite-Cell plastic foundation, will this make any difference?  How do you get the comb off of the plastic foundation or do you use all wax foundation?

I haven't done it on plastic foundation, but I know of people who have and are happy with the system.  They use a spatula and scrape the comb off the plastic and then give the plastic back to the bees to rebuild.

[tillie]

Sean,

I did this method with the kids of two friends of mine and they had a great time and took the jar home with them to watch the honey filter:

http://www.backyardhive.com/Articles_on_Beekeeping/Features/A_Simple_Harvest/

Here are the pictures on my blog of us doing it - it's an album so click on it to see all the pictures:

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2006/09/honey-harvesters-hard-at-work-slide.html

I notice you have a child in your avatar and bet you'd have fun doing this with him/her.

Linda T in  Atlanta