The first step was to take the cappings off the honey comb. This was simply done with a sharp knife and a steady hand. Once that was done the frames were put in the extractor then all that was required was to spin it to get the honey out. This is a manual extractor but required minimal effort to get to speed. The next videos show my daughter managing to turn the handle and extract some honey!
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
Honey Extraction
In the last post I did me and Steph collected several frames of honey for extraction. I was at work the next day and on my break I called the guy who rents out the extractor for our local association. Unfortunately I was not successful in getting through to him so had a bit of a panic; lots of honey in the comb and no way of extracting it! I had a brainwave to call my friend who supplied me with my current Bees and see if he had an extractor I could borrow. I was in luck, not only did he have one, the one he had was excellent! When I have bottled up all my current wines I have on the go at the moment I will have to give him a couple of bottles to say thanks.
Apiary Inspection and Honey Collection 25/07/2013
While my daughter was at the childminders on Thursday me and Steph did an inspection and honey harvest. It was another glorious day and the Bees were coming and going being a busy as Bees are famous for being! The first hive checked was the smaller hive that was recently in a nucleus hive. Steph led the inspection on this one and within a few minutes we had found the Queen. She was still small but I think she was a slight bit larger than last time. I think when we go down to see them next time I will add some syrup to try to get them to build up faster. Here are a few pictures of Steph doing the inspection.
The next thing to do was take some honey! In the frames within the hive there was an abundance of honey stored so I don't think they'll mind me taking some. This basically consisted of taking the frames out and shaking and blowing the Bees away from the comb and then taking them home!
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| The Bees have started to build the comb up here. |
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| The white capped area is stored honey. As this is a new hive we won't be taking any from them this year. |
The main hive was quickly checked now. This hive was split into 2 a short while ago using the snelgrove method. The way I had split it was to have the Queen in the bottom hive and all the brood at the top ready to make a new Queen. Within minutes of checking the top hive I realised I had made a mistake somewhere as there where still eggs visible meaning the Queen was still there! Sure enough, in a few frames I found her. Although this is not what I intended it still will be OK as it just means that the new Queen will be raised in the bottom brood box rather than the top. Oh well, another lesson learnt! After that I decided not to check the bottom box as I didn't want to disturb any new Queen there could be.
The next thing to do was take some honey! In the frames within the hive there was an abundance of honey stored so I don't think they'll mind me taking some. This basically consisted of taking the frames out and shaking and blowing the Bees away from the comb and then taking them home!
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| This box is almost full of honey! |
Below are a couple of videos of me and Steph shaking and blowing the frames to get the Bees off (I worded that to avoid saying "blowing the Bees off" as some may think that rude!)
Sunday, 28 July 2013
Apiary Visit 18/07/2013
Another scorching day in the area I live and also the day I went to check on the Bees. Prior to my inspection I had made a few new frames up ready to be put in the Nucleus hive with a newly mated Queen I had seen last time I went. I'd also arranged to meet with my Brother-In-Laws Dad, Mick, as he has an interest in insects and Bees. He has several colonies of ants that he keeps. I may at some point get the pleasure of seeing them and writing about them.
We met at the land and got the smoker lit and suited up ready to look in the hives. It was sweltering heat and before long I had sweat pouring off me. We started with the Nucleus hive that had the newly mated Queen in it and I began transferring the frames to a full sized hive so they had room to expand. We did manage to see the Queen although she is slightly small at the moment, hopefully she will get a little bigger than she is now or I may have to replace her. There was also plenty of eggs and larva present so I'm hoping that she has bred well and will not need replacing. Due to her currrent size I decided not to mark her yet.
The next hive was my main hive and we found the Queen fairly easy in there as well. As I am trying to increase my hives I used something called a snelgrove board which I have made earlier in the year. The board is used to manipulate the Bees and can be used as either a swarm control method or for making increases while at the same time not interferring with honey production. It works by seperating the brood and the Queen making them think they have swarmed and reducing the tendancy for them to want to leave. The seperated brood, with its young Bees, will then create a new Queen effectively making 2 colonies altogether. From there you can either split the 2 brood chambers or unite them back to one, although you need to get rid of one of the Queens to do this. The method is easier to explain when you're at the apiary then in writing so will leave it at that! I will probably do a more detailed post when I can describe it better.
While we were checking the brood box I noticed that the Bees had created a full comb of honey where I'd left a gap. I managed to pry this out without damaging this too much and shared the comb with Mick. He was more than impressed to be taking some honey home with him! When I checked the super that I had above the brood chamber I was excited to feel how heavy it was and my next post will probably be about honey extraction!
We met at the land and got the smoker lit and suited up ready to look in the hives. It was sweltering heat and before long I had sweat pouring off me. We started with the Nucleus hive that had the newly mated Queen in it and I began transferring the frames to a full sized hive so they had room to expand. We did manage to see the Queen although she is slightly small at the moment, hopefully she will get a little bigger than she is now or I may have to replace her. There was also plenty of eggs and larva present so I'm hoping that she has bred well and will not need replacing. Due to her currrent size I decided not to mark her yet.
The next hive was my main hive and we found the Queen fairly easy in there as well. As I am trying to increase my hives I used something called a snelgrove board which I have made earlier in the year. The board is used to manipulate the Bees and can be used as either a swarm control method or for making increases while at the same time not interferring with honey production. It works by seperating the brood and the Queen making them think they have swarmed and reducing the tendancy for them to want to leave. The seperated brood, with its young Bees, will then create a new Queen effectively making 2 colonies altogether. From there you can either split the 2 brood chambers or unite them back to one, although you need to get rid of one of the Queens to do this. The method is easier to explain when you're at the apiary then in writing so will leave it at that! I will probably do a more detailed post when I can describe it better.
While we were checking the brood box I noticed that the Bees had created a full comb of honey where I'd left a gap. I managed to pry this out without damaging this too much and shared the comb with Mick. He was more than impressed to be taking some honey home with him! When I checked the super that I had above the brood chamber I was excited to feel how heavy it was and my next post will probably be about honey extraction!
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| Mick with the honey comb. |
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| We couldn't find anything to put the comb in so it is wrapped in a couple of latex gloves! |
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| The snelgrove board. This is a picture of it unfinished. The finished version has a hole in the middle with a fine wire mesh over it. |
Allotment, Bugs and Bumbles - A Photo Update
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| Some large raised beds that my Dad and Brother-In-Law have been working hard at. Can't take much credit myself for this but will help with filling them and obviously eating the produce! |
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| Another set of raised beds. |
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| Thornless blackberry plant. |
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| Peas, not ready for picking yet. |
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| A nice picture of a ladybird captured using the macro setting on my phone. |
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| Bumble bee on thyme flowers. |
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| Now that it's white bum can be seen it can be identified as bombus hypnorum. |
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| A bumble on a fox glove. |
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| Another picture of the bumble. |
Monday, 8 July 2013
Bees, Berries and Outdoor Cooking
I've decided to put a few updates in one post again. This week the weather has been absolutely belting and after work on Friday I went to do my inspection of the Bees. Upon arriving at the land my Dad and Brother-in-law were just leaving for a pint over the road. Not wanting to miss the opportunity of a free pint I tagged along! After a swift drink I returned to the land and got on with my inspection.
Not a lot to say on the inspection so I'll keep it brief. The main colony have loads of supplies and the supers are starting to get some stored in them too so with any luck I may have some honey for myself and some to sell this year. Fingers crossed! The nucleus hive wasn't checked as there should be a newly hatched Queen in there and I don't want to disturb her until she has done her mating flight and started laying.
After checking the Bees I decided to take a few strawberries as there are a few ready for the picking and it would be a shame to leave them for the birds to decimate!
And finally as the weather was good I decided to do a spot of outdoor cooking. We have recently had some conifers cut down and trimmed in my back garden and all the wood was lying around so I wanted to get rid of it. What better way then having a fire. There was lots of very dry bits and they set fire with no effort at all. I had a nice long branch that looked ideal for suspending my dutch oven from so I dug a hole and placed one end of the branch in the ground then propped another branch up to the side of it over the fire. I now only had to attach the cooking pot to the branch to suspend it above the flames. The photos below hopefully show this better. I cooked some chilli in the pot and using the lid cooked some sweetcorn as well. It was lovely!
Not a lot to say on the inspection so I'll keep it brief. The main colony have loads of supplies and the supers are starting to get some stored in them too so with any luck I may have some honey for myself and some to sell this year. Fingers crossed! The nucleus hive wasn't checked as there should be a newly hatched Queen in there and I don't want to disturb her until she has done her mating flight and started laying.
After checking the Bees I decided to take a few strawberries as there are a few ready for the picking and it would be a shame to leave them for the birds to decimate!
And finally as the weather was good I decided to do a spot of outdoor cooking. We have recently had some conifers cut down and trimmed in my back garden and all the wood was lying around so I wanted to get rid of it. What better way then having a fire. There was lots of very dry bits and they set fire with no effort at all. I had a nice long branch that looked ideal for suspending my dutch oven from so I dug a hole and placed one end of the branch in the ground then propped another branch up to the side of it over the fire. I now only had to attach the cooking pot to the branch to suspend it above the flames. The photos below hopefully show this better. I cooked some chilli in the pot and using the lid cooked some sweetcorn as well. It was lovely!
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| Beer, food and fire, no wonder I'm smiling! |
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