M' Wife's bees.....

[Handsome Rob]

Ohhhhhhh my........

The hives are in full flow right now! It was too hot to do any real harvesting today, but she collected 4 frames to make some room & harvested 11 pints of honey! We have around 30 more frames to harvest next weekend. 

[Garufa]

That’s a metric crap-ton of honey!

[dralarms]

Want to trade some honey for some honey mead?

[mikegideon]

2 hours ago, Garufa said:

That’s a metric crap-ton of honey!

Yeah. But it lasts a long time. And, you can't make a decent hot toddy without it.

[Snaveba]

Nice!  I look to have 10 medium 8-frame supers full of honey this year. I have added one more super to the short hive ( it was a swarm I caught this year).

[gary_boom]

Sweet

[tercel89]

On 6/13/2021 at 5:12 PM, Handsome Rob said:

Ohhhhhhh my........

The hives are in full flow right now! It was too hot to do any real harvesting today, but she collected 4 frames to make some room & harvested 11 pints of honey! We have around 30 more frames to harvest next weekend. 

THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO WHEN I RETIRE IN 5 YEARS !!!! I have always wanted to do that. I have 26 acres to put some hives/boxes on and man I can't wait ! It's so interesting ! I have read that the state and or local area  will help you get started and such. 

[peejman]

2 hours ago, tercel89 said:

THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO WHEN I RETIRE IN 5 YEARS !!!! I have always wanted to do that. I have 26 acres to put some hives/boxes on and man I can't wait ! It's so interesting ! I have read that the state and or local area  will help you get started and such. 

Find your local bee keepers group, they'll have all the info you need. They'll probably let you help them and learn what to do. 

[Snaveba]

If you want to start learning, go to www.nashbee.org. That is the site for NABA (Nashville Area Beekeepers Association). There is a lot of information on the site. They have monthly meetings with speakers on different topics that usually align with what is happening with one’s hives at that time. It has been virtual since last March but the July meeting might be the first back to in-person. 

[Snaveba]

I am pulling some of my frames on Sunday. Probably 48-56 medium frames worth. The rest I will get mid July. I will give an update Sunday evening. 

[Snaveba]

I pulled 7 supers off today and extracted about 15 gallons of honey. I probably had another 3 supers worth of partially capped honey. I will pull honey off again late July. 
 

[ReeferMac]

Thats great. Looks like some nice extracting equipment. 

I lost my hives this Spring, took the year off. Want to try to setup a swarm trap or two, but never seem to find the time, stuff keeps getting in the way.

[Snaveba]

The extractor is a funny story. About 2.5 years ago, my dad and a couple friends went in on a 9-frame motor driven extractor instead of the old hand crank 4-frame they were using. 
 

I don’t recall where they were getting it, but when my dad went to pick it up, they could not find the 9-frame unit (that was on sale). The guy let them grab get a 15-frame unit instead. When they got home and unpacked it, it was a 21-frame unit. 
 

Deal of the century. I think they paid like $600. 

[Handsome Rob]

We just pulled another 10 frames tonight (3-1/2 gallons) that puts this year's harvest total at around 9 gallons. 

I had to order more frames & foundations tonight, since we've run out! We still have 3 unchecked hives that I'm sure will need emptying soon! 

It's really cool, bottling up each different harvest as the season goes on. The difference in taste & color is amazing! 

https://imgur.com/a/M2jBDT7

(EDIT to add..... have I mentioned how much I despise imgur?)

 

Edited July 18, 2021 by Handsome Rob

[Snaveba]

I am very curious to see what the honey I pull in a couple weeks will be like as compared to what we pulled off on June 25th

[Handsome Rob]

2 minutes ago, Snaveba said:

I am very curious to see what the honey I pull in a couple weeks will be like as compared to what we pulled off on June 25th

This is our first year taking more than just a frame or two (we went from 1 hive to 5 in 4 weeks! Busy swarm season....) & it's amazing to me the change in color, texture & taste in such a short time! We also rendered a couple of pounds of cap wax last time & drew about a half pint of the most amazing, apricot colored honey from that. The stuff we're bottling is totally raw, but the wax honey was heated to 150° & the change is unbelievable! 5 times thicker, much sweeter & more 'honey like'

[Snaveba]

So you heated the cappings to separate them from the honey?  I just let the cappings drain on a screen for about 24 hours or so. I think I got another gallon of honey from the cappings.  I did pull about 54 frames. 

[Snaveba]

Or did you heat the drained cappings w/o washing them and that was where the 1/2 pint of honey came from?

[Garufa]

21 minutes ago, Handsome Rob said:

It's really cool, bottling up each different harvest as the season goes on. The difference in taste & color is amazing! 

https://imgur.com/a/M2jBDT7

 

What explains the difference in color and flavor?  Types of pollen or temp?

[BJB]

This is our next step according to my wife. She wants  

since we moved back into a house she has gone crazy with farm animals 

2- horses

24 chickens 

30 quail 

40 rabbits (most are babies ready to sell or process) 

when COVID-19 hit and you couldn’t buy meat we have changed the way we think and will never be in a position to have to rely on Kroger for food. Oh and did I mention the garden. Already canned beans. Doing tomato’s today after church 

[Snaveba]

Bees are not too hard. The initial cost it not too bad. They are most work in the spring /summer. Once you finish harvesting and treating for Verona Mites, they become less work.  You still need to keep a eye on them through the winter to make sure they make it. 

If you have three good hives, and a good nectar flow, you might get 20 gallons or more in a season (that is what I hope to total this year) If you were able to sell it all at $10 per lb, that’s about 2K (but I have to keep some for me and family). That or what I ask for it.  For good, raw honey, you might get $12lb. But at $10lb, I have not had any issue finding local neighborhood buyers. 

[Handsome Rob]

16 hours ago, Snaveba said:

So you heated the cappings to separate them from the honey?  I just let the cappings drain on a screen for about 24 hours or so. I think I got another gallon of honey from the cappings.  I did pull about 54 frames. 

We drained & mashed the capping on a screen, then let it sit for about a week (maybe more) I think the capping was from 20 frames & we got about a half gallon of honey by draining. Rendering the mostly drained wax gave us the extra bonus.

 

I've got another 16 frames worth of wax rendering in the oven right now. I'll see how much we get from that.  The bees are cleaning up last night's frames as I write this....

[Snaveba]

I never thought to render the wax while it still had honey in it. I usually wash it in a big pot to remove the honey remains. The bee parts sink to the bottom. After it dries, last year I made a solar melter to render the wax. Have not rendered or this year yet. 

[Handsome Rob]

Wax-honey ratio https://imgur.com/gallery/BxxLxxg

 

[tercel89]

5 years , I can't wait to do that ! It seems so neat . Thanks for sharing all this with us .