What part of the country are you in? Our bees did terrible this summer. We have lost one hive already and two others have no honey at all. Only one has enough (hopefully) to survive the winter. We took no honey for ourselves. We are feeding sugar syrup, loose sugar, and sugar cakes along with pollen replacer, but I don't think they will make it through an Idaho winter. Early in the year, our queens all disappeared.....I don't think they swarmed, but they were gone. We bought 4 new queens, three of the 4 took. Had to combine two hives to save the one without. We don't have hive beetle problems here, but varroa mites are a problem. We do treat for those......I dunno…..
We're in the St Louis Metro Area. It was a tough year for us, but mostly because two of our colonies absconded just before winter last year. Are you treating for varroa? If not, that is probably the root of your issues.
My favorite part of the bees being clumsy fliers is when one bee is coming out of the hive at the same time as one going in and they bonk each other and buzz before going back to what they were doing
I had to struggle with a hand cranked extractor as I had spent all my capital on equipment but it worked (so did I) the one thing I invested in was a steam heated de-capping knife that made at least that part so much quicker. My mouth is drooling just watching this as I have not had my bees for many years now. Excellent video (and he did catch you for a moment.)
Over the last four years, we have decided we don't like the heated knife. The last two years we have just used a serrated knife. Works great. In January this year, we finally purchased our own extractor (the one you see in previous videos was our friends'. Looking forward to doing it in my own garage this harvest!
Happy new year. Congradualtions on what appears to be a good harvest. I am interested in purchasing some honey, with the leaset amount of processing, Possibly 600 sieve. Thank you
You are better off searching in your local area for local honey (I live in the St Louis Metro area). Google local beekeeping club or store - you should be able to find raw unprocessed local honey.
Looks good! Was your moisture content high because you had uncapped frames or partially uncapped sections? When did you guys pull supers this year for this years harvest? How did you store drawn comb from last year? Keith
Yes. Because we use our friends honey house, we scheduled a date similar to prior years, but when we started harvesting, there was quite a bit yet uncapped. We harvest typically around Aug 15, but because of the rain, I think the honey flow kept going and going and going this year. My guess is we could have got more honey, but we knew as we harvested that the honey would get wet. We put our supers in the freezer for two days, then bring them in the house for a couple of days to warm up and dry up any condensation, then put them in a plastic bag and store in our garage. Once winter hits, we take them out and let them air out until spring. I know a lot of beekeepers use the moth stuff, but I never have, and so far we haven't had any mildew problems storing them in bags for the summer. It does get pretty hot in our garage.
When the honey comes out of the extractor, what size strainer/filter that the honey passes thru? And do you get particles of stuff in the honey because of not thoroughly filtering ? Thanks
There are generally three grades of strainers and we use the most porous strainer. Nothing big enough gets through. I wouldn't use the finer strainers as it might filter out pollen.
We live in the St Louis Metro area. Unless you are local, you would pay more for shipping than local honey would cost. You should be able to find some local honey in your area. There are typically bee supply stores, beekeeper clubs, and then your general farmers markets that should have honey. Much less expensive, but I must say, our honey is delicious.
Since we borrow our friends equipment, we typically only due it once, but you can start harvesting as little as you want as you go along. This year, we purchased our own equipment, so we can do it more often than once if we want.
I have bees. I think I can learn more about bees from you. I will have to watch your videos. Thanks for sharing.
Its a beautyfull sight from start to finish.
It’s amazing how the bees cleaned it. WOW
What part of the country are you in? Our bees did terrible this summer. We have lost one hive already
and two others have no honey at all. Only one has enough (hopefully) to survive the winter. We took no honey for ourselves. We are feeding sugar syrup, loose sugar, and sugar cakes along with pollen replacer, but I don't think they will make it through an Idaho winter.
Early in the year, our queens all disappeared.....I don't think they swarmed, but they were gone. We bought 4 new queens, three of the 4 took. Had to combine two hives to save the one without. We don't have hive beetle problems here, but varroa mites are a problem. We do treat for those......I dunno…..
We're in the St Louis Metro Area. It was a tough year for us, but mostly because two of our colonies absconded just before winter last year. Are you treating for varroa? If not, that is probably the root of your issues.
My favorite part of the bees being clumsy fliers is when one bee is coming out of the hive at the same time as one going in and they bonk each other and buzz before going back to what they were doing
I had to struggle with a hand cranked extractor as I had spent all my capital on equipment but it worked (so did I) the one thing I invested in was a steam heated de-capping knife that made at least that part so much quicker. My mouth is drooling just watching this as I have not had my bees for many years now. Excellent video (and he did catch you for a moment.)
Over the last four years, we have decided we don't like the heated knife. The last two years we have just used a serrated knife. Works great. In January this year, we finally purchased our own extractor (the one you see in previous videos was our friends'. Looking forward to doing it in my own garage this harvest!
Raising Bees is a dream of mine. Good Job!!
this looks AMAZING! what a great video :)
Good job. Congrats on your progress.
That's a lot of honey.
New friend here - we raise bees too.
Happy new year. Congradualtions on what appears to be a good harvest. I am interested in purchasing some honey, with the leaset amount of processing, Possibly 600 sieve. Thank you
You are better off searching in your local area for local honey (I live in the St Louis Metro area). Google local beekeeping club or store - you should be able to find raw unprocessed local honey.
@@BrookHillHoneyMrGsHoneybees Thank you so much for the tip.
Looks good! Was your moisture content high because you had uncapped frames or partially uncapped sections? When did you guys pull supers this year for this years harvest? How did you store drawn comb from last year? Keith
Yes. Because we use our friends honey house, we scheduled a date similar to prior years, but when we started harvesting, there was quite a bit yet uncapped. We harvest typically around Aug 15, but because of the rain, I think the honey flow kept going and going and going this year. My guess is we could have got more honey, but we knew as we harvested that the honey would get wet. We put our supers in the freezer for two days, then bring them in the house for a couple of days to warm up and dry up any condensation, then put them in a plastic bag and store in our garage. Once winter hits, we take them out and let them air out until spring. I know a lot of beekeepers use the moth stuff, but I never have, and so far we haven't had any mildew problems storing them in bags for the summer. It does get pretty hot in our garage.
When the honey comes out of the extractor, what size strainer/filter that the honey passes thru?
And do you get particles of stuff in the honey because of not thoroughly filtering ?
Thanks
There are generally three grades of strainers and we use the most porous strainer. Nothing big enough gets through. I wouldn't use the finer strainers as it might filter out pollen.
How can I buy some of your honey?
We live in the St Louis Metro area. Unless you are local, you would pay more for shipping than local honey would cost. You should be able to find some local honey in your area. There are typically bee supply stores, beekeeper clubs, and then your general farmers markets that should have honey. Much less expensive, but I must say, our honey is delicious.
Can you only do this once a year? Or can you do it multiple times throughout the summer?
Since we borrow our friends equipment, we typically only due it once, but you can start harvesting as little as you want as you go along. This year, we purchased our own equipment, so we can do it more often than once if we want.