Checking Over the Winter

This past weekend was absolutely beautiful. I went out to my hive to see how it was doing and could see some activity out front. Temperatures got up into the high 60’s ( Don't check unless it is above 55 degrees) and even though it was cloudy, my bees were out foraging for whatever they could find and going on cleansing flights. I’ve learnt that seeing bees at the entrance doesn’t mean that your colony is still there (a friendly beekeeper thought differently and found out her hive was being robbed). I put my ear up to my hive and could hear a lot of buzzing inside. It was a great sound to hear.

My Hive

Currently, my hive has three supers on it. Bottom is based as the brood chamber where the cluster should be. The top two were mostly filled with honey frames at the beginning of winter (early November). With the weather being nice, I was able to work my hive and check my bees. I did not know what the food stores would be like for my bees so I brought fondant and corn syrup with me (always pays to be prepared).

Bees at Entrance

Bees on Inner Cover

My main concern with checking my hive was to ensure they had enough stored honey to last them a couple more months. When I took off my inner cover I found a lot of bees at the top of my hive. I was happy to see my girls doing well but I knew that there wasn’t much in the food stores. There was no corn syrup left in the hive top feeder...bummer… and only the center two frames of my top honey super had any honey left on them. My girls had broken cluster and were needing food bad.

Hive Top Feeder

I worked my way down to the bottom brood chamber. I flattened out my fondant and placed it on the frames right above the cluster. I closed up my hive and added two gallons of corn syrup to my hive top feeder.

I hope my girls are able to store some more food before another cold spell.

Extracting My Honey

During the middle of last week I found time to visit my hive. I had taken 4 frames of foundation out to my hive with the intent to exchange them out for honey frames. My hive was looking marvelous! I was able to pull out 4 frames of capped honey and was reminded that I am dealing with insects that can sting (the girls pack a pretty good punch). 

Over the weekend I was able to uncap and extract my honey! Only having 4 frames, I did not find it necessary to run them through a Sideliner Uncapper. My weapon of choice was the Cappings Scratcher (would have been faster with a Cold Knife).

Uncapping Frame

Placed all of my frames in a Multi-Use Straining System while I uncapped one frame at a time. Included is a cross bar with a nail to rest your frame upon. Using the Uncapping Scratcher, I slid the forks slightly underneath the caps and lifted perpendicular to the frame. Working small sections at a time, I was able uncapped all 4 frames in little time.

Cappings Scratcher

 At the beginning of the nectar flow I was unsure if I would even be able to extract any honey this year. Now that I am able to work in 4 frames to extract, I was not prepared to invest in an extracting kit. Another benefit of joining a bee association or having a mentor is the ability to borrow some equipment until you are ready to invest in your own. 

With this being my first year as a beekeeper I did not want to put a lot of money into an extractor that I might grow out of in a couple of years. I was fortunate enough to use someone's extractor. The extractor I was allowed to use was an 18-frame motorized extractor. I only had 4 frames and one of the important things to make certain during the extracting is that your frames are evenly spread out in the extractor for balance. 

Frame in Extractor

Once all the frames were loaded, I started the extractor off at a slow speed. As i gradually increased the speed, I was able to see the honey being 'flung' from the frame.

Honey Coming Out of Honey Gate

Before I began extracting, I opened the honey gate and placed a bucket with a strainer to catch the honey as it flowed out. The strainer made certain that I had nice, clean honey (free of debris). 

Bee in Extractor

The bees that had followed me into the extracting room were drawn to the extractor as the honey was being drawn out of the frames. All in all I was able to extract 8-10lbs of honey. As it was coming out of the honey gate I had to sneak in the finger taste test. 

Best Honey I Have Ever Had!

Harvesting My Honey

It has been a while since my last post but not much has been happening with my hive. Last time I had made a visit to my hive, before now, was two weeks ago and that was to check to ensure that my queen was still laying. One benefit on that visit was being able to see the birth of a bee.

Bee Birth

 When I went into my hive yesterday though, I had the intent on harvesting some honey. I have been keeping an eye on the nectar flow and it seems to be settling. I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to see if I could collect honey from my bees. With this being my first hive, I was told that whatever my bees were able to harvest during the nectar flow would be used during any dearths and the winter months. I know that they will need 60-80 pounds of honey in order to survive this winter. 

It has been a tremendous nectar flow and knowing that my bees were working extra hard, I had the mind set the I may harvest some honey this year. My hive was bursting with bees when I took off the top.

Bees on Inner Cover

I was not expecting such a strong colony. Last time that I had went in, there were a lot of bees in the honey super but not to this current capacity. Once I took off the inner cover I was able to see that all the frame were drawn out and most of the center frames were capped (Yay!) 

Capped Honey

I started pulling out frames and found that all my frames had honey. Most frames were either fully capped or had patches of capped honey except for the outed two frames. I brought 4 empty frames with me to exchange out for honey frames (did not expect 4 frames of honey to be so heavy). I didn't intend to collect much therefore I did not see the reason in using a honey harvesting tool other than my bee brush. I now regret not using Natural Honey Harvester or an Escape Screen. A bee brush removed a few bees but more were flocking to the frame (I knew that I would be taking some to the extracting room).

While I was in my hive I thought it would be best to check my lower chambers to see how everything looked. I knew that I would not be collecting any more honey this year, so I went ahead and removed my queen excluder. 

Brood Chamber

As I began to remove frames from my brood boxes, I guess my bees became agitated because two of them were able to sneak some stings past the jacket I was wearing.  I assume that when a bee stings you, they release some type of pheromone indicating an attack, because after the two stings, my hive became chaotic. It was only time before a couple bees found there way into my veil and I knew it was time to close up and get out. I was able to escape with four stings (3 on the arm and one on the head) but I found this rational with the four frames of honey I am able to extract.

Tomorrow I Extract!

Adding a Honey Super

It has been a couple weeks since I have had a chance to check on my hive. The nectar flow has been tremendous with little spurts of rain here and there. To give you an update on where I am with my hive, I took a picture of the three brood chambers.

Bee Hive

Here is a time frame of what I have done since purchasing my hive:

Weekly Time Frame	What was done during the week
Week 1	I purchased my Hive Equipment along with a package of bees. Painted the outside of all wooden components. Set up my hive in its location.
Week 2	Installed my package of Bees
Week 3	Removed the queen cage from the hive. Made sure she was released and laying. All was good and experienced my first bee stings of the season.
Week 4	Installed another Brood Chamber
Week 6	Installed another Brood Chamber
Week 8	About to install my first Honey Super

When going out to check on my hive, I was hoping to find that my third Brood Chamber would be filled with eggs and larva, just ready to burst. With that expectation in mind, it was a great sign when I removed the inner cover to find all my frames had drawn out comb. Removing the first frame I did not see any sign of brood or larva within the cells, only nectar and pollen. As I began to move into the center frames, I was finding the frames were mostly honey and nectar rather than laid eggs. This was not a good or bad sign, it just meant that the nectar flow was so good and the queen didn't find any need to continue laying in the upper brood chamber, at least I was hoping so.

Checking the Frames

I started working down into my next brood box and I began seeing plenty of eggs and larva within the cells. My queen was present and still laying, she just did not have the need to move into the upper brood box. My intent was to add a honey super onto my hive and after speaking with my mentor, he suggested that I take the center four frames from my upper brood box and transport them into my honey super. With it being mostly nectar and pollen in these frames, it will give the bees incentive to move up and begin to work the other frames in my honey super.

Removed Four Frames

Note: If i was not able to transfer these frames into my honey super I would have sprayed my foundation with sugar water to entice the bees to move up.

When talking to another beekeeper, he had mentioned that another option would have been to add a super beneath the brood chamber that was mostly nectar and pollen. He said that this would relieve congestion within my hive. 

I went with my mentors approach and transported four frames into my honey super and replaced them with frames containing foundation. Placed a queen excluder on top of my brood chambers, set my honey super on top and closed off my hive. By placing a honey super on so late I probably will not be able to harvest honey this year. Those frames that do contain honey will more than likely be used as feeding frames.

I can still hope though!