The third box.

Hi Everyone,



Well I put the third box on a while back and I was worried about the queen excluder. Mostly I was worried that the excluder was too small to let the worker bees through. I have been watching my hive over the last couple of weeks, specifically noticing that no bees were using the top box vent hole as an entrance or exit (they use the vent holes for the lower two boxes as entrances/exits constantly).


I was worried that maybe the bees weren't moving into the top box, so I decided that since I had a little more syrup that I had made earlier, that I would put the last of the syrup into the feeder as a way to draw the bees into the top box.


When I checked the feeder I discovered that there were quite a few worker bees walking around in there, so I think that the bees have actually moved into the third box just fine.

I wish I had left more time to actually check the top box, but I had to go, so I just refilled the feeder and closed the hive. This weekend I should have plenty of time and good weather to check the bees again. I am eager to see how the top box is coming along.

I might even check the top two boxes since I am curious to see how the second box is filling out.

So stay tuned, hopefully an update and pictures on Monday.

Research on honey extraction.

Hi Everyone,

Perhaps I'm being too optimisitc, but I've been researching honey extraction techniques in the hope that my hive will produce at least a little surplus honey.

It looks like there are essentially two ways for me to extract honey:

1) The crush and strain method. This is pretty much what it sounds like. You take the honeycomb, crush it up, and put it in a strainer. I found a great video of the process at:

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2007/06/honey-harvest-crush-and-strain.html

Pros - Minimal equipment needed, easy to do.

Cons- You have to destroy the honeycomb (some people consider this a pro, since you can use the wax for candles, also some people think that it's more hygienic to use new honeycomb each year).

2) Mechanical extraction. For this you get your hands on a spinning extractor.

Pros - Preserves the honeycomb for next year, very easy and efficient.

Cons - You have to build, buy or borrow an extractor.

I don't want to buy an extractor, not sure I have time to build one, and I've decided to not bother to rent one from my beekeeping club (I think it'll be more fun to have a method where I can do my harvesting whenever).

So that leaves the crush and strain method. Not much in the way of equipment to gather, just a matter of getting the surplus honey. The weather has been great and the bees have been busy, so we'll see how things go.

-Paul

Three Boxes Strong

7/8/07

Hi Everyone,

Well a quick check of the hive yesterday showed my top box to be pretty full of drawn comb. Following the 70% rule I decided to put on a queen excluder and my third box.

I've stopped feeding the bees as the weather has been great so I think they're doing fine on their own. If I don't see much activity in the third box I may put some feed in the top feeder as a way to draw the bees up into the third box.

I also did a quick check of my brood box, and things there are looking pretty good. My frames have larvae again, and I saw no sign of queen cells. My wife was able to get a great shot of one of the brood frames where you can see the white larvae really clearly:

So far so good. Since the weather is getting warmer I have put out a couple of bee watering sources. One is a bucket filled with water and styrofoam peanuts (the idea being that the bees can land on the peanuts and drink the water), the other is a board that I have under a dripping outdoor spigot. So far I haven't seen bees drinking but I'm hoping to see that happening soon.

I'll probably check the hive again in a couple of weeks to see how the top box is doing. Maybe I'll actually get to harvest honey in the next month or so.