Year of No Writing!?

Wow - it's been almost a year and I haven't written a word here? It's certainly been a crazy time for us over the year personally. Lots of illness, but the Apiary goes on.

Year in Review

We had two swarms in early spring. Seems like we'll need to watch the weather more closely. When do swarms happen? When the hive gets too small to support the number of bees if it happens in Spring!

If you ever see one in Butler or Saxonburg area, we're happy to come catch them!

April 27th Swarm

 

 

April 30th Swarm

 

May 1st Swarm

 

Healthy Swarms?

How do you keep the swarms healthy? Well, that can be tough. But feeding and checking them frequently can help. One of the swarms lost its queen. In that case, you can order a queen from various retailers or from a local beekeeper who sells queens. Here is our replacement queen - a Saskatraz queen.

She comes with a couple worker bees. I brought her inside while I worked so that she wouldn't get cold until I had time to suit up and go put her in the hive.

What else happened in nature during 2024?

Did you all get to see the eclipse? We headed south to Hot Springs, Arkansas, to be in the line of totality. What a sight to see!

Who stepped outside to watch aurora borealis? How cool that it would head as far south as us in PA? And not just once, but twice!

Year to Come

For the upcoming year, we have planned to attend the Western Pennsylvania Beekeeping Seminar on February 7th and 8th. I hope if you are new to beekeeping or thinking about starting this as a hobby, you come! Great information and a way to network with other beekeepers!

I've already ordered a nuc for replacing any deadouts from this winter. Mann Lake has several to choose from. This year, I am going to try OHB Golden West variety. I'll let you know what they are and how it goes!

Extreme Cold

Our recent extreme cold has left us short a couple hives since November. Chris noted we lost at least two. We haven't had cold like this in a while. It can be very difficult to keep them going during cold months.

One thing you can do is wrap the hives. We do this with either bee cozies - yes, you read that right. Or just using Expanded Polystyrene Board Insulation and a little bit of duct tape.

The other thing is to keep them happy by feeding them. There's lots of recipes. I can't say which one is best - but you do what you want to do. This year we are trying Pro-Winter Feed. We have tried sugar patties, fondant and other forms of feed. We have bought the fondant in bulk from Stover & Company from down in Cheswick, PA.

Get Ahead of Swarms

So what is our plan to limit the number of swarms this year? We are going to restudy Randy Oliver's article on The Swarming Impulse. What are his tips?

• Check hives early - in March for us in PA. Look for swarm cells.
• Put a box on early. Bees work upward in the hive. So if they get to the lid and need more space, they need another box - even if the bottom box is empty.

Call us if you see one! I'm happy to come out and collect it - if it isn't too high or in a wall.... Swarms happen during April through early June. You can see swarms later in the year, but in PA, those are the typical months.

Check Your Skills

What is this bump out on the frame? And what kind?

Spring is so close!

As spring approaches, for you new beekeepers - check out the following article from BetterBee!  It is the best guide into becoming a new beekeeper:

Bottling Honey

What goes into bottling honey, you ask?

Honey Comb - is it ready?

Well, an ol' timer may say to not extract honey that isn't capped.  Why?  The bees will "cap" honey when the moisture content is right and then it is ready.  See the photo below?  That's what "capped" honey looks like.  It has a hard surface that holds the honey back - it's basically a layer of new wax the bees put over it to protect it when they know it is at the right moisture level.  If you take it before, it will be tough to remove the moisture from it.

There is a certain amount of water that is contained in honey.  However, too much and it could ferment if you don't eat it fast enough.  The acceptable level is somewhere between between 15.5% and 18.6% with high quality under 17%.

How do you measure the content?  Well, again, your experience beekeeper will only extract the capped honey above.  And that's what Christian did.  Me as the scientific mind wanted to know what it really was.

Extraction

Equipment Needed:  Knife, comb scratcher, food grade bucket (like a honey bucket) and an extractor (plus a food grade bin to cut the wax into)

Being cheap, I decided to get the VINGLI 2 Frames Manual Honey Extractor Separator, Food Grade Stainless Steel Honeycomb Spinner Drum Crank by Hand with Adjustable Height Stands, Beekeeping Pro Extraction Apiary Centrifuge Equipment from Amazon.  Christian had to modify it this year.  It isn't sturdy enough on its legs to not rock.  Dad and Christian removed the legs and put in its place 2x4 legs with a base of plywood on the bottom.  Standing on the plywood, it doesn't rock now.

Anyway - using the knife (get a honey uncapping knife), cut the wax capping off the frame.  Usually, you can place the knife against the frame and cut up/down.  Also, for ease, you can balance on the side of a food grade bin to cut them into.

Then you place two at a time in the extractor and spin.  When the bin fills up, you let it empty into a food grade honey bucket.  Once you are done (with all your buckets), put a lid on and leave it sit for 24 hours.  This allows it to settle.

As a side note, we do use a filter at the bottom of the extractor and on the top of the bucket.  This keeps chunkiness down.  Also, I then save the wax, the filtered mess and melt it down later.  You'll go through several more filtering when you melt down the wax.

Science

You thought I wasn't going to say anything about the percentage, didn't you?

Using a refractometer, you can determine the percentage of moisture in the honey.  What does it look like?  Take a peek, because I'm super proud:

Less than 17% - ya, that's good honey!

Bottling

After you waited a couple days to let the air settle out of the honey in the buckets, you can use the spout at the bottom and carefully fill bottles.  Oh pick any bottle you like.  I see in our area that an ounce is about $1 each or a little more.  Make yourself some labels and be sure to add the nutrition labels.

I tell everyone that I give a bottle to that they should not feed to infants under 1.  (Side note: I am only selling to friends; but if I were selling it on a bigger scale, I would totally put a label on the bottle for it.)  There's labels for that and informational ones like how to liquify honey.  Actually, there's a whole business in labels on Etsy and various beekeeper shops.

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That's the process in a nutshell.  We had 58 bottles total (about 7 gallons of honey), plus a small jelly canning jar for that last little bit in the honey bucket.  And you guessed it - they are 16 ounce bottles for $16.  Get them while they are here!  Next?  What to do with all the cappings and extra wax!  (PS> I'm so proud of Christian.  What an accomplishment to finally have the honey to sell!  Last year, we had 20 bottles that we shared with friends and family.)

Liquid Gold

We harvested honey! Yes, it was late you may say.  However, life was in the way and we noted that the bees were still working on the clover in our yard.  It paid off!

Looking for some honey?  Contact us now to get a bottle!  A 16ox bottle is $20.

Helping Friends

It was a cold snowy day on March 26th.  Even with the weather, we still drove down to Washington, PA to pickup a hive.  Our friend is moving to New Mexico.  Rather than trying to move the bees thousands of miles, it's easier to move them 60 miles.

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Pickup

At around 7:30, we just barely got the box wrapped up before snow started falling.  We put a screen on the inner cover with duct tape to keep the bees inside, but able to breath.  Chris then lifted both deep boxes together onto a slightly larger piece of plywood.  Before carrying it, we secured the whole setup with a couple of ratchet straps.  Then Chris carried it up the hill to the car.

As we drove home, the snow let loose!

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Home

Once we made it home, it was a quick process.  You can see we will need to transition them to a 10-frame hive, because they are currently in an 8-frame hive.  Now we will leave them for a transitioning period for at least two weeks.  The next nice day, they will send out scouts to reset their gps.

In other news, this takes our hive count to five.  Hopeful for a great honey season!

Swarm Season 2021 - Saxonburg Swarm Part 2

Sunday morning started with another call that there were more bees on the move.  Easy - just a small cluster to move.  Maybe the rest from Saturday.  Then, just when you think you know bees, more happens.

Sunday Swarm

Beekeeper's dream when it comes to a swarm.  Inches from the ground.  Easy enough.

 

After shaking these bees into the box, we stood back satisfied.  Soon, though, we realized they were vacating the tree they had been in.

 

Welcome to what it looks like when they swarm.  So apparently, part of the swarm had come out and rested on the tree.  They had been there for at least an hour.  Now comes quick thinking and outsmarting the swarm...

The bees in the box already had started working on the honey and frames we provided them.  They were working, rather than calling their sisters.

So let's out think them.  After watching the behavior, we noticed they wanted to swarm around the logs lining the yard.  So we moved the box there.  Using a stick sprayed with Swarm Lure, we were able to encourage some to go to the box.

Further encouragement was obviously needed, though, because they liked the idea of the logs.  So watching carefully that the queen wasn't settling there, we kept working the bees to stay in the air.  Slowly but surely, as some found the box, they began calling their sisters.

 

Finally, when most of the swarm knew where to go, we put the lid on the box.  Notice how they continue to encourage bees to join them (sticking their abdomen up in the air while making a particular sound with their wings).  You can even see them marching into the box!

So three generations of family rescued the bees.

 

PS> Liz braved the ride in the truck with the bees.  She was fully suited up, though!  As was Grandpa.

Swarm Season 2021 - Saxonburg Swarm

It's that time of year!  And fortunately, it wasn't our bees that swarmed...

Swarm from Saxonburg, PA

A dear friend gave us a call that her tree hive swarmed.  20 minutes later, we started searching for the queen.  I never did spot her.  Based on a lot of bees moving on their own to the nuc box we brought, I would say she's probably in my first few scoops of bees to the box.

They really wanted to go into a hole lower in the tree than their original home.  So once I had a lot of bees in the box, I smoked out the hole.  They vacated the space and began swarming higher in the tree.  So we waited a few minutes to let them settle.

Since they were out of arm reach for even Christian, I told him stick the smoker up there and smoke them.  Then we stood back and waited to see what their behavior was.  ...they all went to the box on the ground.

I'd call that a win!  We'll know in a week or so if she's in there.