Author Topic: robbing honey?? (Read 3999 times)

Queen Bee · « **on:** June 16, 2006, 04:41:38 pm »

I have 9 hives, 8 have 3 or more med. supers full and capped, 1 has 2 supers (one is capped and the other is almost full).. It's a nice 'haul'. There are plenty of brood, eggs, bees in all of them. One has re-queened but it hasn't really slowed it down too much...

I usually 'rob' the hives around July 4th... but this yr. I need to wait until the middle (around the 16th).

My question is-- will there be problems with leaving it on a few weeks longer. Sourwood in getting ready to bloom, our peas, sunflowers and buckwheat will be blooming in two/three weeks...

What problems should I be aware of??? I will be treating some hives for v. mites after I harvest.. Thanks Debbie

thegolfpsycho · « **Reply #1 on:** June 16, 2006, 05:10:48 pm »

Sounds like you still have a lot of honey to make. I probably wouldn't be treating them in the middle of the season. Sling em off, extract them, and sling that drawn comb right back on. If you let them run out of room for a lenght of time, sometimes they become lethargic and stop working. Keep some space on them and hoarding instinct will usually keep pressing them to make more honey.

Denise · « **Reply #2 on:** June 16, 2006, 06:26:04 pm »

Is there any particular "time" you are supposed to harvest the honey?
Our more busy hive now has 3 supers on. The first 2 are full and number 3 is getting there. Can we just leave them until the end of the season and just do all of the extracting at once? Or should be take off the 2 full ones now?

Finsky · « **Reply #3 on:** June 17, 2006, 01:02:43 am »

How to harvest....

If you do not harvest bees slow down foraging or they swarm

If you have 2 capped honey boxed then you should have 3 more honey boxes where bees put nectar to rippen. Then it is time to extract.

After extracting you put empty boxes between brood and honey.

It is better look in brood area too and lift full honey frames and drak brood frame up so you get them off.

Queen needs room for eggs and it is good too that bees may put nectar in broon area under heavy nectar flow.

Free cells encourage bees to work.

If it is heavy flow with 5-box hive, bees fill 2-3 mediums during one week.

If you do not extract in proper time you will loose a lot. It is not time to save work when you enjoy your work.

Whole year work to nurse bees and when it happens, then don't try to save work when it is time to act.

AND when nectar flow is good, it it time to give new foundations to be drawn.
.

Finsky · « **Reply #4 on:** June 17, 2006, 01:04:11 am »

.

.
IF YOU HAVE ONE CAPPED BOX HONEY, BEES HAVE NEEDED 2 MORE BOXES TO DRY UP NECTAR.

PUT ALWAYS EMPTY COMBS BETWEEN BROOD AND OLD HONEY

IF YOU HAVE DARK OLD COMBS, LIFT THEM UP AND LET BEES FILL THEM WITH HONEY. RENEW BROOD COMBS IN TIME

..

Brian D. Bray · « **Reply #5 on:** June 17, 2006, 08:19:50 pm »

Harvesting of honey varies for the geographic area. Finsky's remarks are true but I like to pull my supers just prior to the last anticipated honey flow of the season. That way i get my honey and the bees can still cap off their winter stores with that last flow. I target Labor Day as harvest time as ther is usually a small flow the latter half of September.

Time your harvest acording to your flows for best results which is why knowing bloom times for various plants is adventageous.

Michael Bush · « **Reply #6 on:** June 17, 2006, 08:40:33 pm »

Last year I didn't pull my honey until Novemeber....

TwT · « **Reply #7 on:** June 17, 2006, 10:28:17 pm »

if you are looking to sale just sourwood honey at a higher price I would extract what you have and put the supers back on for the sourwood flow, I wouldn't want to take a chance of mixing any other honey with the sourwood honey if you can help it, if you just sale wild flower honey the do like finsky said and add more supers and extract all at once....

Denise · « **Reply #8 on:** June 19, 2006, 07:37:18 pm »

So just keep stacking? Or take the full ones off? I wasn't sure if it should be extracted or will it be alright to stay on the hive.
So we should put the empty supers just above the brood chamber correct? And move the full ones on up.

Understudy · « **Reply #9 on:** June 19, 2006, 09:08:28 pm »

I am rotating my supers. I take one out and place a new one in the middle.

This way as soon as the hive is full I pull a full medium I replace it with another that needs to be worked on. I am such a slave driver. As soon as my bees finish one it gets replaced with a empty one. It's like painting the golden gate bridge as soon as you get to the other end you have to go back to the beginning and start over.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

Brian D. Bray · « **Reply #10 on:** June 19, 2006, 09:38:01 pm »

Denise,

The recommended practice is to move at least the top super up and place the new one(s) between it and the others. You can place as many supers on a hive as you want. I've seen many old timers (all dead now) with 2x4's bracing the supers 8-10 tall.

Denise · « **Reply #11 on:** June 20, 2006, 02:06:29 pm »

Ok cool. Thank you! My hubby is building an extractor and isn't finished yet. So we couldn't really do much with the full ones anyway. I wasn't sure which was better, to just leave them on the hive or take them off and store them elsewhere.

Finsky · « **Reply #12 on:** June 20, 2006, 03:11:19 pm »

Quote from: Brian D. Bray

Harvesting of honey varies for the geographic area. .

Sure it does. Like I have written last summer my hives took over 240 lbs from fireweed and 3 miles away another yard got about 60 lbs per hive.

On very dry sandy area 2 hives got not nothing.

It depends where you carry your hives when it is yield time.

Normally I empty my supers twice during July. At the end of August I take rest of honey when brood have almost emerged.

Now I am going to keep only 2-4 hives in one place. Before I kept 10 hives.

My main yield comes from canola and fireweed. I move to different palaces where I estimate to get maximun yield. To keep hives in one place is disaster.

If bees fly over 1 km, 50% of yild will be consumed as fuel. Last summer I had a place wher bees got full load inside radius of 500 meters.

It depends how you play your cards so often you are obliged to empty hives. - Sounds boring. :P

This year dandelions gived 50 lbs to 4-box hives. 2-box hives got nothing.

Too dry fireweed area. Not good for bees.

Understudy · « **Reply #13 on:** June 20, 2006, 11:27:34 pm »

Finsky:

My wife wants to know if you make Dandelion wine?

Sincerely,
Brendhan

Finsky · « **Reply #14 on:** June 21, 2006, 12:21:36 am »

I made 10 years home wine but the I got food allergy from that job.
I never did candelion wine.