I feel like I just gave birth!

[SherryL]

I'm so excited!  FINALLY got my first honey super off!!!  It's the Ross Round super that I've been waiting on for a while.  This is the first honey I've taken - ever, after 13 months of keeping these bees.

I was gone for about 7 days (last Tues. - Mon), finally got in there yesterday morning and the rounds looked capped.  I put a clearing board on and waited.  Checked it last night and all but maybe 100-200 bees were gone.  Looked again this morning and maybe 100 bees left.

I had some almond extract so I soaked a clean towel with some extract and layed it on top of the super, put the inner cover back on and waited about another hour - less than 20 or so bees left (all in the same spot).

I took the box off the hive and tried blowing some smoke at them, as they would exit the bottom I took my brush and gently nudged them away.  Got all but 2 bees off - put the super into a large black trash bag and loaded it onto my sled and off to the house I went.

Got the bag open at the house, shooed those 2 bees off and carried the super into the kitchen.  Decided to weigh it (out of curiosity) - 24 lbs.  No problem removing the rounds from the frames, trimmed the excess wax and put them into plastic bags and into the freezer for 24hrs.  Left 2 out for the kids and I to break into.  Absolutely delicious!  The boys got a kick out of being able to chew the wax.  Max (my 17yo) says "this is too much to eat!".  I reminded him they were 8oz. each and not intended to be a single serving!   :lol:

Tomorrow I'll remove from the freezer (wax moth treatment) and place the plastic covers and labels on.  I was able to get 28 good rounds out of a possible 32.  Their were 2 frames that had 2 rounds each in them that were not fully drawn - both happened to be in the corners - I'm thinking that may be the case with every super I take off - thinking the girls just don't like the corners.

I took pics with my 35mm, will get them on a disc and load them up for all of you to see! :D

sherry

[Chad S]

Sherryl,

I can't remember if you did a cut down split to get them to work the rounds.  If so can you give an over view of what you did, and timing etc.  Also way to go!

Chad S

[bassman1977]

Those Ross Rounds sure are tempting.  Congrats on your first harvest.  You must feel good about that.  I've only been able to chew up burr comb since I have a newly established hive.  It's good enough to keep me from being impatient though.  Nothing like you're own home grown.

[FrogPond]

Sherry - Awesome! I am excited for you and hope to steal just a little honey this year from my herd. Congratulations on the Ross Rounds... that is on my list for next year!

 :D

[SherryL]

I can't remember if you did a cut down split to get them to work the rounds. If so can you give an over view of what you did, and timing etc. Also way to go!

Yes Chad, that's exactly what I did - back on the 16th of May.  Based on what I've been told since, seems as though that was a little too early in the season, but I'm still figuring these things out.

As far as the 'cut-down' went, I had 2 deeps on that hive to begin with.  I removed the top deep, moved it to it's own bottom board to use as the base of a 'new' hive.  Switched frames between the two boxes so that the "Ross Round" hive got as much capped brood as possible (and left them the old queen).  Ordered a new queen for the 'new' hive, she did fine, and the population of that hive as really taken off now that her brood has been hatching for about 9 days now.  The "Ross Round hive" had about 3/4 of the bees formerly in 2 deeps now in 1 deep and 1 RR super (REALLY CONGESTED) - so you can understand why I was so concerned about 'keeping ahead' of the bees and adding so many supers, but I think the problem for me was that I did the split a little too early - thus the population of that hive just exploded in the month of June.

Anyway, I continued to add RR supers (4 total) based on the idea of crowding them, but not to the point they would swarm.  Well, they DID swarm on the 17th of June.  Captured that swarm and reintroduced them back into the same hive.  A couple of days later I removed 3 frame of brood with 4 queen cells and started another colony (that colony is doing fine now), replacing those frames with drawn foundation - just to relieve a little of the congestion.

The colony was not 'finishing' off that 1st super I had given them back in May, so I removed the top (4th) super back on the 19th of June, had to leave town on the 20th, figured the "1st" super would be ready to come off by the time I got back - sure enough, took a look yesterday and it was nicely capped.  Wish I had been home over the past week, could have taken it off sooner, but it couldn't be helped.

I should also add that I gave that hive a new RR super when I took the first one off, so they still have 3 supers on.

Let me know if you have any other questions.  

Yes, I'm finding the system realatively easy to work - the hardest part is my newbieness - not really knowing enough the timing of nectar flows, not knowing "how crowded is too crowded", things like that.  I know that will come with experience, but we're all a little impatient I guess.  Right now, I'm the weakest link.

I love not needing expensive extracting equipement, or making a mess, or taking up the entire day go thru the process.  I think it took about 45 mins. total from the time I got the super in the door until all the rounds were out of the frames, trimed and put in bags and placed in the freezer - and that was with me 'oooooing & ahhhhhing' over every one  :lol:   I'm such a girl!  If I was in a hurry it could be done in probably 15-20 mins. per super.  Anyway, I'll  be curious to see how much of a market there is up here for comb honey.  If not, I've already got my Christmas shopping done!  :lol:  :lol:

[Miss Chick-a-BEE]

That's fantastic! Really good job. And I bet it was tasty. :)

Beth