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BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: 10framer on February 07, 2013, 01:35:37 am

Title: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: 10framer on February 07, 2013, 01:35:37 am
i was expanding 2 of my 5 frame nucs into 10 frames today and saw a couple of drones.  first week of february sure seems early but here we go.
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: RHBee on February 07, 2013, 03:03:36 am
I've been looking for drones on my landing boards and haven't seen any yet. You're right though spring is here. I was counting on another month of preparation time. Looks like I'm behind the curve again.
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: Joe D on February 07, 2013, 03:13:05 am
Spring will be here before you know it.  I still need to make a few SBB.  Have finished several new hives and will put in frames tomorrow.  Good luck to you all.




Joe
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: 10framer on February 07, 2013, 09:10:44 am
i built 7 hive bodies 2 tops and 2 bottoms over the weekend.   this weekend i'm going to build 3 or 4 more hive bodies and a 3 or 4 more tops and bottom then start in on frames.  when it was 70 degrees the last two weeks of deer season i was pretty sure spring would come in a hurry.
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: brushwoodnursery on February 07, 2013, 09:21:40 am
I'll be making up more 8 frame mediums for honey supers this coming weekend. I only have a handful and want to be ready just in case. Got lots of activity!
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: brushwoodnursery on February 07, 2013, 09:22:28 am
Any idea how much honey I can expect from a full 8 frame medium?
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: blanc on February 07, 2013, 09:31:50 am
Any idea how much honey I can expect from a full 8 frame medium?
If a ten frame gets about 60 lbs you should expect about 48 lbs according to what I have read but the more experienced beeks could tell us better  :)
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: brushwoodnursery on February 07, 2013, 09:38:06 am
is that medium or deep? Sounds like a lot for a medium. (but, hey, wouldn't that be great!)
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: blanc on February 07, 2013, 09:47:51 am
is that medium or deep? Sounds like a lot for a medium. (but, hey, wouldn't that be great!)
Well brush if it isn't it sures fells like it when I pick up a ten frame medium.  :-D Heavyyyyyyyyyy! Not getting any better with age either. CD Bailey told me he only uses mediums and I took his advice and I know why.
Blanc
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: 10framer on February 07, 2013, 09:48:13 am
that sounds about right.  we always ran 9 frames in our honey supers instead of ten.  you got more honey with slightly less labor when it was time to uncap the comb for extraction.  i think we rand ten frames when we produced comb honey though.  if you are going to make cut comb and have more than one colony pick the hive that produces the whiter burr comb.  german bees were know for really white cappings but most people claim they don't exist any more.  yesterday i went through the nucs i bought last week and the queens were pretty dark and one of the drones was black with thin gold bands at the joints of their abdomens so some of those genes are still floating around out there.      
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: brushwoodnursery on February 07, 2013, 10:10:02 am
Well, let's hope I need all these honey supers I just bought! Might even be able to pay off some of this expensive hobby!
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: 10framer on February 07, 2013, 10:17:35 am
good luck.  i'd think you might have a couple of extra weeks to get ready up there.  after today the ten day forecast is for highs between 60-70 just about every day.  that's going to get things popping down here.
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: Joe D on February 07, 2013, 11:21:24 am
Its better to have to many than to few boxes ready.  I have 4 langs and a tbh, last year had plenty of supers not planning to get any more for now, but built 12 ten frame mediums just in case.  If a swarm comes by I'll be ready. 




Joe
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: brushwoodnursery on February 07, 2013, 11:31:17 am
I'm planning for swarms, too. Might also try a split this year.
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: Intheswamp on February 07, 2013, 12:45:34 pm
Yelp, about 50 miles south of Montgomery, Alabama it seems that spring might get here EARLY.  After all of my swarm chasing last year I went into two of my three 8-frame all-medium hives yesterday to check them out.  One was three mediums deep with a full super of capped honey/syrup on top...I put a frame of capped honey in the middle of a super of foundation and set it on top.  The other hive was a two medium stack from a cutout early last fall...I thought it wasn't going to make it at first but when I looked yesterday there was brood up almost to the inner cover.  I removed a frame of capped honey/syrup from the side and put it in a box of drawn comb and placed it on top...I replaced the frame that I removed with a frame of drawn comb.

We're getting a drenching this morning.  Looks like we'll be in the upper 60s low 70s for a few days with more rain Monday and Tuesday but the middle of next week cools off a little...highs in the low 60s and lows down in the mid 30s.  We'll see what it does.  It does seem that the bees are building up a good bit.  Pollen and some nectar coming in.  I didn't see any drones yesterday, though, but didn't do a full inspection, either.

Ed
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: 10framer on February 07, 2013, 04:29:29 pm
are you in lowndes county ed?  do the harrell's still raise queens down there?
same forecast for us.  i saw some ball clover in bloom in town today, i'd think it would be coming on strong down your way right now. 
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: Intheswamp on February 07, 2013, 05:27:28 pm
Howdy 10framer.  I'm down south of Lowndes in Crenshaw.  I'm now famliar with the Harrells but I will check with my mentor and see if he knows them.  Seems back in the early to mid 1900's that Lowndes, Crenshaw, and Butler had several queen and package producers in the area.  Norman is still up around Ramer, though for a while I understand the operation was thought to have stopped operating.  I know that two years ago they were at the Alabama Beekeepers Association meeting in Montgomery and were off loading a pickup truck load of wax to Rossman.

Intersting that you mentioned Lowndes...I'm heading up to Ft Deposit (south end of county close to the county line with Butler) this Saturday to look at two colonies in the wall of a house...wonder if they could be survivors from some of those old breeders or maybe from the Harrells...who knows. :)

I was at the Honey Bee Symposium in Auburn last weekend and I saw what looked like white dutch blooming along with some of that low growing yellow clover (got scads of that around the house, too).  So far wild mustard, henbit, camilias are all done, dandelion,...  I'll have to look around the house tomorrow and check on other clovers.

Ed
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: Intheswamp on February 07, 2013, 05:32:03 pm
Any idea how much honey I can expect from a full 8 frame medium?
I've seen it mentioned that a frame of honey equals a quart.  Most quarts weigh a little less than 3 pounds...more like around 2.8 pounds.  Just figuring the rounded off 3 pounds that would work out to 24 pounds of honey per 8-frame.  That figured pretty close for me last year.  I only made honey off of one hive but it yielded three full 8-frame supers and gave me right at 75 pounds of honey.  I hope to start a nuc or two off that hive this year. ;)

Ed
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: 10framer on February 07, 2013, 08:51:22 pm
henbit is blooming in phenix city but the bees are about halfway between columbus and macon and things seem a bit behind out there.  seems like the normans had a web site that was inactive when i checked it a couple of years ago.
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: brushwoodnursery on February 07, 2013, 09:28:26 pm
24 pounds of honey per 8-frame.

Ed
Ed, is that medium or deep?
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: Intheswamp on February 08, 2013, 01:07:37 am
That would be for a medium, but it is an estimate.  Should be fairly close, though.

If you figure a quart per frame and the weight of a quart as being closer to 2.8 pounds then 2.8 x 8 = 22.4 pounds per 8-frame super.  I think some folks get a lot more than this by utilizing the full space of the supers by spreading the frames out and having them drawn deeply.  Some people will run one less frame that what the super is designed for so that they can spread the frames out and get some really heavily filled frames...possibly getting up to 30 pounds per 8-frame super (which means more than a quart per frame).

Ed

Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: brushwoodnursery on February 08, 2013, 06:27:20 am
OK, thanks.
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: Moots on February 08, 2013, 07:53:13 am
That would be for a medium, but it is an estimate.  Should be fairly close, though.

If you figure a quart per frame and the weight of a quart as being closer to 2.8 pounds then 2.8 x 8 = 22.4 pounds per 8-frame super.  I think some folks get a lot more than this by utilizing the full space of the supers by spreading the frames out and having them drawn deeply.  Some people will run one less frame that what the super is designed for so that they can spread the frames out and get some really heavily filled frames...possibly getting up to 30 pounds per 8-frame super (which means more than a quart per frame).

Ed

OK...
Maybe I'm missing something, but something isn't adding up here!

A quart of honey weighing 2.8 pounds?????

It's my understanding that a pint of honey is one pound, 16 U.S. fluid ounces. Hence the popular American saying, "A pint's a pound, the world round".  So that would put a Quart of honey weighing 2 pounds, not 2.8...I think! :)

Although I'll be the first to admit, I find the whole thing confusing as hell!  :-D

A little clarity! (http://1howmany.com/how-many-ounces-in-a-pound)
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: hardwood on February 08, 2013, 09:44:39 am
A pint of honey weighs closer to 20 oz....honey is heavier than water.

Scott
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: 10framer on February 08, 2013, 09:59:28 am
A pint of honey weighs closer to 20 oz....honey is heavier than water.

Scott

^^^^^substantially heavier than water.  the accepted average weight for a gallon of honey is around 12 pounds and i think a full medium 10 frame super should produce around 30 to 40 pounds of honey if you extract efficiently, maybe even a little more depending on the variety of honey.  multiply that by .8 and you should have a safe estimate for an 8 frame super.  
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: Moots on February 08, 2013, 11:47:25 am
A pint of honey weighs closer to 20 oz....honey is heavier than water.

Scott

Boy....I was confused! :oops:

This makes much more sense!  Somewhere I had read and been convinced that a pint of honey weighed a pound.  I knew that didn't make sense, but it was on the internet so I figured it had to be true. LOL!
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: sterling on February 08, 2013, 12:29:02 pm
Average only: Should this not work if you do the math? There are no absolutes in bee keeping. [That's my disclaimer] :)
5 gal. bucket of honey weighs 60 pounds.
1 US Gallon= 12#
1/2 US gal.= 6#
There are 4 qts. per US gal=3# per qt.
8 pints per US gal. = 1 1/2 # per pt.
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: Intheswamp on February 08, 2013, 12:32:19 pm
The "pint's a pound..." applies to sugar and water and the saying is good for making up sugar syrup.  Other substances may be different or may have the same specific gravities and densities, but water and sugar...it works. ;)

Ed
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: Intheswamp on February 08, 2013, 12:36:39 pm
Average only: Should this not work if you do the math? There are no absolutes in bee keeping. [That's my disclaimer] :)
5 gal. bucket of honey weighs 60 pounds.
1 US Gallon= 12#
1/2 US gal.= 6#
There are 4 qts. per US gal=3# per qt.
8 pints per US gal. = 1 1/2 # per pt.
When I was making mead I found that a closer weight for a quart was 2.8 pounds.  I used a digital kitchen scale to weigh it and the scale appears to be accurate when measured with commercially weighed items.  I would think that different honey will have a bit of a difference in weight...a 7% difference seems substantial (3# vs 2.8#).  Close enough for government work, though.  :-D

Ed
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: 10framer on February 08, 2013, 01:05:00 pm
Average only: Should this not work if you do the math? There are no absolutes in bee keeping. [That's my disclaimer] :)
5 gal. bucket of honey weighs 60 pounds.
1 US Gallon= 12#
1/2 US gal.= 6#
There are 4 qts. per US gal=3# per qt.
8 pints per US gal. = 1 1/2 # per pt.
When I was making mead I found that a closer weight for a quart was 2.8 pounds.  I used a digital kitchen scale to weigh it and the scale appears to be accurate when measured with commercially weighed items.  I would think that different honey will have a bit of a difference in weight...a 7% difference seems substantial (3# vs 2.8#).  Close enough for government work, though.  :-D

Ed

yeah, i'd have to say that a couple of ounces one way or the other is close enough.  i'm not even really sure why it matters.
i would think the more important record would be the total pounds produced by a colony in a year not how many frames it took to get there.  unless you are trying to make a major expansion in a short time and don't want to come up short on equipment.
if  the bees are flying and they are filling them keep adding them.  when the bees stop flying stop adding them.
don't forget to leave enough for the bees to make it to the next season.
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: hardwood on February 08, 2013, 01:15:25 pm
The thing that always baffles me is that if I need to fill a couple of pint mason jars from a quart mason jar I come up short.

Scott
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: rbinhood on February 08, 2013, 01:35:30 pm
A pint of honey weights one pound and eight ounces.
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: Intheswamp on February 08, 2013, 01:47:36 pm
The thing that always baffles me is that if I need to fill a couple of pint mason jars from a quart mason jar I come up short.

Scott
You nailed it Scott!!!!  I'd noticed that but just thought I was a bit looney or something!  I'm glad to hear somebody else experience this...I guess the honey gremlins take their share or something.  :)

Ed
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: Intheswamp on February 08, 2013, 01:55:45 pm
A pint of honey weights one pound and eight ounces.
I feel like we're entering the Twilight Zone or something.  :-D  I've measured a quart of honey in my mead making adventures and it comes up 2.8 pounds per quart.  But, if I try to divide that quart into two pint jars I end up short as Scott mentioned.  If two pints combined weigh 3 pounds then where are the missing two ounces (by weight) of honey in the quart jar?  Hmm, maybe I need to try pouring two pints into a quart jar....  I'm beginning to hear some strange music drifting in with the breeze..... (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-scared008.gif)
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: 10framer on February 08, 2013, 02:05:26 pm
seems like you guys would get more answers if you started a thread about this.  the headline is about drones and the topic is now the weight of honey.  most people with good answers probably aren't looking at this.
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: Intheswamp on February 08, 2013, 02:35:23 pm
You're right we've hijacked the thread.

My apologies to the OP.  So...beekeepers are prone to AADD?  :-D

Ed
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: Joe D on February 08, 2013, 03:40:34 pm
On my labels I put 1.44# for a pint and 2.88# for a quart.  You can be less but not over the actual weight.
Back to the thread now.
10 Farmer, I have seen some drones also.  The bees are bring in a little yellow pollen.  I have some Laruel Cherry trees across the road from my house.  They are covered in blooms, but haven't opened yet.  Should in a few days.  The white clover is blooming good, haven't seen the girls on it though.  Good luck to yall.


Joe
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: RHBee on February 08, 2013, 03:46:47 pm
Saw a few drones this morning, got stung on the ear for my effort. Gonna add supers in the morning, a couple of my hives are heavy. Lots of bees. Just about time to split and move to greener pastures.
Title: Re: drones in middle georgia.
Post by: divemaster1963 on February 08, 2013, 11:58:07 pm
I have seen Drones in My hives. They only reduced the no.s never really left. the winter has been mild enough for the most part. no steady cold weather to kick out all the males this year. The hives have been bringing in dandiloin pollen for the past 2 weeks. still going to wait for about two weeks till I add anything on top. Don't want to add space and we get a cold snap and they freeze. so I'll let them stay a little tight for warmth till the last week of feb. you know here in Ga. we can get a artic snap in early march.


John