Any Bee keepers in here?

The extracting has begun!!!

 

All done we got around 7-8 gallons of honey extracted so a little shy of the 100lbs I wanted but its all good and the house smells delicious right now.

 

I'm so jealous! I have 5 frames of brood and I'm happy. Was this stores from overwintering?

 

Nah its done down here the flow is over. Im actually about two weeks late but Ive been to busy at work to get out there and grab the honey.

No they had used up all of their stores from the winter and I never harvest those anyway. This is all from the spring they were sitting in canola this time so Ill label it as canola honey it has a slight citrus tang to it

 

NOW the BL is just about getting ready to bloom here! where everybody been?

 

My girls are loving the sweet clover. They are going crazy.

 

Does it weird anyone else out that to get the smoker going well, you pretty much have to do everything the opposite of how you get a good stove fire going?
On the other hand, it is a great example of how creosote can catch on fire.

 

What do you use in your smoker? I pretty much just use pine straw I scrape up from my neighbors yard he has a huge pine tree and theres always needles laying on the ground so Ill just go over and pack my smoker with them. I also use leaves and some small twigs.

 

I start it with newspaper then switch to some wood chips from the chainsaw and natural bailing twine , then top it off with bark or small bits of wood, then hay (major smoke with that) then fresh grass as a filter. Or pretty much whats laying around that wont put out bad fumes.
I bought the smoker used from a commercial beekeeper who used it full time, hence the creosote. It adds some excitement when it catches unexpectedly.

 

Yeah my smoker is well used and every so often if Im not paying attention Ill get some pretty good flare ups:firepit:

 

Any idea on how best to clean that stuff off?

 

Nope none whatsoever I just try not to have an actual fire in the smoker just smoldering pine straw. I have had flames shooting out of the spout before which caused me to go back and start over I try to keep it where there is just a gentle cool smoke coming out if the smoke gets hot Ill let it sit for a bit.

 

i just use noodles. i will also drop some burr comb in if i need it to burn for a really long time. im not sure how the bees feel about the smell of burning wax, but it does put out a real thick smoke. i try not to smoke them mroe than i need to tho. mine a good so long as theres a queen and the atmosphere is stable.

 

I use my smoker daily. I empty my smoker every morning. Fill it with anything dead, mostly pine needles. Portable torch to light flame, push some air through it and toss a handful of hardwood pellets in. Keep blowing air through it for about 5-10 seconds. Close the lid and let er rip. Don't bother cleaning, just watch for spark and let it set if it gets hot. I use mine for an entire yard of 40-hives. I don't use much it's not needed. Less riled up they are the better.

Right now I'm pulling honey from hives I left alone during blueberry pollination, and I use a spray (Bee-Go, if you have bees use this to get the bees out) to make them leave the hive. At times there are 15 or more hives open and all there bees flying around. I walk back and forth to those hives and take the honey box with all it's frames. Putting each one on the flatbed of the truck and then climb up and restack them on pallets. Close up each hive as I go. Requeen some hives and treat each hive. Set the bear fence on and leave. My shoulders ache and my legs feel like jello. Average about 45-60 minutes per yard. All day. For a week straight. Deeps for summer crop go on next week... Got to get honey pulled now.

 

I think so far we extracted 12000 pounds of honey or more. Some gets jarred and most goes in 55-gal drums.

 

Yikes thats a lot of honey Do yall sell the drums to a larger distributor or something?

 

Don't know, didn't ask. I am to busy to see who buys. Usually out working the hives or miscellaneous farm work.

I just placed 2-3 million bees (40 hives) in my back property for pollination in the future. I'd post pics, but they just got placed here about an hour ago. That many hives jostled around on the way over... They're hot right now so I will get pics this weekend when they calm the frack down. My oldest GSD female already got stung on the nose from a bee that came off the truck while my co-worker and I were BSing out front after placement.