New Hobby: Bee Keeping

[Conch Republican]

Was reading back - and it is interesting as always. Was particularly interested in the Round-Up piece. So many people use it, and now we are seeing carcinogenic issues, and of course eco-system issues. who knew that killing dandelions in my yards would create an issue that may resonate through bugs, to birds and bees, thus affecting our own food production. My neighbor is super green (solar, geo-thermal, and such) and asked me if I would consider NOT spraying for weeds in my yard - and also not treating the yard against bugs and skeeters. Paints an interesting picture

[massphatness]

Mother Mary, comfort me ...

[CigarNut]

Took a picture of Vin's hive at the herf this last weekend -- it was too hot (over a 100*) for them, so they moved outside to keep cool. Vin said it's called Bearding:

[massphatness]

Been negligent in keeping this thread updated. Probably deliberately negligent because our hive from last year, the one we got our first ever honey from, and the one I felt was suitably strong heading into the cold weather months, didn't make it through a rather mild winter. I know they didn't starve because there was still plenty of honey in the brood boxes when I discovered their demise. Like the prior year, they were all clustered tightly into a ball. Very much dead. Frozen.

I'm convinced I need a wind break, and while I'd prefer a natural one like a hedge, I'm researching temporary options.

Fortunately for me, I had another nucleus of bees already on order as I had planned to start a second hive this past spring. Had that not been the case, very possible I would have thrown in the towel.

Glad I didn't because this spring & summer have been a lot of fun with the new bees. Here's the new queen.



She's "marked" with a green dot both for ease of identification and to determine her age -- all queens born this year are green-dots; next year's will be blue & the following white. In this way, bee keepers who manage to overwinter their hives can determine how old their queen is. I haven't had to worry about that yet.

Summer came somewhat late to New England as the spring rains didn't really end until mid-June. Flowers were late in blooming which actually help my new hive because I didn't get the bees until late May. I missed most of the apple tree bloom in the orchard next to our neighborhood, but otherwise there were plenty of resources for the ladies to pick from. Grace & I spent most of June and early July watching the bees come back loaded up with pollen.

Got a real treat during one of our hive inspections when we saw a few baby bees eating their way out of their honeycomb cell and taking their first steps. Have seen it in video & online, but never when I was holding a frame right in my hand. Was pretty damn cool, and I need to figure out how to link the little video we have of the event here.

With the hive doing really well & its population strengthening, we put our first honey super on at the very end of June. The day after my herf was about the three-week mark, and icehog watched from a safe distance as Grace and I found the super to be packed with honey; much of it already capped. We added a second honey super that day to give the bees some additional room to work.

That was two weeks ago, and I just peeked in the hive today. The second honey box is well on its way to becoming full. Another week or so, and we'll need to pull the boxes for extraction. My guess is we blow away last year's initial harvest of 35 lbs, and may even top our total take of 52 lbs with this first extraction.

And because summer's not complete without me getting stung, here's what a pulled out of my ear a few weeks back. It was left there after some rando bee decided to fly straight in my ear while I was minding my own business in the yard and sting me. That bee was an asshole.

[markem]

Amazing what difference a year makes.

I was stung by a honey bee once on the tongue. Didn't know about it until a few hours later when it came loose in my mouth. Hope that yours was an equally non-plus event.

[massphatness]

Pulled the honey supers over the weekend and had them extracted today.



That's more than we got all last year!

If the weather cooperates, we'll have more on the way in 5 or 6 weeks.

Also got a fair amount of wax to melt down.

[Mikepd]

Originally Posted by massphatness

Pulled the honey supers over the weekend and had them extracted today.



That's more than we got all last year!

If the weather cooperates, we'll have more on the way in 5 or 6 weeks.

Also got a fair amount of wax to melt down.

Almost 78# from one extraction, looks like those ladies are really working well for only being on your 3rd year! I'm guessing you didn't have much die off during last winter? Also how many frames did you spin on this extraction?

Great Work!

[massphatness]

Originally Posted by Mikepd

Almost 78# from one extraction, looks like those ladies are really working well for only being on your 3rd year! I'm guessing you didn't have much die off during last winter? Also how many frames did you spin on this extraction?

Great Work!

Thanks -- this hive is brand new bees as we failed (again) to overwinter. They had a huge head start though since they didn't have to make much comb.

We're ecstatic with the results so far but a little anxious too knowing that there's still more to come later in the season.

[Mikepd]

Originally Posted by massphatness

Thanks -- this hive is brand new bees as we failed (again) to overwinter. They had a huge head start though since they didn't have to make much comb.

We're ecstatic with the results so far but a little anxious too knowing that there's still more to come later in the season.

Vin sorry to hear that you keep experiencing severe winter loss. Do you know why they aren't making it through winter, is it the cold, mites, starvation, or other damage? Glad to see this brood working out and hopefully you can find success through this coming winter after your second harvest.

[IBQTEE1]

Congrats on making a new record. That has to be exciting.

Sorry about those beetches from last year didn't make it.

[AdamJoshua]

You could have quite the cottage industry going there!

[markem]

bee-utiful!

[8lug]

wow

[massphatness]

A bit darker than I was expecting, but still super delicious

[IBQTEE1]

Originally Posted by massphatness

A bit darker than I was expecting, but still super delicious

Once you go darker... wait what!! LOL

Looks good.

[massphatness]

Trying to render some of the wax that we had the people doing the extraction save for us.

Got a good sized colander full of wax cappings that I rinsed as best I could to get the excess honey out. This weighs about 8-10 lbs but the wax won't weigh nearly that much.




Put some of it in the solar melter I made last year




The results were meh -- too much detritus made it's way through the paper towel filter. You can also see a little bit of honey in there -- no issue: it rinses right off.




But it did trap a lot of the gunk ...



I still have loads of wax, and I'm going to try to use a different rendering method using a double boiler. I just need to find a double boiler Grace won't mind parting with because anything the wax touches can no longer be used for food prep. Not 100% sure why, but that's what the internet says, so it's clearly gospel.

[massphatness]

Wax Rendering Redux: Double Boiler Method

Mickey Moused a double boiler out of a couple mis-matched pans, and melted a good amount of the wax down.









The solids in the last pic did break up somewhat.

Cut the top off a creamer carton and covered the opening with cheese cloth I doubled up to catch the impurities.



Then strained the melted wax through the cheese cloth. The junk that's too big to pass through are bee parts, propolis and other non-wax impurities.

[massphatness]

What passes through the cheese cloth is the wax and the honey that remained stuck to it.

Looks like a dirty mess at first



But as the liquid cools, the heavier honey & any impurities sink to the bottom, while the wax rises to the top and solidifies.



Cutting away the container, and rinsing the residual honey on the bottom of the solidified wax, I'm left with this:



Going to add that to my stash of beeswax from last year, and with the remaining wax I still have left to render, we might be able to get a couple beeswax candles out of it.

Interesting tid-bit I found while researching the various wax rendering methods: the wax cappings I started with are only about 13% actual wax. The rest is the honey and other impurities which is why starting with so much wax is needed to yield any decent amount of pure wax.

[markem]

Wow! The second rendering really got out a lot, Vin. Have you made any candles yet or are you still collecting wax?

[massphatness]

Still collecting wax. No idea how to make candles, or anything really. That's next up on the reading list. Although, grace was saying she might want to try making lip balm.

My house smells nicely of warm honey throughout.