This has not been my best season yet, but I thought I would give an update anyway.
Out of the 18 hives that I have, 12 of them should have produced honey. Due to some poor queens I did not see what I had hoped for. Just the same, I extracted about 300 lbs last Saturday. I took off about 7 supers and my son Ray and I had them extracted in about 3 hours time.
I am not seeing any one dominant nectar source.
I did however extract 1 super a couple of weeks ago that seemed to be all Black Locust. A beautiful extremely light honey that is mild in taste.
I am still unsure how the tulip Poplar produced.
If anyone has input it would be greatly appreciated.
Gosh, when you passed around the pale honey last night, I really felt like a dumb newby (hey, that term is even funnier in this forum!). Maybee I should borrow one of the group's videos to learn more. Extracting honey is not exactly something we're prepared for! We just keep adding supers - it's beginning to look like a little bee skyline down there!
Honestly, someone should have required my spousal unit to take a class before he brought these bees home! Now I feel so frightened for their little bee lives - what with foul brood stuff, viruses, mites, beetles - our inexperience could be hazardous!
What will happen if we don't extract honey at the right time? And, just what/when IS the right time?
Well, y'all would get a lot of laughs at my expense from these questions if everyone used this forum! Right now I feel pretty safe with the two of you.
It was great to see you at the meeting the other night.
No intentions of scaring you off, but wanted an update from the state inspectors. They see so much more than any one of us do, so it is good to hear their perspective.
You will need to be concerned about the mites and treating after you remove the honey. It is best to first monitor/check the level of varroa mites using the sugar roll or sticky board. Treatment typically follows anytime after up until September/October. SOme treatments are temperature sensitive.
We will be talking more about this at our upcoming meetings.
As far as the removal of honey is concerned...
You can start harvesting honey anytime. Make sure that it is mostly capped otherwise your moisture content may be too high and it will ferment. I like to see most frames totally capped and a few 75%+ in an individual super before extracting. I think the general rule is 75-85% capped before you take the honey.
You will have to decide how you want to extract. Most people simply sling the honey out with an extractor, but others with less hives crush and drain the comb. If you choose the latter you wont have any drawn comb to give them next year.
The videos are free to members so come on back and borrow a few.
