Out flows the honey!

a mock up of the extraction process

I'm a terrible blogger, Just wanna update this page on all I have been up to over the past week..I have joined the ranks of those with gold! golden honey... Extracted on Saturday and Sunday the forth and fifth of December respectively and it's been a lot of work, but who's complaining? I enjoyed every minute of it, and can't wait for the bees to refill those empty frames I returned to them. Can't believe I finally have drawn comb.without it honey production is reduced to a crawl. I have even started bottling some of that beautiful liquid! label and all .Now that I think about it, I'm not even motivated to write because my camera bit the dust a few weeks ago. cho. Those hexagonal glass jars really come to life with that honey in it.

Bottled Honey in a hex jar

Swarm capture

I'm thrilled to report that I captured a swarm yesterday, the 27th. The day started out like any other Saturday morning, when I checked my phone to see there were 9 missed calls! A friend of mine had spotted a huge swarm on his farm, and I can imagine him calling frantically. I got there in 20 minutes and got out my spray bottle with syrup, pruning shears, and a nuc box. He had already placed a ladder on the (ackee) tree the swarm was in. we sprayed them down a few times to make their wings sticky and lessen the amount of airborne bees when the swarm is shifted. We then cut of the small branch with the bees and then descended the ladder. The bees were very docile, (swarms tend to be less grumpy because their stomachs are full) and I then shook a few thousand into the box, and let the majority climb up a ramp I had previously set up. I saw on another website that the bees are more likely to stay when they march into the hive on their own.
      About two thirds of the bees entered the nuc box (i.e. nucleus. A smaller version of a 10 frame hive body), when I realized that the box was too small..This was a very large swarm, the largest I have ever seen.... I had to head back home for a standard deep hive body (lesson learned), then re-hive them, even then, they seemed crowded.(I miss my camera) The nuc was so crowded, the front and sides was bearded (i.e. bees hanging out on the front of the hive likened to a thick beard). The ramp (another nuc cover) had rested on a concrete block, and the bees had filled one the block pockets! (wander if they would have made comb in there).

       I think I just might get some honey from this hive in a few months! Shown here is a picture of the ackee fruit. now just picture forty thousand bees clinging to a small branch like that 15 feet overhead.. whew!

Some of my records, and record keeping.

I checked #5 today, so, the supers are as follows 10, 10, 9, 10, with the last number being the top super. #4 is struggling with 10, 10, 5  #2 with 10,9, 10. and #1 with 10, 10, 9 (I think), 5. So I can safely say that they're all thriving except for #4. the other three will be ready to be split soon.A reasonable nectar flow is now on and# 5 is determined to build comb on the hive cover, so I just gave them(the girls) 2 more frames totaling 10.ie. a full super. Just wanted to say that they are very aggressive. I read somewhere that bigger hives have more at stake (and more guard bees), so I hope they're not being bothered at night.

       Just in case you wondered, I lost my #3 hive in late July to the wax moth..Such a tragedy. I was so grossed out,  and ended up torching the equipment, because the bees had already absconded and all that was left was a mass of web, and nasty looking moth larva..ugh! (now in retrospect I regret burning my equipment).
         In the picture it shows the bees desperately trying to get rid of the larvae, but relative to the larvae they were grossly outnumbered.

This learning curve

Today's Friday, November 26th and I want to add some pictures to my blog today.(I hope I get better at this). I recently broke my camera, in fact it was borrowed, so now I have to buy 2. Oh boy..can't have a blog without pictures.

        I wanna check my Hives today, not a full inspection though, I'm due to inspect on the 8th of December. Today I just wanna confirm the number of frames in my supers. I can never seem to remember to make  note of the changes. These are from left to right my hives numbered one to five.

        

An introduction

Thank you for coming to my Blog, this is my attempt to keep my beekeeping records online, and share some of the things I do to keep bees in Machester, Jamaica. I have been keeping bees from about May this year(2010), and I have made every possible mistake an inexperienced beekeeper can make, but I hope I can remember them all to add to my posts, we'll see.