Here is our first honey harvesting video where we show you how to use a comb knife and an extractor to extract the honey from the honeycomb.
Our teacher, Jim, sent us an email after he saw our video with the following comments. Jim has strong opinions, like most beekeepers, I agree with most of what he says here, but not all of it. Again we are beginner beekeepers, so we can and do make mistakes. my goal here is to show people that they too can raise bees. So here is Jim's take on our first honey harvesting video.
Offered in what I hope is noticed to be a TOUNGUE-IN-CHEEK and FRIENDLY
tone, are the following comments from your peers, as summarized by me:
1) Putting an undrawn frame of foundation into a hive in September is a dead
give-away that not only did you fell asleep in class, but you also failed to
do the reading. Bees are very unlikely to drawn comb after the middle of
August. Much better to simply replace the extracted frames when you are
done extracting.
2) The "purpose of the smoker" is not to drive the bees down in between the
frames. That level of smoke was last used by Richard Nixon against anti-war
protestors. The purpose of the smoker is to simply block alarm pheromones
from alarming other bees, and can be used sparingly.
3) When you are fully suited, veiled, and gloved, the bees can fly around
without endangering you. There is no reason to be concerned that they take
flight when you are brushing them off frames.
4) Brushing should be done with the frames upside down, so that any bees
with their heads in cells will not be bent backwards or pulled apart. Cells
slant upwards within the frame, so brushing from bottom of frame to top (by
bushing with the frame upside down) is much easier on you and the bees. If
your sound effect was the actual brushing, you also need to use much shorter
strokes, so as to avoid "rolling" bees on the frame. A fume board and some
Bee-Quick might have made the job quicker, easier, and sting-free, but I'm
not going to shove specific choices at anyone.
5) "Finding the queen" should not wait until frames are hanging on the frame
rest, as the queen might fall outside the hive. One wants to inspect frames
as one removes them, while holding them over the hive. The odds of the
queen being on frames of honey are small, but they are non-zero.
what do you all think? let us know here:
Ryan Catlett
Also if you use a queen excluder you can illiminate that problem, also if you turn your honeygate on your extractor it will leave less of a mess when time to clean up is concerned.
Thank you for makeing the video,
Sincerly,
Ryan Catlett
Wendy
Loved the video....don't care what the others said, I could tell by the excitement in your voices that
you love what you're doing and it made me smile. Keep it up and I hope to have my very own, very first hive
up by this spring...wish me luck in the Ozarks.
Wendy
Tyler Allison
The only thing I would have done different with #1 would have been to center the frames that were left in the super and put the empties on the outside.
Marcella
Hi Gardenfork guys!
Watched two of your videos and especially enjoyed them because we are bee-ginner bee-keepers ourselves and it is nice to see others starting from scratch, too. My boyfriend and I are in Vienna, Austria and have started last year with two hives and also enjoyed our first taste of own honey!
We will bee continuing to watch out for more of your activities.
Greetings from Europe!
George Cannon
Super sweet video (pun intended). Did I see a swarm cell at the bottom of one of the honey frames? What do you think of doing a video on swarming and queen propagation? I'd sure like to see one. Thanks again for your work.
Eric Gunnar Rochow
yes, there were a few queen cells there, but i averted a swarm last year, thankfully.