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redesigning a cage to trap the queen would be nice, all the ones on the market are pretty awful
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Jul 11, 2012 18:16
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When you lift a medium up to put it back on the top of the hive, it's very hard to not squash bees. You can be very slow and gentle and they'll get out of the way... but if the medium weighs 40 pounds that's really drat hard to do, especially by yourself. Invent some kind of device that temporarily keeps the bees off the top edges of a box, and then when you put the top box back, you can remove that device and nobody gets squashed. More generally: all of the methods for de-capping honey basically suck. You can use a hot knife (and get cappings and honey everywhere and melt wax into the honey and cook the honey on contact), a cold knife (and hack away at the wax, cut into the wood frame, miss the low spots, cut too deep on the high spots, get honey everywhere and get wax in the honey), or a "decapping tool" which is just a handle with some spikes that lets you carve through the wax, getting honey everywhere, taking forever, getting bits of wax in the honey, etc. etc. An ideal tool would pierce the cells without destroying them, so after you extract the honey (in your centrifugal honey extractor) you can give it back to the bees and they don't need to do a lot of work to rebuild the comb; would pierce all the cells, both higher and lower; wouldn't get honey everywhere, and would minimize the amount of wax that gets mixed in with the honey. That's a tall order but someday someone will invent it and it might as well be you, right? One more idea: Invent a "bee water source" container thing. It would have landing surfaces for the bees that keeps them from falling in, would keep the water level at exactly the right place, would let you cycle fresh water in regularly/constantly (perhaps connecting to a hose which is always on?), would keep out larger animals, falling leaves, etc., and wouldn't grow mosquitoes.
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Jul 11, 2012 20:07
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Leperflesh posted:
Isn't this just a larger uncapping fork (the handle with spikes)? I don't know what you are doing, but when I have used an uncapping fork it does very little damage to the cells other than remove the cappings. I dunno, honey extraction can be messy, but either an uncapping fork with 10 frame spaced honey supers or cold knife for 9 frame spaced honey supers and an uncapping tank with a wooden bar and nail seem to do the job pretty well.
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Jul 11, 2012 20:38
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Leperflesh posted:One more idea: A water-butt attached to your gutters, with a floating platform made from a bit of plastic/wood and some small pop bottles, and a couple of goldfish in? Depends how much rain you get but you can always just use the tap to top it up. You could put some wide netting/chicken wire over the top or just buy a net and scoop out the leaves when you see em. We had goldfish in our water-butt, but I accidently killed them. (Totally my own fault.) Within a couple of weeks the water went from being green but fine, to absolutely full of mosquito larvae, so they do work at keeping those down! Just went out earlier and bought a new fish. 
Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Jul 11, 2012 |
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Jul 11, 2012 21:05
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Invent a cheap, thin and waterproof digital scale that I can leave under the hive all the time to measure weight. I would love this so much. I spend too much time looking for feed scales on ebay or paging through digital scales on amazon, hoping someone has invented this. Re: uncapping, I use a heat gun now. Point, melt, no uncappings, no mess at all. Other people use a Hackler honey punch, which is many spikes on a paint roller. I'd also buy something that automated the powdered-sugar-in-a-jar shake test for mites a bit. I'm imagining something --scoop up bees with this part, add powdered sugar to this part, shake a bit, open door, sugar falls out the bottom through a screen, bees fly off and mites stay to be counted. A device to vacuum seal frames for storage / deny waxmoth. A smaller smoker would be nice too, for hobbyists with only a few hives. Heck, take everything and scale down the size/scale up the quality and you have a winner.
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Jul 12, 2012 04:59
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Leperflesh posted:When you lift a medium up to put it back on the top of the hive, it's very hard to not squash bees. You can be very slow and gentle and they'll get out of the way... but if the medium weighs 40 pounds that's really drat hard to do, especially by yourself. Best practice is to put the box back on at a 45* angle, then slowly slide it around until it's trim, this lets the bees get out of the way and you usually only end up squashing one or two at most j4on posted:A smaller smoker would be nice too, for hobbyists with only a few hives. Heck, take everything and scale down the size/scale up the quality and you have a winner. A small smoker is pretty much useless, trust me, no matter how many hives you have, bigger is always better, because you know that smokers going to go out the second you need it. Yeti Fiasco fucked around with this message at 12:31 on Jul 12, 2012 |
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Jul 12, 2012 12:28
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Yeti Fiasco posted:Best practice is to put the box back on at a 45* angle, then slowly slide it around until it's trim, this lets the bees get out of the way and you usually only end up squashing one or two at most The guy I have been working with doesn't like smokers and uses honey-b-healthy in a spray bottle to calm the bees, but I don't even know if that is necessary. I have found that just moving slowly and stopping for a minute when you hear the bees getting agitated works just fine. Am I alone in this opinion?
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Jul 12, 2012 14:15
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It really depends on the hive, not to mention what is going on in the environment. I have one hive that starts to sting as soon as the inner cover is off, before I even start to manipulate frames or boxes. They need smoke for sure. Other times, if there was/is robbing you just have to have light smoke, and then if you need to go in on a cool and cloudy day when all the grumpy old girls are home instead of foraging it is more likely you will need smoke as well.
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Jul 12, 2012 14:48
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Indolent Bastard posted:The guy I have been working with doesn't like smokers and uses honey-b-healthy in a spray bottle to calm the bees, but I don't even know if that is necessary. I have found that just moving slowly and stopping for a minute when you hear the bees getting agitated works just fine. Am I alone in this opinion? No I agree, if you're slow and methodical they're usually fine, but bees can be unpredictable nada bit of smoke is better than a bee attack.
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Jul 12, 2012 17:12
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Zero Gravitas posted:Theres a competition on a website for designing or redesigning a tool to aid beekeepers. Since I dont keep bees myself, is there anything that you folks feel really needs to be redesigned, or "I would buy a tool that does < x > ?" A more affordable way to centrifuge honey. It's a problem for small hobbyists who don't have any local organizations. I don't have access to a centrifuge (even for rental), and they're expensive to buy, so I usually have to just scrape the honey off the frames, comb and all. That means my bees have to work much harder to rebuild the comb/restock the honey.
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Jul 12, 2012 17:19
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:A more affordable way to centrifuge honey. It's a problem for small hobbyists who don't have any local organizations. Cheaper than http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2005/september/honeyextractor.htm I was going to build one of these until my awesome neighbor gave me his old extractor.
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Jul 12, 2012 17:41
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Actually yea, even small 4 frame manual extractors are still £100+, having something hobby sized and hobby priced would be awesome.
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Jul 12, 2012 18:40
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Would it even be worth it though? There are cheap 2 frame plastic extractors on the market for $100 or less and I always hear about people buying them and almost immediately deciding their money was wasted and then buying a 9 frame the next year.
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Jul 12, 2012 18:57
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I have a two frame extractor, but it's still huge. Be nice to have one that was made for medium frames only instead of deeps.
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Jul 13, 2012 03:50
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Nebulis01 posted:Why does everyone paint the hives white? If you used decent wood, would it be acceptable to stain them instead? I use linseed oil on mine, painting them means I'll have to paint then again at some point 
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Jul 15, 2012 08:50
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Tally posted:I use linseed oil on mine, painting them means I'll have to paint then again at some point Mine are a nice pastel green and blue. We refer to them as the 'green hive' and the 'blue hive'. While it's sad that one hive is depressed all the time, the music coming out of that hive makes for a wonderful morning picking tomatoes out of the garden.  At one point when deciding what to paint them I asked the same question about color and did some googling. If the interweb is to be believed the answer is as simple as most farms had leftover white paint from painting the barn/fence/whatever. It seems as if it was just what everyone seemed to have on hand and therefore was the cheapest and most convenient thing to use.
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Jul 15, 2012 13:19
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This is my first swarm so I'm much more interested getting it through winter than painting. But I did get a good cider hive that will probably outlast me, I like the silver colour it turns into after a few years.
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Jul 15, 2012 15:12
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A hive placed in the sun and painted a dark color will absorb a lot of heat. White reflects the sun and so will stay a lot cooler. Depending on your climate that could be desirable or not. In my area, the bees have to work during the hot days of summer to keep the interior cool enough, and white paint eases the burden a bit. But yeah, white paint is often a bit cheaper than other kinds and that's probably the main reason. We actually accidentally bought a can of exterior "medium" which has no pigment at all: it sealed the wood fine and gave it kind of a slightly milky color but otherwise looks like wood. Cheap and effective. There's some evidence that, having found their way home by usual means and scent, bees can have a bit of trouble navigating directly to the entrance which they do by sight. A bold pattern of dark and light on the hive may improve their ability to land in the right spot. Might be fun to experiment with that.
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Jul 17, 2012 17:45
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I put my second honey super on today, and did some general looking and poking around deeper in the hive. The lower frames are loaded with brood and honey, and when I pulled one out, it just oozed... I couldn't resist, I grabbed a little taste and OMG delicious. Maybe it's just a mental thing, and I'm wanting to believe that it's better, but it tasted better than any honey I've ever had. And to think, there are frames and frames loaded with it! I hope I get a harvest this year. So delicious...
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Jul 17, 2012 19:11
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I got my first swarm a few weeks ago. Virgin queen has mated, they are build comb and making lots of baby bees. Very calm not even using smoke on them. At the moment I'm feeding them 1:1 syrup. When would I use 2:1?
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Jul 17, 2012 19:49
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Pagan posted:And to think, there are frames and frames loaded with it! I hope I get a harvest this year. So delicious... I like how its get a harvest and not get a good harvest, honey producers have suffered so much this year.
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Jul 17, 2012 21:07
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Yeti Fiasco posted:I like how its get a harvest and not get a good harvest, honey producers have suffered so much this year. Well, this is my hives first year, so any harvest will be a good harvest.
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Jul 17, 2012 21:27
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From the GBS video thread https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt1OQxcBkRU Removing bees from a house.
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Jul 19, 2012 15:14
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I'm sort of surprised the bees can handle being vacuumed up like that without damage to wings and stuff. I guess they're pretty resilient.
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Jul 19, 2012 18:26
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Leperflesh posted:I'm sort of surprised the bees can handle being vacuumed up like that without damage to wings and stuff. I guess they're pretty resilient. I'm sorta surprised that that guy was willing to clean out his room and tear up drywall because he didn't want to kill the bees. Don't get me wrong, that's awesome, but I'm guessing most people switch from save to spray once you start talking about pulling down sheet-rock.
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Jul 19, 2012 19:38
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Granted, I haven't seen the video, but in general I don't think you really have a choice. If they have been in their long enough to start building than even if you kill the bees you then have the brood, wax and honey left in the wall to attract who knows what or start rotting.
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Jul 19, 2012 20:48
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There's a wasp nest near my house that I want to remove - it's a very small nest, about the size of my fist, with exposed paper cells, some capped, and I think it would make a great thing to display. Not exactly bees, but what would be appropriate clothing to wear into battle? I've got a bug jacket (mesh/nylon jacket with integrated zippered full-face hood), some heavy (leather) clothing and some high-weight nylon clothes, but are any of these adequate? I'm planning to scrape the nest into a sealed plastic box that gets tossed into the freezer to kill off the remaining wasps/brood, maybe bring a handheld vacuum to suck up stragglers. Is this a terrible idea that will only end in tears?
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Jul 20, 2012 07:36
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nesbit37 posted:Granted, I haven't seen the video, but in general I don't think you really have a choice. If they have been in their long enough to start building than even if you kill the bees you then have the brood, wax and honey left in the wall to attract who knows what or start rotting. It's pretty amazing, I know two people have asked what to do about bubbles in their garden. After I told them to leave them be they'll go away, both killed them 
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Jul 20, 2012 13:44
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Update! Finished clearing the ground, moving 1 1/2 tonnes of dead brambles and digging up enough roots for make an area I can stake into (2 forks down now, I guess they don't make them like they used to). Assembling the stand only took an hour, it's all pre-treated wood, but I creosoted the bits that where going to go in the ground just for a bit more rot protection, the entire thing is leaning forward veeeeery slightly so that water doesn't collect. Put a poly nuc on as a bait hive for now, bit of lemongrass oil and left to cook. 
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Jul 20, 2012 18:03
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One of the three hives is coming along nicely. Today we took off three shallows that were ready for extraction.
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Jul 24, 2012 02:07
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wow, actual honey, I'm insanely jealous, no one on the UK is going ot get any form of honey crop this year.
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Jul 24, 2012 14:48
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Yeti Fiasco posted:wow, actual honey, I'm insanely jealous, no one on the UK is going ot get any form of honey crop this year. It's true and somewhat depressing.
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Aug 5, 2012 08:43
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I opened up the hive today and found that one of my honey shallows was completely full. I couldn't wait for my club to set up the extractor, so I took one of the frames inside.     Tastes so good... so good.
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Aug 7, 2012 19:02
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My great grandpa made a living selling honey in West Virginia before he died. Keep fighting the good fight, goons! It seems like a fun hobby for those that have the yard room.
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Aug 7, 2012 21:46
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It's not a banner year in Ontario but I live near lots of basswoods so it's been decent. There's nothing prettier to me than a fully capped large frame. 
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Aug 8, 2012 02:05
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Little Miss RKO posted:My great grandpa made a living selling honey in West Virginia before he died. Keep fighting the good fight, goons! I have 0 yard space (A 10x10 concrete slab), I have put my hive on a local allotment (with permission) Yeti Fiasco fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Aug 9, 2012 |
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Aug 8, 2012 21:27
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I finally have bees of my very own! After months of working and waiting, I finally got to go pick up my ready hive from the local association with the help of a friend, apologies for the poor pics, but it was late and a fog bank decided to roll in just in time.     The first out of the gate! Not many flyers due to it being bee bedtime, but we did have a few curious ones decide to venture out in to their new surrounding of bramble and wild flowers.
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Aug 9, 2012 21:05
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So I was extracting honey in the back of a restaurant in Queens with my girlfriend, who got her first bit of honey this year. When we were draining her honey out of the extractor, the my friend/the owner of the restaurant brought Patti Smith back to see what was going on. She tried my girlfriends honey and shook my elbow. It was pretty cool. Keep bees, kids. See the world, meet interesting people.
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Aug 12, 2012 15:01
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 "Oh poo poo balls this is some good globe artichoke!"
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Aug 12, 2012 15:14
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So this happened down the road from where I live, which has us a bit on edge about bees in general, but I'm curious about something the associated article reported. They said that there was ~125 pounds of honeycomb in the hive. How much is that relative to what a backyard beehive would hold?
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Aug 12, 2012 20:33
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