Thread: Beekeeping

I am down to 3 hives with bees. I kicked them out and took the honey from the dying hive tonight. I will extract it tomorrow.

Many mad bees! I only got one small sting in the thigh through my blue jeans.

My one hive is doing great with the comb honey so I took the frames for comb from another that hadn't started on them yet. I don't want to jinx myself but I am hoping for at least 4 maybe 6 more frames of comb honey.

Originally Posted by Cincinnatus

Just be careful when taking this. If the moisture level is to high you can extract it and it can ferment. If in doubt borrow a refractometer from someone that brews beer or makes wine. It should be between 17 and 18%.

I used a friends refractometer this last week to test my first batch and it was 17.6 percent. He is getting ready to enter some in the state fair and says that you loose points if it is over 16%.

Very nice. I guess as long as it tastes good that is what matters. I know the judging is more strict on what they want to see to lay it up for usage you should be fine.

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I extracted the honey today from hive #1. A little lighter than I hoped and I used a few oddball jars but I figure about 3.8 gallons.

I did it mostly in the back yard and anyone that doesn't think that there are bees in our neighborhood should take a look. I stacked up a fake hive and wish that mine had that many bees coming and going. They are robbing the left over honey.

I bet there are 200 dead bees in the grass where I cleaned my extractor.

Running total for the year so far 6.2 gallons of honey and 2 medium frames of comb honey.

I gave up a while ago trying to figure cost so I don't know how much per gallon it cost me!

I thought of this thread when I saw this news: F-22 Raptor grounded by 20,000 bees - CNNPolitics.com.

Since I'm new to the forums, I just found this thread.

We, echem, I should say, my wife is a bee-keeper. ((I don't like the little basta..., echem, things!)) She, also, is the president of the local Bee Club. So, yeah, we have every God-Forsaken "Bee" crafty thing around the house. lol Nonetheless, there are 24 hives currently on our farm, with others spread out around to other local farms.

Welcome - and they aren't that bad - except when the sting you for no reason

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Honey bees always have a reason, you might not see it or agree with it, but they have a reason.

I got some Varroa treatment from a friend at work today along with some bottles.

During lunch and a little after work I worked on an oxalic acid vaporizer. A fun project using a diesel engine glow plug etc.

A couple of more lunch breaks worth of work....

All of this is Greek to me,,, I have to GOOGLE two of your words now !!