Honey Extraction Day

[Cimarron]

"Matt the Bee wrangler"...hmm maybe a new title.

Hey Karen, he didn't try to shoot one first before going after the honey did he? Lol

Thanks for sharing your experiences guys.

[Karen]

No, he didn't get to shoot or even wrangle any of them. I confiscated his lasso at the door.

[Karen]

I agree with BG. Unless you have bears in your area, the animals aren't likely to be a problem. Some of my hives are in the cow pen and the cows get stung occasionally, but they don't mess with the hives.

[miked2345]

Ok, here's a stupid "city boy" question..... Honey bees, bee-hive, bees make honey, honey is yummy.... Got that.

But WHY do bees make honey? Do they lay eggs in it? Is it food for them or their young-uns? What happens to the honey if humans don't collect it?

[Karen]

Honey is food for them. They like to eat it just like we do :-) If we don't collect it they eat it. If the hive becomes too full of honey, brood, pollen and bees, they will most likely swarm. This means they will gorge themselves on as much honey as they can hold and fly off in search of a new home. That's when bee keepers like me take advantage of this situation and catch the swarm.

[JUSTIFIED]

Honey is food for them. They like to eat it just like we do :-) If we don't collect it they eat it. If the hive becomes too full of honey, brood, pollen and bees, they will most likely swarm. This means they will gorge themselves on as much honey as they can hold and fly off in search of a new home. That's when bee keepers like me take advantage of this situation and catch the swarm.

You learn something everyday! Fascinating!

[BioG8r]

Karen, we are wanting to get into bee keeping, can you give us your opinion on the absolutes and the accessories. I feel there is a bigger call for bee keeping than there are keepers.
Thanks in advance

[Karen]

Well, a lot of it is opinion, but here is what I would buy to get started.

First you will need a hive to put your bees in.
One bee hive. that would include a deep brood box with ten wood frames and black plastic foundations, a medium honey super with ten wood frames and plastic foundations, a screened bottom board, an inner lid, and an outer lid.

Next you will need some protective clothing so you don't get stung.
One bee keepers hat with netting or one beekeepers jacket with a hood, one pair of beekeepers gloves.

Then you will need some stuff to collect your swarm.
a cardboard box, a spray water bottle, a soft bristled brush, duck tape, and a pair of pruniing shears.

Set up your hive in the location of your choosing. I have mine in an area that is sheltered from north winds and the front of the hives face south. Most of my hives are in the cow pen but the newest three hives are just outside the pen. You might want to set the hive on a couple of pallets to get it up off the ground. You wouldn't want mice stealing the honey.
Call your local beekeeping association and tell them that you want to attend their meetings. When you go to the meetings, ask the president to let you know if he/she hears about a swarm in your area that needs to be collected. (Or you can buy your bees, but be prepared to pay about two hundred dollars for them) You can also place ads on Craigslist.com in your area or your local freecycle group. Put all of your protective clothing and your swarm collecting stuff together so you can just grab it and go when the time comes to collect a swarm. I kept all of mine together in the cardboard box.
It's usually best to collect a swarm in May or June rather than in Sept or Oct. The earlier you collect the swarm, the more time it has to grow stronger before winter hits. I have collected swarms later in the year, but they have to be fed to help them survive the winter.
When you get a call that a swarm is available, ask the caller when they last saw the swarm. Ask them to go look again and make sure the swarm is still there. You don't want to get there only to find that the swarm has left.
Grab your swarm collecting stuff, mix up some sugar water with about two cups of hot water and a half cup of sugar (I just use tap water) pour the sugar water in your spray bottle and go get your swarm.
When you get there, people will most likely want to watch and take pictures of you collecting the swarm and saving the day. Be polite about it and let them take whatever pictures they want.
If you are hesitant about getting stung, go ahead and put your proctective clothing on. I like to spray the swarm with the sugar water to keep them busy and less likely to fly off while I'm collecting them. If they are weighted down with sugar water, they will probably be too busy cleaning themselves to fly off.
Hold your open cardboard box a few inches under the swarm. If you are lucky the swarm will be on a small branch and you can either cut the branch off with your pruning shears or just give the branch a good shake and let the bees fall into the box. If you aren't so lucky you can VERY GENTLY sweep the swam into the box from whatever surface they are on, with your soft bristled brush.
Keep in mind, the queen is most likely at the center of the clump of bees, so be sure you collect the queen when you are collecting the swarm. if you miss the queen and you can't get her in the box, you will probably lose the swarm. Don't get too worried about it tho. If you collect the main clump of bees, you will most likely get the queen. I have never failed to get the queen even when I first started collecting swarms.
The bees that you have collected in the box will probably start making a buzzing sound. This is because they are fanning their wings to spread the queens phermone which lets any straggler bees know that the queen is in the box. Let them do this without disturbing them. You want to collect as many of the bees as possible. As the bees realize where the queens is, they will gradually enter the box to be with the queen. Just close the box up leaving a small opening for the straggler bees to enter. Stand back and wait. You will not be able to collect every single bee. When you only see a few bees (maybe a dozen or less) flying around, you can close the box completely and tape it shut with duck tape. The bees that are left behind will die within a few days. You can tell the home owner that the bees will "go away within a few days"
If you are driving a truck, put the box of bees in the back of the truck. If you are driving a car and you might want to put them in the trunk. I have never done that because I was afraid the bees would get too hot and die. I just put them in the car. Yes a few always escape from the box. No, I have never been stung because of this. You can always roll the windows down and shoo them out the window if you are worried about it.
When you get home with your bees, put the box in the shade somewhere and wait until just before sundown to put them in the hive that you have already set up for them. When it's time to put them in the hive, remove the outer lid and the inner lid as well as two or three frames. Turn the cardboard box upside down on top of the hive and give it a few good thumps to get the bees to fall into the hive. Put the inner lid and the outer lid back on the hive. I don't put the frames back in until the next day because I like to give them some time to settle in. If You put the frames back in right away, you will probaby end up smashing some of your bees since they will all be clumped together in the space where the frames were.
Sometimes a swarm is pretty insistant that they don't want to live in your hive. I recently had a swarm that I collected twice and it still flew off. there isn's much you can do about it, but fortunately, you didn't spend two hundred dollars on them anyway. Just wait until you get another call and go collect another swarm.
This is how I collect swarms. It isn't the only way, but it works really well for me. If you tend to be tense around bees, you may get stung more. Bees respond to phermones so try to relax when you are around them.

[BioG8r]

Thank you sooo much we will make contact with our local bee club and see what is shaking around there.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

"Matt the Bee wrangler"...hmm maybe a new title. Hey Karen, he didn't try to shoot one first before going after the honey did he? Lol

You dont know me! Oh wait you do :p

Bees respond to phermones so try to relax when you are around them.

Yes, it went against everything in my survival instinct nature but it was very calming and oddly tranquil once i figured out i wasnt going to die a horrible death with a gazillion stings like a bad B rated horror movie. It was really cool, really weird and a vastly different outside of the comfort box feeling. You move slow but sure like a ninja winnie da poo :cool:

[BioG8r]

Matt - Ninja da Poo - in Oklahoma

;)

ninja winnie da poo :cool:

Oh My! what a mental picture that is!!

[Karen]

Okay, I just got a mental image of Matt dressed up in a bear suit with his paw stuck in a bee hive while he's robbing honey! ;-)

It's pretty surreal when you walk with confidence thu a swarm of thousands of honey bees that are still airborne and not a single bee has even a passing interest in stinging you.
For me, that's the most awesome part of beekeeping :-)

I forgot to add, if you smell a faint scent of bananas, your bees are getting very upset and it might be wise to back off. You probably won't smell banana's unless you are bothering an established hive. Most swarms are just trying to stay together and find a new home. If you want , you can buy a smoker to smoke your bees before you open their hive, but there is a a learning curve to using a smoker. If you don't smoke them enough it won't have much effect on the, and if you smoke them too much they will become airborn and irritated with you. I have a smoker, but rarely use it.
I also want to mention that I don't use any chemical or medicinal treatments on my hives. The only treatment they ever get is a sprinkling of powdered sugar for mites. When I sprinkle them with powdered sugar, they start grooming themselves which knocks off the mites. The screened bottom board of your hive allows the mites to fall thru the board and out of the hive.
The reason I don't use meds or chemicals is that I want my bees to be able to survive the conditions that nature throws at them. If times get really bad, I won't have access to the meds and chemicals so if my bees wimpy, they will just die off.
There's a lot more to know abot bees, but now you have the basics :-)

[Benn Gleck]

Great thread Karen.

I'm a second year beekeeper here and caught my first swarm this spring!
We bought our first two packages of bees and they were around $100 dollars depending on the size. Were you talking about a nuc or are bees more expensive in Oklahoma.
We have Russian queens and they seem to deal with the varroa mite better than Italians. YMMV
I started out using gloves but find them awkward, now I use bare hands. I get stung occasionally but its always because I smash a bee. They are usually very docile but recently I took off a top cover right at dusk (almost dark) and got stung on the arm(no beesuit), so I'll not be messing with the hives at night anymore.;)

[miked2345]

How long does a hive survive? Only as long as the queen lives? Or is another queen born to replace an old queen?

(Biting my tongue... trying hard not to make an "old queen" joke...)

[Karen]

Benn Gleck
I honestly can't remember where I saw the $200 bees for sale. I know it was some of the more wello know bee suppliers on the internet, but I don't know which ones. the price does depend on the size of the colony you order.
There are fewer bees in the hive during the day because the girls ae out gathering pollen and nector. that might be a better time for you to work your bees. I've been stung when working my bees at dusk too.