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[sqkcrk]

Today I started stripping hives down to travel height, removing the last boxes of honey and the empties too. Worked two yards and got two and 3/5 pallets of honey. Went thru the 5 frame nucs here at home and got three deeps of honey from 7 nucs. Left two of them two story, the rest singles.

One of the ones I left two story had a good bit of capped brood and eggs and 2 queens. Two adult mated queens. I don't recall seeing that in ages. Most of the rest of the nucs had no capped brood. Some had a patch of eggs about the size of a cap for a 5lb jar. Must have been some late swarming or supersedure goin' on.

Since I'm taking the honey somewhere else to be extracted, I am setting the pallets of honey on the ground, covering them w/ tarps and nets. And, since the way I am taking off the honey means bringing bees home in the supers, before covering the pallets of honey w/ tarps, I am putting a nuc on the pallet so the bees might find a usefull place to gather.

Sixteen more yards to go. And then, once all the pallets of honey are out of here, I can start gathering for the trip south.

[Acebird]

What is travel height?

[hpm08161947]

Gotta to have them the same height to stack them properly on the truck.... one pallet on top of the other. Else you gotta a big problem down the road.

[Acebird]

So is that one, two, three or more boxes high per hive? When they get to their southern location then what? Feed them all winter? Do you take them off the trailer?

[hpm08161947]

Since Mark is probably still working or resting up from a hard day, I'll help out here. Some guys transport singles, some Deep + medium, others Doubles (2 deeps). Not sure about Mark.

He will unload them in various yards and then feed them periodically.... feed is a lot cheaper than honey.

[rrussell6870]

Also depends on where he is taking them... we are on a great flow in MS, an empty hive has plenty of time here to fill a few supers...

Ace, bees backfill the chamber, which can get most through winter and allow you to pull all of the supers without depleting the hive to the extent that you would have to feed... the southern winters come later, offer many days of cleansing flights and even forage, and end sooner, so operations from up north can take off their honey, carry the bees south where there is still forage and nice weather to get them through an easier winter, then benefit from the earlier buildup and first flows before heading north again...

[Mbeck]

I don't understand the way that you're removing supers leaving bees in them.
Can you explain further?
Thanks

Work safely I know that you must feel pressure to get things done in a timely fashion .

[hpm08161947]

I don't understand the way that you're removing supers leaving bees in them.

Pretty sure that is what that nuc is for.. to pull the bees out of those supers... not sure though.. never tried that.

[sqkcrk]

Can you explain further?

The method of honey removal would work better were there a nectar flow on and it was a little warmer. Were that the case, I would be standing the supers of honey up on ende and by the time the whole yard is done that way, almost all of the bees would be out of the supers. Then they would be stacked on a pallet and loaded on the truck.

At this time of year I end up w/ moree bees still in the boxes because they are kind of loaggy because of the cool weather. We had a heavy frost last night.

The way things are where I get my honey extracted, I don't have to bring the boxes as bee free as some places. The bees can be enticed out of the supers w/ some brood. That's what the nuc under the tarp is for.

The nuc was a weak one and I'm planning on getting more bees in it by using the bees from the honey supers. Mutually beneficial.

[Roland]

SQKCRK - You have heard of a Bee Blower, EH? You THAT cheap?

Crazy Roland

[sqkcrk]

Don't like them. Don't need them. This works fine for me.

I'm not Crazy, Roland. I was born this way.

Be yourself. No one else is qualified.

[Mbeck]

I've learned something, I didn't think of the frost factor

[lakebilly]

Mark; I didn't see your method for removing bees from HS's. I was firmly in the corner of blowers till I used BM's Honey Harvester on 2 fumeboards. GONE bees & they ain't mad, SUUUUWEEEEEEET! 45 hives 3 yards totally by myself in 2 partial days.

[Acebird]

Also depends on where he is taking them... we are on a great flow in MS, an empty hive has plenty of time here to fill a few supers...

Would there be an advantage to leaving the bees on the trailer instead of unloading? Your only going to bring them back in the spring.
What are the risks of bringing back SHB, mites, and any other southern problems to the north when you do this annually?

[beemandan]

I'm not Crazy, Roland. I was born this way.

Just 'cause you were born that way doesn't mean you aren't crazy.

[hpm08161947]

Would there be an advantage to leaving the bees on the trailer instead of unloading? Your only going to bring them back in the spring.
?

It would not do to leave 400-500 hives stacked on a trailer. No way to manage them... feed them...etc. etc.

As far as bringing stuff back... Most are gone before the SHB start to rage... but I would suspect they do bring some back. It takes some pretty tropical weather to really get the SHB raging... so suspect they are not that big a deal.

[Acebird]

You got me at a disadvantage on management of bees in the south. We don't manage bees in the north during winter. It sounds like feeding may or may not be needed from some other posts on this thread. Either way I would think open feeding would always be an option.

It was unanamusly decided that moving a pallet of hives to the honey house for a couple of hours for extraction would result in the death of the bees but putting them on a trailer for days and taking them off the trailers twice a year doesn't affect them at all.

How does a SHB infect a hive that never had them in the first place?

[hpm08161947]

It was unanamusly decided that moving a pallet of hives to the honey house for a couple of hours for extraction would result in the death of the bees but putting them on a trailer for days and taking them off the trailers twice a year doesn't affect them at all.

If you could see the honey house I just left a few minutes ago you would understand why one can not take hives to the HH for extraction.....

Moving bees is hard on them!

[Acebird]

Moving bees is hard on them!

When I thought of the idea to move the hives to the honey house I didn't realize this. I assumed because commercial operations do this all the time it was not detrimental to the bees. As a newbee I moved my first hive 50 feet and darn near lost them within the first couple of months of having a hive.

Anyhow, I am going to try what Mark did and lay the honey supers on end and wait to see if the bees leave and go back to the hive. That is similar to what I did last year only I did it frame by frame.
I am still wondering if it is better to store the wet frames for spring or put them back on the hive to clean out. I don't know if the wet frames made a difference in spring build up or not but it sure seemed to make a difference to me.

[sqkcrk]

If a swarm in May is worth a stack of hay, what is a swarm in October worth?

After being in the last yard of the day for a little while, maybe 20 or 30 minutes, we noticed three clumps of bees hanging from a tree right next to the yard. I don't know if it was already there when we got there, or if it collected while we were working.

Got 4 yards done today. 7yds, 7 pallets of honey.