Did another cutout taday

[Sharpbees]

That makes 7 since the end of May. This one wasn't bad they were in an alcove roof of an old church that is being remodeled. The pastor said they had someone take them out a couple of years ago but they must not have done it right because the bees never left. It took 4 hrs. Got the queen, marked her and put her in the box with what little brood they had, only a couple of frames but they had betwen 80 to 120 lbs of salvagable honey over the eight frames in the hiive. Just an estimate as I haven't crushed and strained yet. charged $300 and willl sell the honey at $14 a pound. I sell it as wild caught honey in muth jars sealed with beeswax. These bees did great all light honey in beautiful light wax. The wax gets turned into hand dipped taper candes which I sell at an upscale antique boutique. Still have three tree cutouts to do this week before the trees are cut down.

[odfrank]

>I sell it as wild caught honey

You could also market it as:

Lead Paint Infused Honey
Fiberglass Infused Honey
Asbestos Laden Honey
Vermiculite Honey
Rat Turd Honey
Dust and Mold Honey
Sawdust Chunky Honey
Wax Moth Delight
Small Hive Beetle Crunch Honey
Mouse Turd Flavored Honey

[Sharpbees]

been a carpenter for thirty years and doing cutouts for the last five. I don't sell it if there is paint or insulation in the voids. Mold has never been a problem because by the time the bees are done they have everything coated with propolis wich has anti microbal propertes. Straining down to 200 microns takes care of any sawdust or dirt. No onc hav I ran into a rat or anyother turd in these hives. I have even had my old employer a food manufacturer send samples to their food testing lab and te honey has always tested fine. remember bees are inherently clean and peopl have been eating wild honey for centuries. Wonder ho many chemicals people have eaten from things beekeepers have put in their hives. I have customers that seek this stuff out every time I have it available and not once had a problem and yes they know where it came from.

[Sharpbees]

never seen small hive beetle in a wild hive yet I think mostly because wild hives usually are more isolated from one another than being lumped togther in one place like a beeyard. Never saw one in my own hives till this year when we moved a couple miles from a larger apiary and also expanded my own hives. My nuc yard which is more isolated still hasn't gotten them. Man is the culprit for many of todays honeybee problems. In nature bees don't pile up together within a few feet of each other. When hives are pushed close together it's much like planting food plots for game animals, the bigger the plot the more game that will show up.

[scrapiron]

Ewww! I have done about 15 cutouts in houses.... I never eat the honey, OR sell it to someone else to eat! The 1 time I did, was in a barn and it was very clean. House cutouts always have that nasty lookin black dander collected under the nest, or disgusting looking comb.

[westernbeekeeper]

I have done quite a few cutout, some with lots of honey. I have only had a couple with bad aka unmarketable honey. I wouldn't really worry about it, Sharpbees.

I think we can trust each other to sell reasonable honey, don't you think? Sharp, it would seem like you know what you can and can't sell. I think you're fine.

[JRG13]

I think Frank was being a little sarcastic, I thought it was funny.

[Sharpbees]

Your exactly right Benjamin,I only sell honey that is in nice white comb and capped. The stuff I cut out yesterday was beautiful and clean. I've seen honey that was extraced from old comb in hives that didnLt look as good as what I pulled out of this cut out. The was is pure white, not old brood comb It honestly looks as good as any new comb from my managed hives so I have no problem with eating or sellling it.

[odfrank]

I think Frank was being a little sarcastic, I thought it was funny.

This year's cutouts:

#1 Under a spa with a redwood skirt. The whole suburban yard wreaked of rat feces and urine. Bees entering under spa through rat and raccoon eaten holes. Comb hanging down onto 4" deep bed of rotten leaves and rat dung, the spa enclosure wreaking like a rat outhouse. My helper took the honey for his own use. Yech!

#2 Small new cluster in a stud bay, mouse nest inches away, lots of insect webbing near combs. Banded the little honey into frames for the bees.

Acquaintance helped other newbee remove hive from tree trunk with propolised mouse mummy under combs. Honey will likely be marketed.

I doubt any cutout honey is dangerous but I object to the newbee swarm chasers marketing it because they have no clean crop. Glad I produce my own, I wouldn't want to eat their cutout honey.

[Sharpbees]

I wouldn't have used any of those either. I also produce my own honey . I'll have to find the issue of ABJ but they had a picture of a propolized lizard found in a lang hive, wonder if that stopped the beek from taking honey from that hive. Like Isaid this honey and comb were very clean and marketable. I wasn't trying to give the impression that all cut out honey is marketable but not all of it is bad either. I spent several years as sanitation manager in a food manufacturing plant and am pretty picky about the quality of the stuff I market. If I wouldnLt use it myself I'm sure not going to sell it to my customers.

[trainwrecker]

Friend of mine found a mouse snout in a pickled sausage. Wonder what else is in manufactered food we don't find. We have also cutout honey I would eat and some that I wouldn't. Our problem I shb s I haven't done a cutout w/ o seeing them. We usually freeze it then extract. That seems to make it sugar quicker. Any ideas?

[Maddox65804]

why isn't the honey being given back to the cutout bees? They need it.

I do a lot of cut outs. Been doing them for 15 years now. SHB are in at least 90% of these hives here in Missouri. It's one of the reasons I am interested in these bees. If they are not just surviving, but thriving with SHB, they have the types of behaviors and genetics we need to solve this SHB problem. Those are the bees I am working to reproduce and generate greater SHB control. We will never do it with chemicals. Better breeding is probably our only long term solution.

Another quick question: how do you get someone to pay you 75 $/hr?! I couldn't stay in business that way. I would love to, but there is too much competition.

[Sharpbees]

I don't really have much competition, nost of the people around here will catch swarms or won't do cutouts over so high and won't fix what they tear out. I'm a 30 year carpenter and can fix what I tear out. This job was just a fluke usually I only make around 40/hr. I also expplain to my customers that those ''free' bees aren't so free, i.e. cost of hive,usually next year before any honey,cost of a queen if something happens to the old one while taking out hive,time for putting equipment together for cutout. If you get them to understand just what it takes to do the job and they see you in a full suit in 100 degree weather they don't mind the price.