Do you have specific drying equipment or are you saying that the extraction process will dry it down this much? I need to know more about these "interesting things" you learned.
Re: How do you wind down your colonies as the season draws to an end?
Do you have specific drying equipment or are you saying that the extraction process will dry it down this much? I need to know more about these "interesting things" you learned.
"Ve are too soon olt und too late schmart."- A nameless German philosopher
Re: How do you wind down your colonies as the season draws to an end?
I'm saying fans, a hot house that is air tight, and dehumidifiers plumbed out will drastically reduce water content of honey. As to specific equipment I know some canucks were using a closed circuit recirculating inline dehumidifier that would work the green honey in bulk tank. As to me, I just leave barrels open. On the flip side, I usually let supers sit a couple days criss cross stacked with the room sealed too. usually I have no beetle problems unless a dehumidifier kicks out.
Re: How do you wind down your colonies as the season draws to an end?
I do a mid-summer harvest to tide me over (everyone wants honey) before my end of the season harvest mid-August. At mid-summer harvest I take ONLY capped honey. At big harvest, I separate green honey from capped honey. Depending on my mood: I either spin out all green honey first or not take out frames with less than 50% capped from an apiary but leave it hives (make a full super) and then don't have to feed them.
While we make money from honey I have to consider the time, resources, and questionable nutrition when it comes to feeding (kinda like breastmilk is best infants, but formula will do (breastmilk = free, and no stuff to clean)... so honey is best for bees, but syrup will do (but costs money and I'll equipment to clean)).
Re: How do you wind down your colonies as the season draws to an end?
a while back when I had a few hundred hives I had brought in a few hundred supers with 22% honey in them. I did not extract them, but left them in my hot room with a dehumidifier on, for about a week or so. I had forgotten about them becasue I had been grain harvesting and when I got back, the honey was not extractable because it was too dry. So I humidified the room for a few days and brought the honey back up to an extractable state.
Dont be afraid to strip your boxes off in the fall. You can manage your MC in your honey in the honeyhouse and your yard work will proceed on time
Ian Steppler >> Canadian Beekeeper
www.stepplerfarms.com
Re: How do you wind down your colonies as the season draws to an end?
^^^ Experience. These Canucks are good with short season stuff.
Re: How do you wind down your colonies as the season draws to an end?
I'm also betting that they don't have to contend with hive beetles.Originally Posted by Skinner Apiaries
"Ve are too soon olt und too late schmart."- A nameless German philosopher
Re: How do you wind down your colonies as the season draws to an end?
Nope, Canadians have it made. You leave the honey supers off four days in Alabama before extracting, you have nothing but slime. Harvested honey is extracted within two days tops. With high humidity naturally in the air due to the proximity to the gulf, the quicker the honey is extracted, the lower the moisture content. The supers are then left to be robbed and cleaned by the home yard for two days before returning to them to the yards. This reduces the possibilities of beetles reproducing in wet honey supers that get placed on hives. Once the spring honey is removed, up to four supers on some hives, then two dry clean supers are returned for the cotton and soybean flows at the time of the first round harvest. That is then harvested and one super is returned for the goldenrod and aster flows. A good beekeeper follows his bees up with supering till they peak in population, then he follows them down supering with the downsizing population of bees. After the cotton crop is harvested then we start with treatments. Usually in September. Hopefully the bees will produce enough fall honey to help cut down on the feed bill. This is in a nut shell how this operation winds its season down year after year. TED
ALABAMA BEE COMPANY-A member of the Sioux Honey association -*Sweetening a golden tommorrow*
Re: How do you wind down your colonies as the season draws to an end?
Perhaps we should keep it a secret. Here in Western Australia, it could be called a bee paradise, at least while the most nasties are kept out. You are right, No SHB, No verorra, No to a lot of other things. No to snow,
YES to a mild climate, The world record for honey production was set in WA at Pemberton in the karri forest in about 1954 with over 348 kg (767 lb) over 100 hives in a season. No special pumping. Has I think among the highest average per hive production.
I know in QLD, you have SHB.
Max, don't tell anyone else
GEoff
Re: How do you wind down your colonies as the season draws to an end?
For those of you that pull the supers and store them. What's your storage process?
Re: How do you wind down your colonies as the season draws to an end?
After the bees clean them up, I put them under the shop, open air, out of weather, stacked up on top of each other with each turned 90 degrees from the one below. This allows enough light and air flow to keep the wax moths from showing up. I have never had a problem with moths. And yes, we do have plenty of wax moths when a hive dies down. By the time fall rolls around and we start getting some frosty nights, I stack them tight on top of each other with screen on the bottom and a lid on top of each stack, mostly to keep the mice out.
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