Extracting without an extractor

[1954Lincoln]

Is the a method to extract honey without and extractor? I went into the hives on Friday and in each double deep hive I only have 2.5 frames of brood and the rest are sugar syrup. I want to clear out a couple of combs each to make room for the queen to lay. I have not fed them for a week to slow them down on filling up the hives.

Any suggestions?

[JWPalmer]

Sounds like you have quite a bit of syrup stored already. Find two frames that are mostly uncapped and simply rinse them out in your kitchen sink. The sprayer works well with cold to tepid water. Shake them dry and put one frame on either side of the current brood nest. Check back in a week to see if both have eggs. If they do, grab one more frame and repeat. That will give you six brood frames which should be enough for this time of year. Do not provide any more feed. A deep full of syrup is plenty for where you are and there should be a fall flow of sorts for their immediate needs.

[rwlaw]

Yup what JW says, you can also try to shake them out right off, might get the majority which is what’s needed.

[GregV]

Is the a method to extract honey without and extractor? I went into the hives on Friday and in each double deep hive I only have 2.5 frames of brood and the rest are sugar syrup. I want to clear out a couple of combs each to make room for the queen to lay. I have not fed them for a week to slow them down on filling up the hives.

Any suggestions?

Why extract?
Don't you have any spare empty frames?
Even just foundation?

Just remove the sugar syrup frames for later - freeze them what not (be waste to dump all that work already done).
Insert your spares next to the brood.
Done.

[1954Lincoln]

Why extract?
Don't you have any spare empty frames?
Even just foundation?

Just remove the sugar syrup frames for later - freeze them what not (be waste to dump all that work already done).
Insert your spares next to the brood.
Done.

Thank you for your replys.

I did have 2 frames in each hive that did not have comb on them. I was checker boarding my empty frames in from the outside in to see if the bees would build comb on them. I think this is the reason I have tons of stores and little brood. I found another half frame of brood so I set up the brood box as follow for both hives:

Stores
Store
Stores/brood (outer/inner)
Empty
Brood
Brood
Empty
brood/stores. (Inner/outer)
Stores
Stores

I moved the extra stores to the upper box to place the empties down below

If I use the empty frames will I have to keep feeding or will the bees use available food sources?

If I dont see much action I will rinse some stores frames.

[1954Lincoln]

I started back in June feeding 1:1 syrup and switched 2:1 mid july. I just read that the bees use 1:1 for building and 2:1 for storage.

Is there any truth to this? I did have a large stores build up in Aug/Sept.

[Oldtimer]

It's a weak hive. The bees have done their sums, ie, figured out what winter stores they have, and how much of that they want to invest in raising brood at this time. Because to them, if they raise a whole lot of brood now, they will use too much of their winter stores, so they keep brood down to a couple of frames or so, that is the sensible amount to them. They do not know that there is a benevolent being (you), who will make sure they stay fed.

Your hive is not like some other breeds, which will just raise heaps of brood, use all their feed, and starve.

For the hive pictured I would not remove any feed combs, in fact I would keep feeding them, slowly so it feels like a flow, and put a couple of emptyish combs either side of the brood. Don't mess with them too much, allow them to build the hive the way they want it. Just encourage them gently, and keep the entrance very small so they won't get robbed.

I would also be doing something about mites. Not a vapor like thymol, OAV, or formic acid, doesn't work too well in hives like yours, something gentle like apivar strips would be ideal.

[1954Lincoln]

Thanks for the reply.

I did finish a 21 day on the 9th OA application via a wand. I will order some strips.

My goal is to make it through the winter and to use the bees as pollinators for my fruit trees.

[GregV]

......My goal is to make it through the winter and to use the bees as pollinators for my fruit trees.

Without knowing the details I will still say - you likely don't even need these bees as your tree pollinators, for all the costs and hassles attached.

I have plenty of fruit trees in my care.
My bees have been ignoring my fruit trees (for as long as I run my own hives).
Honey bees in general have been ignoring my fruit trees for as long as I have been doing the trees (at some 10-15 years now).
The crops (plenty good crops I should brag) are always there due plenty of native pollinator-bugs as it is.

I would reconsider the entire thing to see if 1) the problem truly exists and 2) what exactly is the problem and its best, possible solution.

[1954Lincoln]

Without knowing the details I will still say - you likely don't even need these bees as your tree pollinators, for all the costs and hassles attached.

I have plenty of fruit trees in my care.
My bees have been ignoring my fruit trees (for as long as I run my own hives).
Honey bees in general have been ignoring my fruit trees for as long as I have been doing the trees (at some 10-15 years now).
The crops (plenty good crops I should brag) are always there due plenty of native pollinator-bugs as it is.

I would reconsider the entire thing to see if 1) the problem truly exists and 2) what exactly is the problem and its best, possible solution.

I like the challenge bees give

[GregV]

I like the challenge bees give

OK, so this is not really about pollinating your trees.
Basically, you will not likely see an objective measurable difference before and after, if you even care to go that far.

Sure; not a problem; I like bees too (just not as my critical pollinators - they are pretty worthless pollinators in my program and in my locality).