[Marcus Griffin]

I extracted honey for the first time today. The honey is delicious. So much so that I figured I'd let bees clean up the residue instead of using soap and water. The result is the following:

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/2575/img18376xl.png

This about 200ft. from the hives and they are fighting--honey robbing I suppose. I feel real bad about so many bees dieing due to my stuipidy/ignorance--bees drowing in honey sheesh. Some first lesssons are pretty hard....especially when harder on others than oneself.

Any other similarly dumb things anyone else do that I can avoid?

 

[beecron]

I hope the dog wasn't hungry that day!!

--Any other similarly dumb things anyone else do that I can avoid?--

Better start a new web site devoted strictly to the dumb things I'm sure many of us have done and learned from!

 

[Parke County Queen]

Don't feel so bad. I did the same thing.

 

[iddee]

Don't bury them yet. I think you will be pleasantly surprized how many get out and fly away by tommorrow night. I have seen many times 2 lb or more were totally soaked, just to find the next day only a few had died.

 

[George Fergusson]

One day I put some cappings out to be cleaned up:

http://www.sweettimeapiary.com/pics/bees-on-table.jpg

No mass die-off of bees during this fiasco, but my porch was not the place to hangout that afternoon... The humorous element was when I decided to take the pan of bees:

http://www.sweettimeapiary.com/pics/pan-o-bees.jpg

...and move them off the deck and out into the yard. I picked up the pan (no veil, no gloves, no suit) and was carrying it out into my driveway when a car pulled in... I greeted it.. Jehovah's Witnesses. The windows closed really fast and the look on their faces as they backed out of my driveway was priceless

George-

 

[Michael Bush]

Sometimes it works to let them clean it up and sometimes it results in a battle.

 

[power napper]

The girls seem to lose all their manners at times. Been there and done that!

 

[Tom Chaudoir]

Seems like it would be more orderly to put the pan in an empty super on top of the hive. Maybe thin the honey with some warm water. Just a thought.

 

[BaldyLocks]

I typically do what Tom suggested (put stuff in an empty super on top of the inner cover). Like others have said though, sometimes you can't fit stuff in the box so when you leave it out for them to clean, it works sometimes and doesn't sometimes. Usually it is not as bad as it looks though some bees always die. Remember, more bees are being made every day so some loss is not the end of the colony

 

[Alex Cantacuzene]

Hi George et al. Just this morning I could close the garage door again. I had a medium with frames in the garage and forgot two full frames that I was going to give them as feed. Well they found them and the garage windows looked like George's pan. I left the roll-up door open and they were so numerous they turned the security light on at night. Hopefully they are off looking for other sources today.

 

[beecron]

OK, remember what I said about doing stupid things? Let me remind you:

"Better start a new web site devoted strictly to the dumb things I'm sure many of us have done and learned from!"

Got another to add to the mental list today: Visited the hives and realized when I got there I had forgotten my smoker. "No problem" I thought. "Lots of people on here don't use them. I'll just be in and out quickly yet carefully, not disturb them too much."

That went fine on the first two hives, but the third one wasn't pretty. By the way, I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt like I usually do.

Note to self: When you forget the smoker, and you're wearing shorts, forget it and come back another day!

 

[iddee]

>>>>Note to self: When you forget the smoker, and you're wearing shorts, forget it and come back another day!<<<<

How much is it swelled, Honey?

 

[Marcus Griffin]

Shorts and a t-shirt--you're a bigger man than me, beecron.

Wait, given iddee's response, mine doesn't quite sound right. Anyway...iddee was right in that not all of the bees were done dead. A number had a honey hangover and eventually were able to fly away the next day. My biggest mistake was not realizing how much honey was in the extractor filming the sides. So a large puddle of honey resulted in the pan that I did not intend. Hence the drowning.

 

[beecron]

--How much is it swelled, Honey?--

Fortunately for me, they didn't get that high...just hit my legs pretty good.

--Shorts and a t-shirt--you're a bigger man than me, beecron.--

I usually do wear those, but not without smoke. I've never had any problems. Sometimes I tape the shorts shut on the bottom to keep 'em from wanderin'.