[USCBeeMan]

Do to my wife's illness I couldn't leave her alone much of the last part of last year. Things are not going to get better. I can no longer take care of the farm. I can't afford to fix broken equipment and everything I do is manual with shovels, hoes, mattock, etc.

I fell way behind. I ended up pulling off a lot of supers with capped and uncapped honey in October. At that time my extractor and capping box were in my large barn where I extract during the warm season. I have since picked up some more supers of honey from deadouts.

They needed to be moved down to my shop by the house and cleaned up from the residual crystallized honey in both. Took a while before I could get them moved then it was getting too cold to wash them up. I finally just scraped out what I could to heat and filter and left the rest in the equipment for the bees to clean up outside the shop when it wasn't raining.

Everything has been cleaned up by the bees and I can heat up some water on a propane cooker to clean the equipment spotless.

While my shop has a wood stove that I can use for heat, it rarely gets above 65. If I could keep it stoked around the clock I might could get it to 70. I could also fire up the cooker for extra heat.

I have checked some of the supers and have found little to no crystallization of the honey in the frames.

I have sold my farm and will be moving into town around the end of April. The new home has a building with a coop and a small enclosed room with electricity. My plan is to use this area for a honey house.

I know I have raved on but I wanted to give you my scenario. I am wondering if I should go ahead and attempt to uncap and extract the honey now at a temp of 65 to 70 or wait till it gets warmer or wait until I have the small honey house building?

P.S. I will close on the home around the end of March but the sellers are renting until the end of April and I am renting the farm house. In theory, the new building is mine. I am going to be able to start moving stuff into the garage of the new home after closing. Do you think I would use much electricity with the extractor? I have around 20 to 30 supers. And what should I deduct from the rent for the use of their electricity?

 

[Vance G]

If you can come up with a tarp or plastic sheeting, you can tent those honey supers and use a space heater to bring them up into the eighties and nineties so they will extract better. You sound like you will land on your feet. In the final analysis, that is all we can hope for. Good luck.

 

[Fivej]

Hey Ken. Sorry to hear about your difficulties. Have been dealing with some in my own family and that puts beekeeping far down the list. To answer your specific question, I can't imagine that your extractor would use much electricity extracting 20-30 supers. I would be guessing how much so would suggest that you offer the difference in the April 2018 bill and the 2019 bill. Another option would be to offer them some amount of honey that would be fair. If they are normal good people they will probably tell you not to worry about the small electricity use, but gladly take a couple jars of your honey. Best of luck. J

 

[USCBeeMan]

I hadn't thought about some honey for using his electricity. Will give that a shot once we close or get to meet them.