I Use Bees!
Jun. 21st, 2011 12:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teaberryblue
Hive #1 has been getting pretty full up with honey, so my mom and I went in and took out a few frames this weekend.
This is what the hive looks like on the inside.
Each box is full of frames where the bees build honeycomb, and then either they fill the comb with honey (or pollen, sometimes), or the queen bee lays eggs inside the comb and then there are new baby bees!
Here are some of the tools we use when we take the frames from the hive.
You use this to grab the frame out of the hive:
Now, bees are actually quite friendly. They land on me all the time and I’ve never been stung. But they do get a little bit annoyed when you take out honey or otherwise disrupt the hive, and the best way to get them to calm down is to put a little smoke in the hive.
With this!
It always reminds me a little of the Tin Man.
Anyway, here’s what a full frame of honey looks like:
When bees are done putting honey into comb, they cap it up, like this is, and that’s how you know it’s full.
So then the first thing you need to do is cut the caps off:
Then, you put all the frames in a honey extractor:
An extractor is basically a big metal tub, sort of like an old fashioned ice cream maker, and it has a crank which you use to spin the frames really really really fast:
And by the power of centripetal force, the honey all spins out!
The extractor has a spigot on the bottom, which you use to collect the honey into a bucket:
Or what you will. Theoretically you could collect it into a hat, or straight into your mouth.
Now, the cool thing is, you can give the empty frames right back to the bees, and they will just go fill them right back up!
Meanwhile, the honey has little bits of max and bee dirt in it, so it gets strained:
That’s the honey being poured through the strainer. We pour it through three different meshes before it’s ready.
You can tell it’s ready when it’s clarified, and when your hands are completely sticky:
We only took out four frames out of forty in our hive, and we got six POUNDS of honey. Eeee, so exciting. It’s really cool, because this honey tastes completely different from the honey we collected last fall. That honey is really rich and dark and mostly goldenrod. This honey is really light and clear and tastes like chamomile and strawberries. They’re both amazing, but in different ways.
Mirrored from Antagonia.net.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 05:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 05:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 06:06 am (UTC)How long is a jar of honey good for, or what's its shelf life?
Do you have to seal the jars like a canning process to sell it or can you just put a lable on it and call it done?
If a hive has all full combs of honey (they haven't been emptied by the keeper) do the bees start a nest or whatever elsewhere? And how often do you have to empty the combs?
I realize I could google/wiki most of this but I am curious to hear about someone I kind of know doing this and how your ways of doing it might differ from what the 'books' say to do.
One last and then I promise to STFU. Is there any way to protect your hives from the hive collapse thing that has everyone so worried? (thinking good thoughts for healthy bees for you!)
Thank you kindly for your information, one way or another.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 06:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 06:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 11:55 am (UTC)Once you figure out the living sitch, I will totally send you some! I am amassing a little collection of stuffs I want to mail you! I just don't want to send you more crap you just have to move somewhere else again!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 11:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 01:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 01:40 pm (UTC)1) Barring something weird, you can keep honey for pretty much ever. It's basically liquid sugar. It rarely goes bad, but it can crystallize, and you can either use it crystallized or reconstitute it.
2) We don't sell our honey, so I don't know what the law is, but it probably varies from place to place. We use airtight bottles that self-seal when you put the lids on.
3) You pretty much empty the combs when they're full. Last year, we only did it once but I suspect we will have to do it three times this year, at this rate. If a hive gets too full, you can add another box to it. Bees will keep on producing honey and more bees as long as they have space. But a hive can get too big either for the space in it or to be supported by one queen, and then they can swarm, yes. Which is when they leave and try to find a new place to live.
4) Colony collapse is a weird thing and no one knows exactly what causes it. What it actually IS is that bees swarm and fly too far without creating a new hive, and die. One thing that can prevent this is making sure your hives are bees that have been established locally, so they're comfortable in their environs. It also seems like CCD is related to stress, so making sure bees have everything they need, and you give them bee medicine to prevent sickness, and things like that, can help prevent it.
I'm still new at this so I don't know everything and I'm still learning.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 04:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 05:09 pm (UTC)GOD I AM A NERD.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 05:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 05:27 pm (UTC)You should come see the bees sometime. They are amazing and super friendly.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 06:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 06:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 07:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 08:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 08:08 pm (UTC)And yeah, I am so pleased I don't need to buy honey anymore.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 08:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 08:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 08:09 pm (UTC)I keep hoping an Idol topic will come up that I can use honey for.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 08:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 08:16 pm (UTC)But Chalice has a protagonist who works magic with honey and it's so good and the beekeeping is all so well-researched and the bees act like bees and it makes me feel like I'm reading about me!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 08:21 pm (UTC)*squee* oh how I love books :D Adding it to my to-read list now, it sounds right up my alley!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-21 08:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-22 12:10 am (UTC)will you try noshing on the comb too?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-22 01:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-22 07:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-22 08:46 am (UTC)I love the word Chalice! Chalices from the palace!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-23 04:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-23 04:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-29 12:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-04 03:28 pm (UTC)