Fall Beekeeping

Vet2Be and Hubby checked the bees on Friday (9/25) and put on a bee escape. The bees can go down through the escape, but can't get back up. We are ready to harvest some honey (which is unusual for a first year hive where we live) and we didn't want any bees on the super.

  Here is a photo of the bee escape Hubby. 

There are a few different styles, but Hubby likes this kind the best.

  Another view. The bees come out at the edge of the triangle and can't get back up through.

Hubby also tried a new type of smoker fuel this weekend. They have used pine needles in the past. Hubby said this stuff lasts for hours in the smoker and does a better job. 

Ross Rounds in the shallow super. We got 18 full rounds this year. Many will be gifts for Christmas.

Hubby said the super weighed at least 60 pounds! He said we will probably get about 30 pounds of honey since the weight also includes the wax and the brood (the queen visited the super). You can see the 4 frames stuck to the medium super. Vet2Be is ready with his hive tool to get them unstuck.

Two medium supers (top and bottom) and the Ross Round super in the middle.

Checking on all the bees in the top deep super. They look great and have plenty of honey for the winter. Hubby is scraping off the burr comb that the bees made while Vet2Be is using the smoker.

 The bee escape installed. It doesn't look like much from this photo because the triangle screen is on the bottom of the unfinished board.

All back together.

The Ross Rounds all ready for gift giving. There will probably be a few left that we can sell, too.

Hubby went to a neighbor's house to spin out the honey on Saturday. It drained for about 24 hours into  bucket. Seems like there is about 25 pounds of honey in the bucket. We are grateful for wonderful neighbors who let us use their equipment!

Here is the first quart of honey in a quart jar. We were so excited to pick up the honey from our neighbors that we just had to fill one jar and look at it.