2013 Fall Honey Harvest

Today was a real success! We harvested the most honey ever since we began our beekeeping adventures! Happy Fall Everyone!

BEE SPITTLE!
Fore ground, yours truly de-capping honey super frames. Background, Alex's "baby," the sprayer

Removing white cappings with thermostatically controlled knife

 Wax cappings drop into capping tub

 12 Frame Extractor. Here is a frame de-capped, loaded and ready to go!

 See the pile of cappings in the tub?

 Honey Harvest Setup in Benoit Farm Shop

 This extractor makes extracting a breeze! Look at that baby spin!

 Yea for Honey Harvest! (Aunt Mary and Cowboy Robert)

 Freshly extracted honey drips into...

 Screen sits on top of this bucket. The screen removes any access wax and other bits and pieces etc.

 Screen/bucket setup

 Honey Bears awaiting filling

 Almost done! Once honey runs through screen we are set to begin bottling (and yes, I have THAT much hair on my head!)

 Partway through the bottling. We filled a few mason jars as well for at home use.

End of summer and Wax Moths

We are only a few weeks away from our fall harvest. It looks like we will have nearly all the frames from both hives to harvest from. Unfortunately, with the extremely dry and hot weather, when we checked in on the girls today, from all appearances, the nectar flow must be over because there was little to no progress made from when we checked a few weeks ago. But we are still excited to be able to harvest from both hives this go around--a first for us!

Bad news, when we checked on our extra honey supers (which we keep stored away in my Dad's shop when not in use) Wax Moths had completely destroyed the comb throughout the entire box. We have never had Wax Moths before and weren't real concerned with them due in part because we are working on only 2 hives. But obviously, they are a real problem no matter how large or small your beekeeping operation may be. We had to rip all of the bees' nicely drawn comb out. It kind of made us sick to do it, as it was filled with eggs, larva and a few adult moths. Back to square 1. Looking at it as a lesson learned; next time we will have our moth crystals ready!

Of course...photos below:

 Your truly!

 Haha! Staged or not staged? :)

 Smoke

 More Smoke

 Empty frames, after removing all infested comb

 The yellow, powdery stuff is a byproduct of the moths

 See the little brown eggs? GROSS!

Adult Wax Moth!!!

More Summer PHOTOS and new gear!

Here are some recent photos of the going ons at Bee Spittle Farms!

 Essential tools: a smoker and hive tool

 Mary inspecting honey supers

 The some of the girls hanging out, cooling off

 Lots of white cap...you know what that means. Honey!

 Some new fuel for our smoker and a new hive tool!

Summer 2013 Update

We had our first honey harvest of the year July 13th. Only one hive was ready to be harvested (the west colony). We got about 15 lbs of honey. The east hive is much slower to produce. We are hoping both hives will be ready for another harvest come this fall.

We also purchased a 12 frame, electric extractor from a very nice fellow we were introduced to via my step-grandpa who is a mail carrier. Cecil knew that we were just getting into the "honey business" and Leon Bradon on his mail route was getting out. We got the heads up from Cecil and made a phone call. The extractor is amazing! Like new and Leon sold it to us for a great price...it was so generous of him to do so! So this honey harvest went even smoother than last year with our excellent extractor.

I made a few new friends and purchased the cutest cards and little notebook that I plan to keep our beekeeping notes in. K & A Alesandrini are beekeeper themselves and make paper goods, their store front name being Little Alexander and I stumbled upon their lovely products while browsing on Esty one day. K is an artist and her "color me combine cards" on her site just screamed, "Robert!" I just had to purchase a pack...and while doing so saw their "bee hive" cards and their cute notebooks. They, unfortunately, lost both their hives this past winter. I wish them the best of luck as they look to begin again next year...and thank them for their cute, quality items!  Here is their shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/LittleAlexander

BEE SPITTLE!

Spring PHOTO update

As promised...photos of the girls thus far this spring!

Guard Bee

 Look at all that brood (Baby Bee Spittle Farm Workers!)

 White Cap = BEE SPITTLE!

Bee Spittle = HONEY!

 Peeking up at us...maybe it's time to smoke them again!

 Use smoker now!!!

BEE SPITTLE!

Spring!

As always, I am a bit behind on updating our beespittle fans. Recently we de-winterized the hives by removing the tar paper and rotating the hive bodies (top box to bottom and bottom to top). We just decided to take on this chore kind of last minute and didn't put too much thought into it. We had already read up on what to do/expect, so we weren't too worried...but we probably should have been! Out of all of our experiences with beekeeping thus far, this was by-in-large the most INTENSE! When we got the hive bodies apart and started to rotate them, needless to say, the girls weren't too happy about it. I kind of had a freak out moment and ran back to the 4-wheeler where our supplies were, at about 30 ft away, to catch my breath and calm down-leaving my poor husband high and dry, haha! And while doing so I nearly stepped on a snake! (That didn't aid in the "settling down" process.) Which shouldn't been real surprising, considering the hives are backed up against my parents woods, but that was actually the first snake I have ever seen when beekeeping.

In the end we left with out any be stings (DH might of gotten stung on the shin, but he couldn't ever really tell if it was an actual sting or thorn, or what...so I am not counting it!) but it was INTENSE.

Spring is late to arrive this year, so we added the honey supers and decided against feeding and medicating the girls due to time constraints.

Finally, though I am sure our "following" is quite small, if you happen to know of anyone who has a honey extractor they are looking to selling, send them our way. We are looking to purchase one rather than rent this year.

More pictures soon folks!

Beespittle!

Winter Photos

 Winterized hive. Wrapped in tar paper.

 Guard bee in front of entrance to hive with metal mouse guard in place.

Bee Spittle!