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snoop

House Bee
Joined
Oct 23, 2009
Messages
328
Reaction score
2
Location
Cork Ireland
Hive Type
Langstroth
Number of Hives
poly hives
Love to try some sections this year any hints?????
 
I have never tried them but one day for sure. The best tip I have been given and also seen it repeated on this forum is don't go for a full super full of sections but instead drop a few section frames into the centre of supers full of regular frames. This way you apparently increase your chance of nice fully capped sections
 
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Do you need the sections and the frames?
 
The usual advice is to crowd the bees and put sections on when there is a good flow. I've had success with square hanging sections : as above, three frames of hanging sections in the middle of a super.

Here is another tip which I keep meaning to try. From Dave Cushman's site :

Instead of trying to get them (the sections) filled as the honey comes in, we gather our honey in shallow combs as usual. Then we extract the honey when it is capped (so that we know it is fully evaporated). The preferred time is as a flow is coming to an end, then we replace the supers with two section crates and a Miller feeder on the top of them and fill the miller feeder with the honey we have extracted

Sounds like a good plan, (apart from the extraction...!) Must give it a go this season - if it ever stops raining.....
 
Old users of this forum will be bored with hearing this.....but here we go....if you are using square sections make sure you put the foundation in the right way up with the points of the hexagon facing up and down and not from side to side. Some say it doesn't matter but it did to my bees! To be honest I found sections such hard work I gave in. The bees really dislike using them, it is easier to use wireless foundation and get a cutter that will nicely cut a decent square or two out of the frame. Keep the scraps for yourself. Much easier!
E
 
I think all beekeepers should be sectioned at some time...
 
If you can produce half decent sections put them in the National Honey Show. It's one of the least entered classes.
 
Snoop, noted that you are in Ireland, is this for Heather? Heather sections are a tradition, but by all accounts a particularly difficult one!

Have you been doing cut comb?
Definitely easier, even if (for Heather Cut Comb) you adopt the scheme that was described in a BBKA magazine article last year - get the combs drawn on a Spring/Summer flow, extract them (gently with a radial) and only give the bees back that drawn comb when they go to the heather. The point being that the heather flow is too short and precious to be having the bees using it for making wax! (And of course, that has to happen with sections ...)
Thin, unwired foundation, a cutter (quick while the Sale is on) and some 'crystal' containers are all you need to give it a try.
 
Yes, basswood sections, three to a national section holder, plus however many dividers.

Snoop is on Langstroth!
I'm not sure who offers section holders (as opposed to full section racks) for Langstroth ... But easy to get for Itchy on Nationals.
 
Yes I am in Ireland , using langstroth poly boxes and there is no heather where I live so it would be mainly blackberry & clover . I have been doing cut comb I get 13 225gr pieces from a full brood frame with virtually nothing left over .
 
Yes I am in Ireland , using langstroth poly boxes and there is no heather where I live so it would be mainly blackberry & clover.

ISBN 0-915698-08-0
Honey in the Comb - by Eugene E. Killion, - Dadant & Sons, Hamilton, Illinois 1981, 142p.

(FIBKA Library: Order number 71)

Regards
Reiner
 
Well , English Sections , Irish Sections or Ross rounds ?
 
1) get the combs drawn on a Spring/Summer flow, extract them (gently with a radial) and only give the bees back that drawn comb when they go to the heather. The point being that the heather flow is too short and precious to be having the bees using it for making wax! (And of course, that has to happen with sections ...)

2) Thin, unwired foundation, a cutter (quick while the Sale is on) and some 'crystal' containers are all you need to give it a try.


1) You do need to get the bees to clean up the combs before putting them on to a heather flow, otherwise any residue honey blossom may / will crystallise within the heather, giving you crunchy heather honey. (I found out the hard way)



2) I have found cutters to be a pain to use, and unless you are going for show cut comb, save your money and use a kitchen knife.

PS IMHO Sections and cut comb just aren't the same thing!!
 
"PS IMHO Sections and cut comb just aren't the same thing!!"

Care to expand?
 
"PS IMHO Sections and cut comb just aren't the same thing!!"

Care to expand?

On reflection, perhaps I should have put product, rather than thing...

Yes, they are both honey in the comb, but not many people drain cut comb properly, unless it is for show. A chunk of comb, swimming in honey, isn't the same as a "mini" honeycomb. A good section is a very special gift for someone who enjoys comb honey and some customers seek it out and are happy to pay a premium price for it. It could be said to be the "purest" form of honey from the hive, (virtually) untouched by human hands....!

Anyway, that's my view, Itchy - I hope to hear other opinions.




To beekeeping4you re:


ISBN 0-915698-08-0
Honey in the Comb - by Eugene E. Killion, - Dadant & Sons, Hamilton, Illinois 1981, 142p.

(FIBKA Library: Order number 71)

Regards
Reiner


May I ask if you have found this book helpful? ta
 
Thanks Bontbee, that's my interpretation of sections and cut comb too
 
Honey in the Comb - by Eugene E. Killion, - Dadant & Sons, Hamilton, Illinois 1981

May I ask if you have found this book helpful? ta
Hi bontbee,

Yes, I did.
At the start of the main honey flow in the summer of 1992, when we were still only beginners, but such with the intention of producing honey for sale, we proceeded (not 100% exactly) according to the information taken from Killion's book:
One of our strongest colonies on double Langstroth brood had made swarming preparations. We put the queen into a nuc box together with the usual number of frames containing the right combination of brood and stores and a just sufficient amount of bees to cover the brood area on the frames.
The upper brood box was then taken to the side and immediately replaced by two section racks with 9 Ross Rounds frames each, containing 2 x 36 = 72 round sections. No queen excluder was used between brood box and section racks.All bees which had occupied the top box were shaken in front of the entrance and and after entering the hive were forced to move up into the sections just because of the lack of space in the remaining single brood box.
Queen cells were removed after 7 days leaving only one intact. We were able at the end of the honey flow to harvest 64 sections of which only about four or five (I do not remember the exact amount) were not perfect regarding weight and capping.
Unfortunately the necessity to increase the number of colonies under extreme difficult conditions (we still kept black bees at the time) did not leave any room for a repetition of this successful experiment. The price we had to charge for each of the sections due to the massive cost for the material was also too high for the pre-tiger years, so we subsequently concentrated on producing honey in the jar and breeding bees and queens for sale.
The book was very helpful. All steps are explained and illustrated in a simple way and can be easily followed by the commercial as well as by a hobby beekeeper.

Regards,
Reiner
 
Hi Reiner,

Thanks for the thumbs up, and for the explanation of how Killion recommends working the bees. It fits with the general idea of crowding bees, but takes it a step further by removing the queen so the only focus for the colony is nectar, nectar, nectar.

Out of interest, I did a search for the book, but it seems to be out of print. Perhaps that is a sign for me to hold back on yet another book and, as I now have a method, I can't say I need it! I appreciate you taking the time to set it out, thank you.
 
Hi bontbee,

Yes, I did.
At the start of the main honey flow in the summer of 1992, when we were still only beginners, but such with the intention of producing honey for sale, we proceeded (not 100% exactly) according to the information taken from Killion's book:
One of our strongest colonies on double Langstroth brood had made swarming preparations. We put the queen into a nuc box together with the usual number of frames containing the right combination of brood and stores and a just sufficient amount of bees to cover the brood area on the frames.
The upper brood box was then taken to the side and immediately replaced by two section racks with 9 Ross Rounds frames each, containing 2 x 36 = 72 round sections. No queen excluder was used between brood box and section racks.All bees which had occupied the top box were shaken in front of the entrance and and after entering the hive were forced to move up into the sections just because of the lack of space in the remaining single brood box.
Queen cells were removed after 7 days leaving only one intact. We were able at the end of the honey flow to harvest 64 sections of which only about four or five (I do not remember the exact amount) were not perfect regarding weight and capping.
Unfortunately the necessity to increase the number of colonies under extreme difficult conditions (we still kept black bees at the time) did not leave any room for a repetition of this successful experiment. The price we had to charge for each of the sections due to the massive cost for the material was also too high for the pre-tiger years, so we subsequently concentrated on producing honey in the jar and breeding bees and queens for sale.
The book was very helpful. All steps are explained and illustrated in a simple way and can be easily followed by the commercial as well as by a hobby beekeeper.

Regards,
Reiner

You took off 64 of the 72 , does this mean that the 2 outsides of the Rossrounds ( 8 in total) were not filled . I have made up a section crate from Langstroth poly brood box to take 72 rossrounds
 

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