What did you do in the Apiary today?

[zubzub]

It had been off for 2 days and left in kitchen,What you suggest is the same as tonybloke said in ref to being hydrogscopic.
needed to remove for apiguard treatment.
Is there anyway to reduce water content once extracted?

ZZ

 

[user 6228]

It had been off for 2 days and left in kitchen,What you suggest is the same as tonybloke said in ref to being hydrogscopic.
needed to remove for apiguard treatment.
Is there anyway to reduce water content once extracted?

ZZ

put in a sealed contain with something with a greater affinity for water than honey. or use a vacuum pump and vacuum chamber.

 

[zubzub]

with something with a greater affinity for water
What would you rec as having a greater affinity for water than honey?

ZZ

 

[zubzub]

Just noticed that this thread has just topped 2,000 replies is this a thread record for this forum?

ZZ

 

[pbh4]

What would you rec as having a greater affinity for water than honey?

ZZ

Silica gel. Worked for me.

 

[zubzub]

I did consider sillica gel sacks but thought it would take a lot of them to make a difference. having said that is 21% too high?

ZZ

 

[Mike a]

Simple mistake....

Finally the colony have capped 99% of the honey in the 14x12 chamber I was using as a super above the QE so I took it off yesterday and went round a friends house to put it in the warming cabinet over night to warm through to make the whole extracting process a lot quicker today. I however made one fatal mistake, I forget to reset the thermostat to 28-30’C max, so today when I went to take it out and extract it I found the huge puddle of honey across the floor, the cabinet still had a huge pool of honey at the bottom and most of the 14x12 combs full of honey had sheared off and collapsed making a hell of mess. All told I guess I’ve lost about 30-35 lbs worth, I spent over an hour scrapping up off the floor what I could with my hands and then used a sponge and water to clean up the rest. The cabinet is now stood in a huge deep tray to collect as much of the honey as possible.

Most of what I scrapped up with my hands I will water down slightly and feed back to ensure they have more than enough to see them through Winter and some of it will be used to make some mead. Tomorrow I will recover as much of the collapsed comb as I can in a bucket and mash it up and strain it as it will be ok to jar up as its still sealed in the combs. I simply forgot the temperature in the cabinet with one 60W light bulb get up to 45’C - 50'C so one by one the combs failed under their own weight of honey before shearing off. Its not all bad though as I still have another 8-9 langstroth shallow frames to extract.

What you can see in the picture is a shot between two frames looking down at the mess on the bottom bars inside the warming cabinet.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Just noticed that this thread has just topped 2,000 replies is this a thread record for this forum?

ZZ

Threads over 1000:

What did you do in the Apiary today? - 2,006 (well 2007 including this one)
First Word in your head - 1,927
3 Word Story - 1,073
Import of NZ bees into UK - 1,024

 

[drstitson]

WPF threads not up there yet then!!!!

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

WPF threads not up there yet then!!!!

Nah, biggest of them is a paltry 431

 

[Chris Luck]

What a bummer Mike. Still, I nearly left the lid of a hive the other day and remembered after dark just in time before it pissed down all night. It's so easy to forget those little things that can end in a mess.

Chris

 

[witchcraft]

Went up to my apiary, hive 1 still queenless, new queen booked for next week, hive 2 all lovely added the second week's APLV and strimmed the grass (bees hate it!).

As I was tiding up the agronomist for the farmer on whose land my bees are came up, introduced himself (nice chap) and gave me a 10 pack of Apistan that his insecticide supplier had given him. I didn't need it but took it all the same and thanked him but I was rather pleased that the farming chemical suppliers realise that there are bees on the land their products are sprayed on at least.

 

[Chris Luck]

Why would a farmer use Apistan? I'm sure it's a dumb question.

Chris

 

[witchcraft]

Why would a farmer use Apistan? I'm sure it's a dumb question.

Chris

I think the idea is he/she wouldn't have a need for it at all, but they could give it out to the beekeepers who are pollinating their crops for them and make the beekeeper feel more positive about the agrochemical businesses which I do a bit now. (Apilife Var would have been more welcome as I'm sure Suffolk is Apistan resistant.)

 

[Chris Luck]

Great, promoting agrochemicals. The government here is trying to promote the opposite, less toxins and more natural methods for farming, surprised the UK isn't doing the same.

Chris

 

[Jimmy]

Chris
Agronomists have not been employed by the government since the early 1990s (??) and the privatisation of ADAS. They will all be private sector employees.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Was going to check up on hive no1 and put on the unfilled frames in the hope they'd take them down, but the the rain started so I just watched the bees busily going about their business regardless of the weather through the binoculars I keep in the kitchen and mixed up a batch of HM's thymol emulsion Ever thought of marketing it HM?
By the way the glasses in the kitchen are solely for the bees :yes one of my neighbours does sunbathe naked - I accidentally spotted her once - thought I'd gone blind!! a nasty old business, in fact I offerred to help with the cost of him putting a six foot fence around their garden!!

 

[madasafish]

Continued feeding.Bees still drawing out new comb as the HB is still in full flow.

Cut more grass..

 

[TOBY-3652]

Killed old ginger queen that im fed up with and introduced new one and united bees where queen was

 

[Chris Luck]

Read my words Jimmy, read my words.

Chris