It warmed up enough today to sit out the items still left from the honey extraction that needed to be cleaned. I stopped sitting my tub and spin extractor out because the left over honey was pooling a bit in the bottoms and drowning a number of bees. What I do now is turn them over on top of some newspaper and let em sit over night after I get tired of waiting for the honey coating to drain. This way the remaining honey spreads out thin enough that it doesn't drown the girls.
I do sit the strainer, extra cappings and sludge remains of the comb out on newspaper or old pieces of board to allow the bees to glean every bit of honey they can get off of em.
Well today I managed to create a pissed off swarm of bees that are literally covering everything. I also managed to spill a bit of honey on my boot so I had a small swarm of foragers following me around while I was taking down the garden and winding up electric fence wire.
The second picture is one of the pile of comb pieces that were captured by the filter screen. I scraped em off and put them on this bit of plywood. It's now a massive pile of bees.
After a few minutes the bees had worked themselves up into such a frenzy they were flying literally everywhere. Around the house, on the deck, waiting at the door for me to come back out. I think I will just go find something to do down at the barn as some of the girls are acting a bit aggressive about the entire thing.
If I am ever going to get stung just because I got too close to a hive it is almost always late Fall when it happens. The girls are always a bit touchy for a few days after I get into a hive but during the Late Fall period they can get downright mean if you get too close to them even if you haven't cracked the top of their hive for weeks.
By the looks of the cloud hitting the stuff I sat out for them I imagine it will be cleaned pretty good by nightfall. When you consider that it takes a million little bee trips to produce one teaspoon of honey every little bit helps.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
They need all they can get if it is another winter like last year. You might need more protection around the hives as well, I guess the wind cools them down just like in our house.
ReplyDeleteSf - Well wrapping them in the foam insulation I hope will be enough. Not sure how much more I can do but I did leave em a lot of honey for emergencies.
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ReplyDeleteYou need to stop ticking your bee's off.
Don't listen to me sing this knock off song.......Bad Bee's, Bad Bee's, What You Gonna Do When They Come For You!!!!!
Sandy - They just don't understand that half their Fall honey goes to rent. I even gave em backa fair amount. They were out there still this morning although not as heavy.
DeleteIt looks like Ferguson Mo. or a free food hand out...LOL
ReplyDeleteRob - This time of year it don't take em long.
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