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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Mar 30, 2022 6:22:38 GMT -5
This past weekend I installed and hooked up a utility sink in the barn honey room. I bought a 2.5 gallon hot water tank to make up 1-1 sugar water for the bees. I feed the bees mostly the months of March and November. I make up around 9 gallons (4.5 gallons twice) in a 5 gallon bucket. It cut my carrying distance from 80 yards to 15 yards and cut out a hill. If I spill I just hose it down. The hot water heater heats the water under 30 minutes. When I do the honey extraction to bottling it will be nice to be able to hose it down. I put a little space heater in the honey room to heat the room 80-85 degrees when extracting and bottling honey. The honey flows better when it is warm. My wife is happy with no more sticky floors in the house. All of it can be done in the barn.
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Post by saltydog on Apr 4, 2022 7:48:42 GMT -5
This past weekend I installed and hooked up a utility sink in the barn honey room. I bought a 2.5 gallon hot water tank to make up 1-1 sugar water for the bees. I feed the bees mostly the months of March and November. I make up around 9 gallons (4.5 gallons twice) in a 5 gallon bucket. It cut my carrying distance from 80 yards to 15 yards and cut out a hill. If I spill I just hose it down. The hot water heater heats the water under 30 minutes. When I do the honey extraction to bottling it will be nice to be able to hose it down. I put a little space heater in the honey room to heat the room 80-85 degrees when extracting and bottling honey. The honey flows better when it is warm. My wife is happy with no more sticky floors in the house. All of it can be done in the barn. Waynes was wondering what extractor are you using ? I just sold my 2 frame wanting to upgrade to a 4-8 frame.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Apr 4, 2022 8:01:23 GMT -5
I bought late last year an eight frame radical extractor from HillCo. USA owned company and had the best price and quality. I like it a lot. It was just under a $1000. Same price as last year. The 4 frame is out of stock. The owner is John and super nice guy. hillcobees.com/product/8-frame-radial-honey-extractor-motorized/
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Post by saltydog on Apr 5, 2022 5:16:39 GMT -5
Looks good ,how is the motor noise ? I will give them a call.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Apr 5, 2022 8:04:11 GMT -5
Looks good ,how is the motor noise ? I will give them a call. Low motor noise. Not enough that I noticed. Just the cage inside and air movement spinning is more than the motor.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Apr 10, 2022 20:26:53 GMT -5
I did my 1st 2022 queen grafting today. I use a grafting tool that allows me to remove a 3.5 day old egg from the cells and place in my removable cells on a frame. I set up another packed box of bees with no queen and no eggs. I grafted 38 cells and then placed those cells into the queenlesss hive. I hope they make about 25 to 30 queen cells from those eggs. I grafted from my #1 queen.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Apr 12, 2022 11:47:04 GMT -5
I just received my 1st notice of a honeybee swarm east-side of downtown Cincinnati. I asked for more information. The swarm season has started. I will get swarms in Dearborn, Ohio, and Switzerland Counties in Indiana. Call me 513-544-8302
To late. Someone already on their way.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Apr 18, 2022 10:00:22 GMT -5
My queen grafting was almost a bust. The bees only made three queen cells out of 35. Cold nights shut them down due to temperature. They need to keep the brood and three cells at 95 degrees. Going to re-setup hive and try again this Friday the 22nd. Finally a few warm days.
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Post by pigeonflier on Apr 18, 2022 20:48:09 GMT -5
Might have to give it another 3 err 4 weeks....
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Post by pigeonflier on Apr 19, 2022 11:49:20 GMT -5
I just bought half a dozen from Florida and still nervous about installing them. Keeping them fed and warm in the house for a couple more days. Then I have another 15 coming in 2 weeks. Hopefully spring will spring before that.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Apr 19, 2022 12:42:37 GMT -5
I picking up a big hive tomorrow to help a friend and had three packages shipped out yesterday. Should get those tomorrow. This Sunday making up 5 nucs from my existing overwinter hives for customers. I need at least 20 more queen cells this time. Hopefully, it's around 30 good cells out of 38. Might do 45 cells and hope for 35 good cells.
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Post by esshup on Apr 19, 2022 13:41:11 GMT -5
I saw a house that has had 0 hives last year now has close to 25, maybe 30 all sitting on a platform up off the ground. Heck of a big jump for someone that hasn't had a hive before. Don't know what he's going to do. I have no idea if they are empty or have bees in them. They are right next to one another, I'll get a picture or two later today.
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Post by pigeonflier on Apr 20, 2022 17:07:11 GMT -5
Looks like I will be installing those queens in the next day er 2. Warmer weather looks to be upon us. 1 caged queen with 2 frames of brood and a shake or so of workers and away we go.
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Post by esshup on Apr 20, 2022 22:36:06 GMT -5
Looks like I will be installing those queens in the next day er 2. Warmer weather looks to be upon us. 1 caged queen with 2 frames of brood and a shake or so of workers and away we go. Some insulation and infrared heat lamps?
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Apr 21, 2022 6:26:26 GMT -5
I did a 3-way split yesterday. I used the three grafting cells from last weeks graft. I also moved a hive right at dark. It was one packed hive with two deeps and two medium boxes tall. Luckily, I didn't hurt myself. I'm going to graft again this Friday. Hopefully, with the warm weather the bees produces a lot of queen cells this time.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Apr 21, 2022 6:32:27 GMT -5
I saw a house that has had 0 hives last year now has close to 25, maybe 30 all sitting on a platform up off the ground. Heck of a big jump for someone that hasn't had a hive before. Don't know what he's going to do. I have no idea if they are empty or have bees in them. They are right next to one another, I'll get a picture or two later today. Most new beekeepers put their hive apart. My guess this guy had bees before. I have about 4"-5" between mine. Just enough to put a frame in-between when inspecting. Here is what 29 looks like. Right now 17 of the 29 have bees. I have 3 more queens ordered for 1st week of June and I have 13 swarm traps out for the empty ones. I'm also selling 18 nucs from the 17 hives. I need that graft to produce, so I can re-queen the 17 hives. The nucs behind the barn are for the customers.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Apr 25, 2022 6:43:38 GMT -5
Yesterday around 4pm I received a text with a picture of a swarm going into one of my swarm traps. 1st swarm of the season and hopefully a few more. I will let them get established and queen laying for a few days. I will pickup at the end of week either Thursday or Friday. This is a hot spot for swarms. I will put up another box and see if I can get a 2nd swarm. I have two other traps that have 20 or so scout bees checking it out. Very good sign those swarms will move in.
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Post by saltydog on Apr 26, 2022 5:28:23 GMT -5
My nucs should be here next week, Putting out 2 swarm traps later in the week.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Apr 26, 2022 7:45:10 GMT -5
My nucs should be here next week, Putting out 2 swarm traps later in the week. Good luck with your swarm traps and nucs.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on May 1, 2022 9:36:21 GMT -5
I'm on my way to Switzerland county to my brother's farm. Checking swarm traps and getting the line wet.
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