A bit of Imagination

One day after being distressed at the view of the ongoing fights between the Italian and Carniolan bees over their golden liquid; Ben and I retrenched home to concoct a plan to reduce the pillage.

To slow down the enemies, some obstacles had to be in place. Therefore Ben built a "robbing screen" using a 1/8 metal mesh which he cut and bent in order to cover the whole and lonely entrance. This contraption will then force the honey bees to slow down and work harder to get their prized destination: Honey. After the Italians pass through the first obstacle, they will not be in yet! They will have to force their way via a 3" elongated gap covered with another 1/8 screen cloth where Carinolan honey bee guards will still be waiting for them, and ready to defend their hive.

In addition, during my copious reading about defending ones' hive; I fell upon an interesting tip given by a well known beekeeper named Michael Bush: "to reduce robbing by other bees, simply apply some Vick's Vaporub along the entrance". The strong odor of camphor, eucalyptus oil and menthol will confuse the robber bees which are guided by their sense of smell from their antennae to the source of honey. However the local Carniolans' dwellers are directed by their queen's pheromone and are not bothered at all.

I grabbed my jar of Vick's and with Ben having fashioned his apparatus; we headed back to Shakopee, more determined than a pack of mules! Ben installed his barrier and I smeared a good coat of the viscous concoction in front of the main entrance. We then stayed a little longer to observed. we could see that it was more difficult for the Italians to access the hive and they seemed to be repulsed by the powerful sent of the camphor mixture.

But would it be enough? Bees are smart. Will the Italian bees outwit the beekeepers? Only time will tell.

The Great Assault!

When we visited our Shakopee apiary yesterday,

something sounded and looked strange to us. At the

Carniolan's hive, the bees seemed very busy and

agitated...almost erratic!

Well they were! At a closer look, we saw 2 different

type of bees fussing around. One was golden, like our Italians

and they other was clearly darker, just like our Carniolans.

However, they were together, clustered and annoyed

by something. Ben and I spent a long time watching

the bees and their bizarre behavior. Suddenly, we

noticed that they were all gathered at one corner

of the Carniolan's beehive, where we detected a leak. The

syrup from the plastic bucket had been dripping a little,

and the wood had been soaking up the liquid like a sponge

attracting "other" honey bees. It was obvious that the robbers

were the bees next door! The Italians. They were robbing

the weak and less populous Eastern European bees. They were

frantic, and fighting 5 to one, pulling legs, pushing and killing.

The Mafia had entered the Eastern block... war was declared.

We had to think fast before the hive would be completely

destroyed. We thought like knights, fighting against the

conquerors: We needed to barricade, to build a moat, to... in

order to prevent the brutal assault. Plugging all circled

entrances with cork, was our first instinct, keeping

the enemies outside. The bottom entrance had been

already reduced to 3", and a mesh screen had been

placed in front of it to deter mice.

Karine and Ben devising a plan!

We left that ongoing carnage, a little relived. But would the

Carniolans' guard honey bees strong enough to hold the fort

preventing the Italians to steal their hard earned honey? Would

they be able to sustain the violent assault ? We sure hope so. After

all we had "nursed" that hive, after many set backs from spring to fall,

to a level that I felt had a good chance to endure the winter just fine.

What else could we have done to help them? We had to regroup

and think about a good strategy!

Learning from my Mistakes

Fall has arrived, and September has been quiet. Some late autumn flowers are still around like golden rods and wild asters. However, with each day passing the nectar is becoming a rarity. Anticipating winter, the honey bees are kiking out the drones (males) picture below.

which won't be needed until next spring. This innate behavior, is extraordinary to me. Think about this for a minute: the female bees are killing the males insuring that they will have enough food during the harsh winter. The way they do this is by pushing them out physically from the hive, 5 or 6 ladies against a big fat drone! The most surprising observation to me was the fact that the males don't fight back... somehow they seem to know and time has arrived. They sit pittifully right in front of the hive in the grass, eventually starving to death. What a greck tragedy again! However nature always amaze me... the drones' bodies are not wasted. One can observe ants, and wasps cleaning up the remenants.

September for beekeepers is a month were really caring for the honeybees becomes the most important task before the cold winter comes. It is our last effort to make sure the bees will have a good and safe winter. Therfore, Ben and I were busy giving them thymol for 4 weeks to help reduce the amount of mites. After that treatment, to prevent Nosema ( a fungal disease which affect adult bees and can lead to the entire colony to die), a powder is added to the heavy 2:1 syrup that they will drink happily until frost arrives. This disease is more prevalent for northern regions as the honey bees are closed up in their hives for a very long period of time... about 6-months.

Ben and I felt happy and confident that we had made it that far with our bees...and thought that we could now relax...until.....

Our Honey Was Tested

Yesterday, I brought our honey to the Hobby Beekeepers' Monthly Meeting. Jim an experienced beekeeper was testing honey using a refracometer. This tool measures the water content in honey.

I had a reading of 16.4! To be called "honey" the moisture content has to be lower than 18.6. Incidentally, the honey bees know when to cap their honey at exactly 18.6! We don't know how they know but they do.

Having a lower moisture content prevents fermentation, thus spoiling.

This is a honey refractometer

The eye piece is on the left, and the honey receptacle on the right.


Then a very small amount of honey is place on the blue pad.


Then like in chemistry lab, you place the plastic top down on top of the droplet, flattening it on the viewing window.



I then look through the eyepiece with the instrument held up toward the light, focusing by twisting the dial near the eyepiece until the chart can be read. There you'll see the good or bad news. The chart indicates the moisture level which you want to be at about 18.6% or less.

This is the scale that one has to read through the eye piece!

Bottling our Golden Liquid

Now that the honey has been extracted; it will sit in that 5 gallon bucket for 12-24 hours, to settle. While this warm and strained honey is sitting in the tank, the air bubbles and bits of wax will end up at the surface. It is then easy to remove them before bottling. We had to keep a portable heather on all night next to the bucket because the night was going to be cooler than expected.

Finally, we could put our honey into little jars. In our kitchen, we filled 36-4 oz jars, and 32-12 oz jars. We used a kitchen scale to make sure that every jar had the perfect amount!

Our First Jar! Ben at work :)

This is our 2010 "loot"

Honey Extraction Day

We set up our "Honey House" in our garage. The work zone was covered with Kraft paper for easy cleanup when done.

First with the use of a hot electric knife, the wax cappings (whitish color on frame) which tell us that the honey is at the right moisture (18.6% to be exact!) to be extracted are removed. Instinctively, this honey capping is done by the honeybees; they know when it is the perfect time to put a little amount of wax on each cell full of honey to preserve it without molding.

Then because the thickness of the wax can be uneven at times on the wooden frame and the hot knife cannot perfectly reach the frame's corners; Nicolas uses a capping scratcher ( looks like a big metal comb), to open the missed capped cells.

Now the uncapped frames, exposing the honey are placed in the extractor, vertically. Using the

centrifugal force by turning the yellow handle, the honey is dislodged from the cells and is

"thrown" onto the extractor's wall, dripping slowly downward, thus accumulating at the bottom of the tank..

The wax that is removed from each frame, falls into a double gray plastic bin ( see picture

above, and below) where the first bin has an open bottom, covered with a screen to let the honey go through

but preventing the wax to go into the second container. we collected another pound of honey from the bin.

After filling the extractor with 6 frames, elbow grease is needed! Turning slowly at the beginning and a little faster later on is the trick needed to see honey flowing through the gate.

Ben had to install a space heater on top of the extractor because the temperature that day was barely 70F (21C) and the honey was not warm enough to glide against the extractor's metal sides.

To help the flow of honey further, Nicolas was heating the extracted honey. This process of "lightly" heating the honey made it more fluid which was then easily pass through a set of mesh/filter sieves, obtaining a clean honey...with less potential debris.

We collected a total of : 33 lb. (15 kg) of honey and 5 oz. (300 g.) of wax!

Our First "Great" Harvest

September first was the day we had decided to harvest our honey from our Purple Italian colony, the only one having a surplus this season. We drove to Shakopee and started by using a fume board. Ben made a wooden cover which has an absorbent pad on the underside, and a black painted metal sheet on top (see picture, notice the black top). We used some felt given by my friend Mary who happens to have a wonderful stash of fabrics! When we apply a liquid repellent aided by the sun's heat; an odor (almond smell) emanates and drives the bees out of the super in few minutes, making it easy to remove the supers as is. That's the theory!!!

We actually had to wait 12 to 15 minutes before most of the bees were gone below. We also had to use a soft brush to brush the remaining persistent honeybees from each of the 18 frames . We were glad we did not have to brush 100 frames by hand! After a while, the bees were a little bit annoyed with us. I think they sensed that we were "stealing" their hard gold labor. We took 2 supers, and paced them on a contraption that Ben designed to carry the heavy load, 50- 60 pounds through the high vegetation in the field, avoiding to walk on pumpkins and squash! We put the load in the car, ready to head home, and beaming!

The 2 supers with honey!

In the car we go!

Since we were in Shakopee, we fed 2 one gallon pails of heavy sugar syrup to the Carniolan bees, just to help them store more food for the winter. After removing the honey, we gave the Italian bees their first Thyme medication.

We will extract the following day, in our garage...we are happy :)