The Removal of Honey from Hives

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 84, Issue 2, 15 February 1952, Page 141

The Removal of Honey from Hives

Seasonal Notes for the Domestic Beekeeper

By

S. LINE,

Apiary Instructor, Department of Agriculture, Invercargill

REMOVAL of the honey crop this season has probably been accomplished with the desirable minimum of disturbance to bees, but for the rest of the season the beekeeper must be prepared to contend with bees in a different frame of mind; they will be collecting a reduced harvest of nectar or having to travel further to collect a load and this results in their being much more aggressive. The beekeeper should therefore have on hand at the apiary all gear likely to be required.

A BEEKEEPER .moving among his hives should have near him his wheelbarrow or an empty super or some suitable support for holding supers removed from the hives while a quick glance is given to the condition of the brood. Close at hand there should be several clean sacks one of which should be spread over any super of honey removed or over hives the lids of which have been removed and in which combs of honey have been exposed. No bee combs should be exposed to marauding or inquisitive bees at this time, for the workers are particularly eager to find an easy source of food, and if it can be stolen from combs, they quickly do so and are persistent.

Usually honey is exposed temporarily only when the beekeeper is handling frames or examining brood for possible disease. This, work is important where there has perviously peen any foul-brood in the apiary; otherwise foul-brood honey may be taken to the honey house, the honey extracted, • and the combs dispersed among several hives before it is discovered that disease is present in one or several hives. Some beekeepers after extracting honey and redistributing the combs have made the unpleasant discovery that disease was present and that the redistributed combs were likely to spread the infection in the apiary.

If disease. is discovered when honey is being taken off, the supers attached to the infected hive should be quickly lifted from the barrow back to the hive and the mat and lid replaced in such a way that robbing cannot take place. at the top. For the remainder of the day the entrance should 'be reduced to a small opening so that it may be easily defended by the guards. If the entrance is completely closed, the field bees returning may ultimately enter a nearby hive to deposit their load and thereby endanger adjacent hives; until night it is therefore .better to have a small opening.

After an infected hive is closed up .attention should quickly be given to .drips of honey on the barrow, lid, or .stand used and the smoker and hands Should be thoroughly washed. If honey has dripped on to grass, it should be covered with a heavy .■sprinkling of earth; if rain is likely, -the honey can be washed down by -using a watering can.

Using a wheelbarrow that is built with a flat deck and a rubber tyre is a great convenience, and where ground is rough, such as around an apiary in a' field, the cushioning effect of the tyre will reduced breakages in combs weighing perhaps 7 or 81b. each.

Use of Escape Boards

As the season advances the removal of honey from hives may be delayed when the weather is persistently wet. If the weather forecast before the day on which a beekeeper has planned to extract or take off honey indicates that conditions may be unfavourable for handling bees, bee escape boards can be used. Several of these boards would be helpful to those who have only weekends in which to attend to bees, for then the honey can be removed regardless of weather, conditions. Their only disadvantage is that they necessitate two trips from the honey house to the apiary, one to place the escape boards in position and the second to remove the honey.

Various patterns of escape boards are available, some made with wire mesh and others with a uniform surface of light wood. Those made entirely of light wood and fitted with two Porter bee escapes give general satisfaction. Many have one Porter bee escape, but the one escape does not give the quick clearance of bees from the upper super that two fittings in the board will give, and it might become accidentally blocked with burr comb.

Where two people can work together in placing escape boards the operation can be done much faster, as one lifts the super and the other places the board in position while clearing off any unduly projecting burr comb. In changeable weather the help of another person makes a considerable difference in the quick opening and closing of hives. These boards should be placed on hives during the afternoon or evening before the day of extraction. Hives . having faulty or damaged edges should then have , the gaps plugged with grass, which is pressed in with the hive tool, to eliminate the risk of undefended honey being robbed. Replacing Wet Combs Wet extracted combs may be returned to hives two or three times in a season and the beekeeper with a few hives only should do this work in the evening just before dark. Where there are a large number of hives, it would be impracticable to replace extracted supers in the evening, and as the aroma from the wet combs is exciting and stimulating to bees, they soon come out of their hives to search for the source of this fresh scent; robbing is thus easily started. Where bees appear to adopt a hovering and darting movement at the entrance of a hive a few handfuls of wet grass should be

placed over it so that robbers will be discouraged. Fine Graining of Honey The fine granulation of honey is one of the difficult essentials of good beekeeping, and some beekeepers are fortunate in being in districts where the various nectar sources have no detrimental effects on the final condition of the honey. As there is a tendency in many areas for honey to develop a sugary or coarse grain, every effort should be made to introduce into the tanks of liquid honey a fine-grain starter, which is a type of honey that is so smooth that when a sample is pressed with the tongue against the palate there is no feeling of crystal formation or grittiness. It may be necessary to buy a few pounds of a recognised smooth-grain type, and by adding a small quantity of liquid honey this can be made plastic enough to tip into a tank. Sufficient of this mixed honey should be tipped in to make the tank of liquid honey slightly cloudy. The starter should be stirred until the whole of the honey is of uniform appearance, with no white streaks remaining from the starter. Ten to 15 minutes of stirring each day for 3 days should suffice, and then it may be run off into containers. The longer it can be kept in the tank and stirred occasionally (without becoming too thick to run out) - the more spreadable the finished product will be, but care should be taken to keep it covered to prevent contamination by moisture or dust until it is packed and sealed.