fall/winter management #8 presented by the ohio state beekeeper’s association

Fall/Winter Management

#8Presented

By

The Ohio State Beekeeper’s Association

Fall/Winter ManagementIntroduction

Fall management in my opinion begins with the honey harvest. Usually this takes place in late summer.

Topics to be discussed:

How to take the honey supers off the hiveProcessing the honey Processing waxSome characteristics of honey Getting your bees ready for winter


Taking off honey supers and processing honey One of the joys of keeping honey bees is the reward of

having some of your own honey. It is not "store bought."

A beekeeper must determine just how much honey he/she can remove from the hive and still leave

enough for the bees to over winter. We have indicated earlier that at least 60 pounds of honey should be left

on the hive. You can estimate this amount by checking the honey stores in the brood chamber. A deep frame full of honey will weigh approximately 6

pounds. The bees will need 10 of these. Two shallow frames will equal one deep frame.

How to take the honey supers off the hive

What is a honey super?

It is a hive box filled with honey (hopefully)!

Capped honey

In a frame


Methods to remove honey

supers from the hive.

Honey supers will have bees

in them.


Various methods are used to drive bees from a honey

super/frames.

•Brushing/knocking them off the frames•Using bee escapes of various kinds.•Using a bee blower•Using Fume pads



super/frames.

•Brushing/knocking them off the frames. This is time consuming but does little damage to the bees.

•Picture from the Dadant 2007 catalog. A bee brush is useful for a number of things around the bee yard.



super/frames.

•Using bee escapes of various kinds. Inner cover with bee escape placed in vent hole.

Conical bee escape

•These illustrations taken from the Dadant 2007 catalog.

•Both of these work by placing the escape under the honey super to be removed. It takes time for all the bees to leave the honey super.



super/frames.

•Using a bee blower

•An effective way to get bees out of a super. A lot of equipment to drag around however. Bees are surprisingly gentle when blown out of a honey super. Do not blow them out where you intend to walk.


Various methods are used to drive bees from a honey super/frames.

Using Fume pads or boards as they are sometimes called.

• This fits the top of the super to be removed. A chemical repellent is sprinkled or sprayed on the cloth pad in the frame. This is placed over the hive. It drives the bees down into lower sections of the hive. If left on too long, it will drive bees out the front entrance of the hive. Several can be used on different hives at the same time to speed up honey removal.

•These are Dadant catalog photos.


These are things to do before removing the honey super and frames from the hive.

•Check for any brood on the frames of honey.

After the honey is removed from the hive…….

•Secure the honey supers in a secure area where bees can not get to them to rob.


Check for brood on honey super frames

•Check for any brood on the frames of honey. This is brood placed in a honey super frame. You will have this if you do not use queen excluders and care must be taken that you have not also removed the queen from the hive. The brood frames should not be removed from the hive. If you use queen excluders, it means the queen got thru it some how and is located in the honey super area of your hive.

After the honey supers are off the hives.

•Honey supers with honey in them will attract many bees. They arrive to take honey from the supers back to their own hive… •A serious situation can develop in the area where bees can get at honey supers.

•This is a secure honey room of a commercial beekeeper. This room is kept dark and warm until the supers are moved for extracting. The honey in this room will be in 50 gal. barrels in two days.

After the honey supers are off the hives.

Do not sit them away until you have time to do something with

them. Honey is hydroscopic meaning that it collects moisture from the air. This causes honey

Fermentation. Honey will become sour-- Look for bubbles

in your honey. •And honey may granulate in the comb making it very difficult to remove the honey by extracting.•And wax moths will attack the comb if the weather is warm.•And ants and mice will visit your supers if they can get to them.

Removing honey from honey supers

It is time to remove the honey from the supers.

Extracting Honey

•Check the various Bee Equipment catalogs for equipment….

•Always buy stainless steel products. They do not contaminate honey and they are easy to clean up.

•This is an area where you can spend a lot of money.

•Our illustration is from the 2007 Dadant catalog.

Extracting Honey

You most likely will want an extractor (hand crank or electric) which spins the

honey by centrifugal force out of the comb. There the honey collects and moves

down the sides of the extractor so it can be drained into buckets, etc. Shown in

the photo are the essentials for extracting honey.

•The extractor

•A plastic uncapping tub

•Bottling bucket

•Capping scratcher

•A uncapping knife

•Our illustration is from the 2007 Dadant catalog.


The process of removing honey from supers is called “extracting” if liquid honey is being obtained. For the sake of time, we are not going to discuss comb honey

production. This is a topic for a more advanced class.

•The process begins with removing the cappings from the honey comb. This is usually done with a knife. If you have several supers of honey to extract, it pays to have a good knife.

•Our illustration of uncapping knives is from the 2007 Dadant catalog.


•Some of the equipment if you plan on getting into commercial beekeeping. Buildings to house your business, moving equipment such as trucks, and skid loader, honey house and supper storage, and of course a lot of bee hives.

Processing Wax

•Wax cappings which are cut from the face of the comb include honey and wax. The wax from this source is outstanding – usually a very light yellow.•Wax melted from old comb generally tends to be dark.•Honey processed in iron vessels will also darken due to the oxidation of the iron.

•Our illustration of uncapping knives is from the 2007 Dadant catalog.

Processing Wax

The easiest way to process wax in small amounts is to place the

cappings in a solar wax melter. The sun will not only melt the wax in the

melter, it will also bleach it to the lightest of yellow.

•You will also be able to recover quite a bit of the honey in the cappings.

•They are easy to construct yourself.

•Cappings can also be placed in water and boiled. The wax will separate and rise to the surface. When cooled, the wax will be a solid. •Illustration from the 2007 Brushy Mountain Bee Farm Catalog.

Processing Wax

•Wax is very flammable and melts at 147.9 degrees. •Light beeswax is highly desirable and sells quickly.•A beekeeper may also use wax for candles, as an ingredient in various cosmetics, and many other uses.

Characteristics of Honey

Honey is not nectar. It is created from

nectar by the honey bee. So bees do not gather honey from

plants but rather they gather nectar from

plants which is then converted by them

into honey! Lets take a look at this process.


Nectar undergoes a physical and a chemical change to become honey.

The Physical change occurs as the bees reduce the amount of moisture in nectar. Nectar may have as much as 70 to 80%

moisture. Dr. James Tew of Ohio State University has often describe the honey bees behavior of collection flights as,

"shopping for nectar with the highest sugar content much as a housewife shops for bargains at the local grocery store." Most flowers secrete nectar but this nectar is not always attractive to honey bees. Thus, honey bees will visit flowers which provide the honey bee with just the right access to its nectar rewards. After gathering the nectar, the bee must reduce the moisture in

the nectar to less than 18.6%. This 18.6% figure is the maximum amount of moisture in honey which prevents fermentation at or

below this moisture level.The chemical change occurs as the bee change sucrose (the sugar content of nectar) into the sugar of honey (glucose and

fructose).•.


The color of honey varies considerably according to the nectar source of the honey.

These samples represent the wide range of colors found in honey

and are identified from the left to the right as: very light clover

honey, amber star thistle honey, dark amber blueberry honey, and buckwheat honey which is almost

black. To help with some description of honey, these colors

may be of some help but the pollen grains in these honey samples can tell us the true

source. Looking at color alone can not determine what the nectar source is or if it is a combination of nectar sources. A dark honey for example, might be overheated

lighter honey. Taste is also a factor to take into consideration.

Getting Bees Ready for Winter

Your honey crop has been harvested

Getting bees ready for winterEverything you do preparing your bees for winter will make your job in the spring more worthwhile.

Generally speaking, colonies need 60 to 90 pounds of honey to survive an Ohio winter. You need to

leave at least this amount on your bees if you expect them to survive the winter.

Lets take a look at the Plant Hardiness Zone Map courtesy of the United States Department of

Agriculture.

Getting bees ready for winter Lets take a look at the Plant Hardiness Zone Map

courtesy of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Getting bees ready for winter

This graph shows bee populations during late summer into winter.

This information is copied from Bulletin 450 issued by the Ohio State University in 1971.

Getting bees ready for winter

Winter weather can be harsh. Days are gray and

temperatures can reach down to the -0 degree range with windchill factors below that.

What can the beekeeper do to provide for winter

survival?

Getting bees ready for winterWhat can the beekeeper do to provide for winter survival?

Starting in September when all surplus honey is removed…

•Check hive for a good laying queen and brood pattern. If she is not doing a good job, now is the time to replace her.•What is the bee population of the hive? If it is small, you may need to think about combining the hive with a stronger hive or replacing the queen.

Getting bees ready for winterWhat can the beekeeper do to provide for winter

survival?

Starting in September when all surplus honey is

removed…•Check hive for diseases. Especially any brood diseases and mites. Then treat for these diseases.

Getting bees ready for winterWhat can the beekeeper do to provide for winter survival?

Before hard weather arrives….

•Provide for entrance reducers.•Level hives allowing for a slight slope from the back of the hive to the front to allow water to run out of the hive rather than into the hive.•Provide the bees with a wind break.•Provide for an upper entrance and good ventilation.

Winter Management

Feeding your bees during winter

Feeding your bees during a hard winter with a liquid syrup is most likely not going to help a whole lot. This is a job that should have been done when the weather would have allowed the bees to move to the syrup and place it in the locations that would have helped them

now.

What will help?

Winter Management

Feeding your bees during winter

What will help Now?

Dry granulated sugar placed about the inner cover hole is a

good emergency feed if the bees are in the upper hive body.


Finis

fall/winter management #8 presented by the ohio state beekeeper’s association

Documents

honey bees

honey supers

honey superframes

honey processing

processing honey

pounds of honey

characteristics of honey

honey stores