Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Hive Management - Scout Evaluation

These are what we will be looking for :

Most of these tasks we have already done, 
also see the tab above for opening a hive.......

Part 2 - Hive Management
  1. Handle Frames of bees
  2. Pull out a frame of Honey or Pollen – being careful not to hurt Queen
  3. Identify Drone bees and Queen bee
  4. Point out pollen, honey, nectar,  brood (both capped and uncapped)
  5. Identify Drones cells
  6. If available , can you point out a Queen cell or cup?
  7. Can you identify eggs ?
  8. Explain why is a queen important to a colony of bees?
  9. Lift a super of honey off a hive
  10. Help extract the honey from the frames, by cutting off cappings and spinning out the honey OR by crush and strain method.
  11. Help Bottle the honey

Monday, July 16, 2012

Work Day This Coming Sunday 22nd 2pm

Sunday Afternoon 22nd July  , 2pm we will work the hives


If we have thunder or IF it is raining, we will not work the hives but we will do some workshop work, so please still come..... I would like to have an idea who will be coming please,so please email me or just respond to this post in comments (that also emails me).

Remember it will be hot, have water bottles and also light colored long sleeve shirt/ long pants , BUT we will also take another look at Honey Extraction, so have short sleeves too plus clothes that will take getting sticky too.

We also need to add some wax foundation to frames, so boys who have NOT yet done this work I suggest you offer to do this..... when we start I will list out the tasks , and you boys will do all the work this time,

Important  I am going to start evaluating all of you on Hive management.

I would like you all to divide up into teams this Sunday and each team will work 1 hive.

From the moment we walk into the Apiary, you boys will be in charge on Sunday. We will meet under the big Maple tree at the entrance at 2pm sharp......all equipment will be already in place at the hives.

You will open the hive (doing all that you have to to make this happen- think about what you need to do before opening a hive)
You will look for Brood, both capped and uncapped, and also show us eggs
You will point out honey, nectar, and pollen stores in the hive to one of the mentors
And if lucky , find the queen
You will then close up the hive - doing everything you need to do ,(to do his correctly, think of important things you must do......)
You may ask questions at any time if unsure , this will not be a negative in your evaluation

Those who don't yet have books read up on the forum pages please, as all the relevant sections will be posted in the Tabs, and I will get you your books... $3 each

Honey extraction is HOT, Sticky work

We start by cutting off the cappings (the white wax covering the honey cells),
we then drain the comb by spinning it in an Extractor,
 the room needs to be HOT, at least 96 degrees, so that the honey will flow and be spun out of the comb.
The comb is then reused and put back on the hives for the Bees to fill again, any damaged area they will fix.