Worldwide Beekeeping
Sustainable Living => Homestead => Topic started by: Zweefer on March 05, 2016, 04:43:23 pm
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Finished helping my father-in-law tap 900 trees this weekend (started Thursday).
Vacuum lines tested, now to start chopping wood and get ready for the boil :-\\
I am ready for a nap...
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NICE Zweef! I didnt get out to tap any trees, and am quite disappointed in myself. I JUST didnt have the time I thought I would have and am now struggling to get caught up... With luck, I will have the arch ready for NEXT spring....
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Well, I'll add some syrup to your care package...
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Talking with a few friends that have taps, and one commercial who's been doing it for decades, and he said he had the best 24 hour flow he can remember about a week ago. We have had days that were 10 C highs and down to -8 C at night.
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LOL zweef! lot's of work, lots of beer and lots of naps................ :D :D :D
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Quality of sap will probably be poor this year. Winter was to warm. I have buds on my trees now. Temps this week in the high 50s to 65 degrees. To mild of winter for me to hang pails. I cant remember having a winter this mild. I'm getting April weather now.
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Agreed. But we do get a bit more with the vacuum lines... Still a poor year.
River- work hard, nap hard.
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"River- work hard, nap hard."
............i hear ya zweef, i hear ya!............... :D
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This syrup season kinda kicked my butt! I'm usually on the forum several times a day but for the last few weeks I haven't even peeked. I only run 70 buckets but that's at least plenty for this "one man show"! My grandson Hunter did come up and help a couple of weekends, but man, I'm beat. I usually drop 8 to 10 pounds during the season, not sure where I stand this year. Anyway, my season is done. I just finished getting the sap tanks cleaned out so the clean up is almost done (did the buckets, lids and spiles yesterday). I'm going to wait a bit before I tackle the pan. It was a short fast season but I ended up with 11 or so gallons. Also had a 4H group out last Saturday. Talked about making syrup and so forth, had them tap some yard trees, haul a little sap, taste a little sap, checked out the evaporator and sent them home with a 4 oz. jar of Grade A Amber. I think one of them is going to give it a go next year, he was kind of excited (so was his father). Had a lot of fun with them. Ted
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Nice Ted! Still going here... Was below freezing last night and 55 now... Sap is coming in strong today :D still not sure when I'm going to find time to make the rest of the bee boxes I want done. That may have to wait another two weeks I guess...
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Bah, show offs!
Waiting on parts for truck, so built my first pallet today, fifteen medium boxes and 4 reversible inner covers.. still not sure how I will do the covers for the top... considering one piece to go on top of the four. Will get pics tomorrow..
OH! Ted! I bought you a new toy to paint hives with! man am I beat... Time for a rum and coke!
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OUTSTANDING! When you want me to get all gussied up in paint clothes and head west?
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Scott are you making 2 hive pallets or 4 hive pallets? A single cover will mean you will need to add the same number of supers to all the hives on the pallet regardless of how strong each colony is. May cause a problem in controlling the SHB. If you want to go with a single cover you could build multi hive supers. Babe and Charley Warren that had the largest operation on Vancouver Island had 6 hives on a pallet. They made supers to fit the 6 Pack with a 2X6 down the center to support the 2 rows of frames. They placed a queen excluder over each double brood chamber and ran them as 6 queen colonies. It eliminated weak and unproductive colonies. It is a great means of swarm control as the colony has pheromones from 6 queens.
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My contract is for multiple smaller blueberry fields, so I went with the 4 hives per pallet so I could split them up to different fields a bit easier.
I had considered that all boxes would have to be "on" for the cover to fit the 4 hives. Not a problem if they are all strong, but as you said, it will be a problem while they build up, especially if they build up unevenly.
I have room to the front of the pallet and behind it, obviously cant have anything sticking out to the sides, so it means I can use a bar across the front of each hive, but cant have any other protrusions.. worried the plywood will warp, though I am using reversible inner covers, I'd still like to keep the weather/rain out as much as possible. So basically, if one box is behind.. IE has two mediums on it and the rest are running three the reversible cover will still keep the bees enclosed while the large cover will hopefully keep the rain out?
Heading up to tinker for a couple hours, will get a picture of what I mean.
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Pulled 950 gal yesterday. We had up to 150 gal/hr at its peak!
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Lots of good tasting work :)
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Man I'd like to see that! One hundred fifty gallons an hour? Can't even wrap my head around it! How many folks does an operation like that need during the season?
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Four of us... One to pull sap off the holding tanks and transport it, one on wood detail, and one to fire / boil. The fourth is errand boy. Fetch what needs to be had, and cover for any of the others if they need to leave and do other things. I'll snag a video if it is running well on Monday (tomorrow off)
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five...........one on patrol and drinking good beer watchin you all work............. :D :D :D
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ooh! ooh! Hey, does the guy that patrols and drinks beer get paid? I could do that job!! I am even qualified! :yes:
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LOL lazy!!!!.............. :D
i am the 5th one ...... ;D THE GUY THAT PATROLS and drinks beer, payment is commensurate to how many beers one can drink.......... :D
hmmmm, i think you are more qualified than i am!............ :D
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LOL I cant drink them like I used to.... well, Maybe I could, but rather than taking a day to recover it takes me a week now, so I have learned to limit myself.
Still, it would be fun to go witness the operation!
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Not a good year for sap for my area. What I here everybody is shutting down now for the season.