First Time Harvesting With Maxant 3100P

[lazy shooter]

Back in the spring I purchased a Maxant 3100P.  I thought this was the year of big harvests, but alas, the drought continued and there were a couple of smaller crush and strain harvests earlier in the summer.  Yesterday I pulled three deep frames and three medium frames and decided to use the Maxant.  The Maxant worked wonderful, and I am delighted with it.  But the clean up too much work for six frames.  My advice to new comers is to crush and strain until you have at least two supers of honey.  It goes without stating that the bees make more honey if you return their comb to them, so the crush and strain is in effect a "strain" on your bees. 

My solution is to get more bees.  I'm at five hives, three of which are too small to rob, and I am going to at least eight hives next year.  I won't more honey.

Oh, and I have another six medium frames that I could take from a hive I have on another place, but when I tried to take the frames the bees defeated me.  I tried to move the framed into a covered box by smoking and brushing, but the bees swarmed me by the hundreds.  I took about four stings to my legs through my jeans, and took another four to my hands and one on my chin (it came through the veil).  I gave up on them until I can get to my ranch and bring back a one-way bee escape.  It's designed for removing bees from a frame. 

Anyway, your thoughts on these issues will be appreciated.  By the way, I did harvest 30 jars of honey.  I think each jar is about a pound.

Lazy

[iddee]

I think it's time to requeen the outyard. Other than that, it all sounds good.

[lazy shooter]

I agree on requeening, but there won't be any queens until next spring, will there?

[iddee]

I would take a queen on my next trip, if it was next AUGUST.....................

[riverbee]

lazy, congrats and awesome!!!!
first of all, some good advice about the extractor......i have two, a nine frame and and an 18 frame. extracting honey is always a great deal of work and worth the effort, or some type of small hand crank, it beats crush and strain, (never did this, never will) because, as you pointed out, it is a 'strain' on the bees.  this year i used the 9 framer for 3 supers and one deep, it was a great deal of work to set up the equipment to harvest the honey from so few frames, but really worth the effort in the end. for a few frames i would probably invest in a small hand crank. 

more bees?  yeah!!!

about the bees you tried to smoke and brush off.........the smoke and brush method doesn't really work well. the bees don't like the brush, they get rolled and rather annoyed with this.  the best way, if you are using this method is to get an extra box with an extra cover. frame by frame, remove a frame and shake, a hard shake, or two or three into the hive to remove as many bees as possible from the frame into the hive, and then brush the remainder gently off, and quickly remove to your extra covered box and sometimes it works better if that extra box is some distance away. even so the bees will quickly find that covered box.

i have never used bee escapes. i don't really have or want to take the time for these.  think about purchasing a fume board and using fishers bee quick, bee dun or a product by one of our newer members honey b gone, to chase the bees out.  the fume board combined with one of these products works well to chase bees out of the supers in minutes.  sorry to hear you took so many stings.

btw, i sure would like to trade you for a jar of honey......!  sent you a pm lazy.

[Slowmodem]

If I only had six frames of honey, I would have put them in the freezer until next spring.  I have found crush and strain messy and sticky.  I extracted four 8-frame supers this year.  I put the extractor in the back of the pickup and took it down to the car wash.  Two or three minutes and it's spotless.  Just wrap the motor in a plastic garbage bag.

[Perry]

More bees??  Yeah baby!
                     
Clean up is always a pain. In my dreams I have a honey house with washable walls, a concrete floor................................and a real nice pressure washer!! 

[lazy shooter]

More bees??  Yeah baby!
                     
Clean up is always a pain. In my dreams I have a honey house with washable walls, a concrete floor................................and a real nice pressure washer!! 

One thing about you Perry, I have to love your enthusiasm.  I assume that should be WE appreciate your enthusiasm.

[lazy shooter]

If I only had six frames of honey, I would have put them in the freezer until next spring.  I have found crush and strain messy and sticky.  I extracted four 8-frame supers this year.  I put the extractor in the back of the pickup and took it down to the car wash.  Two or three minutes and it's spotless.  Just wrap the motor in a plastic garbage bag.

I never thought of it, but I own two pressure washers.  Thanks slow modem.

[Slowmodem]

If I only had six frames of honey, I would have put them in the freezer until next spring.  I have found crush and strain messy and sticky.  I extracted four 8-frame supers this year.  I put the extractor in the back of the pickup and took it down to the car wash.  Two or three minutes and it's spotless.  Just wrap the motor in a plastic garbage bag.

I never thought of it, but I own two pressure washers.  Thanks slow modem.

Here's a pic:

[Perry]

I was blasting a bunch of gunked up queen excluders at the car wash a couple years ago, and the attendant saw me doing it and really didn't look impressed. He didn't tell me to stop, but I'm sure he was wondering what all that wax was gonna do to the drains. 

[riverbee]

perry, put the queen excluders in your solar wax melter.....?

[Perry]

perry, put the queen excluders in your solar wax melter.....?

The one I have now is not big enough, but I have that exact thought in mind. 

[riverbee]

build a bigger one!!!.....
it works for me.....cleans them up really good, better than hauling them off to the car wash, and besides, you get to salvage some of the wax..