1st harvest of the year

[rcannon]

Pulled 400 lbs today. Boy, am I tired. I got started late and it was hot as it could be. Luckily, my youngest son came home to help.

[Jen]

Hi Randy! Can't get a better frame of honey than that! 400 pounds! Geez!

So how many hives do you have this year?

[Les]

Beautiful frames!  Can't wait till we have honey.

[rcannon]

Hi, Jen. I have around 30, that number seems to change pretty regularly. 10 of those are nucs and about six are trying to recover from swarming. Its really been a bad year for swarms for me. There's a lot more honey in the yard, but it's not capped yet. The summer dearth is coming, if I don't get the honey before then, the bees will eat it. I waited too late last year and only got about half a crop.

[Jen]

Wishing you the best of luck through the rest of the season  Last year was a swarm escapade for me, this year it's queen issues. Presently, So far so..... oooops! I don't say anything, don't want to jinx it 

[pistolpete]

nice,  for me 200lbs is a good days work, but I don't have a nice uncapping setup like yours. (I'll put it on the wish list for next year).

[riverbee]

"The summer dearth is coming, if I don't get the honey before then, the bees will eat it. I waited too late last year and only got about half a crop. "

(ps rc fixed your pix..... )

i have a question for you. if you remove all the honey, and the summer dearth hits, do you then feed your bees?

[blueblood]

Solid work! I was wore out with just 60 pounds!  Can't imagine 400!!!!

[Jen]

"i have a question for you. if you remove all the honey, and the summer dearth hits, do you then feed your bees?
   
      I was wondering about that as well River, because for us here in Cali, I'm going to be feeding all summer anyway due to the drought, bees are still taking a pint a day.

     

[lazy shooter]

Four hundred pounds is a lot of harvest in one day.  Like Blue, fifty or so pounds is about all I can manage.  It sure looked like good honey, and the frames were beautiful.  Good work!

[Perry]

The frame was perfect. Well done!

[Papakeith]

Nice looking frames... and 400 lbs seems like a really nice spring haul.  Congrats!

[rcannon]

Thanks for fixing my pictures, Riverbee. I used to try to fix them, but now I just upload them and wait on you. 
I don't take alll the honey, but I do get most of it. Luckily, we almost always have a little bit of honey coming in, but I do have to feed sometimes during the summer. The hottest part of summer is usually rainy, so the bees can usually find something to gather. We normally have a fall honey crop starting about September, so I don't have to feed too long.
I normally wouldn't pull that much honey at one time, I like to pull a little along and along. But, I have a plant shutdown coming up that'll take a couple of weeks and then a trip to Marquette. So, I won't have a chance to pull any for 3 weeks.

Speaking of summer, it hit 100 degrees here for a few hours today. It's mighty early for that kind of heat.

[Jen]

Same here rcannon, because my hot hive took the slow boat to china, I have about 20 stored frames that are half pulled and capped with honey, I just switch them out a little at a time.

[tbonekel]

Perfect frame is right. One thing that I can guarantee is that my frames will be nothing like that. Well, maybe a couple. Nice job. 

[apisbees]

What size of extractor are you running? 10' 20 frame? And are all your honey supers standard depth?
I find that you get a third more honey for doing the same amount of work and time investment when using deep supers for honey.
Great looking frame that would win a ribbon at many honey shows.

[rcannon]

Sorry, Apis, I didn't see this post until tonight. I built my extractor to spin 10 deep frames at the time, so I can extract an entire super at once. I use mostly deep boxes for supers. Deeps for everything. I have a few mediums, but mainly because i sell a few nucs and some folks prefer mediums.
Both efficiency and money-wise, deeps are a better deal than mediums or shallows. Plus, one size frame makes it easy to swap things around.

[apisbees]

That looks well built, DC motor with a rheostat. direct drive with a flexible coupler. with it on casters does it dance around a bit if the frames are not balanced?

[rcannon]

Thanks, Apis. I couldn't find an extractor to suit me, so I built what I wanted. I wanted one that would handle deep frames and had a bottom center drain. A side drain just doesnt make a lot of sense to me. Why would a drain not be at the lowest point?
It wiggles back and forth a bit when I first start it, but after it runs a minute it settles down. I was concerned that the casters would not be a good idea, but they actually seem to help by dissipating some of the imbalance.