On Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:29:25 EDT, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>This suggests that we need to get away from Langstroth's system of heap
>of stacking boxes that are awkward to lift and can get very heavy. Physical
>fitness shouldn't be a pre-requisite for beekeeping. I'm working on ideas!
The original Langstroth hive was one box with holes in the inner cover over which to
place jars. The bees stored the honey right in the jars. Later, the two story hive became
popular. Two story hives are still widely used, the chief drawback being that honey has to
be frequently removed, often on a weekly basis.
However, for someone who cannot deal with large heavy supers there are several
workarounds. First, I would place the hive directly on the ground. Hive stands are nice
but not essential. In fact, a piece of tarpaper can be used which serves to keep the hive
off the ground and if it is big enough, it will keep weeds away from the hive as well.
Placing the hive at ground level means you can go 3 or 4 stories without getting too tall.
The real key to avoiding heavy lifting, however, is to handle frames instead of supers.
Commercial beekeepers will take off hundreds of deep supers in an afternoon, but even
one can be daunting for some people. So instead, here is an easy way to harvest honey
without heavy lifting:
You should have a cart handy, like a garden way cart or a wheelbarrow. On it, you will
have an empty super shell, on a drip board or cover. You will have extra covers to keep
things covered up. You will smoke the bees thoroughly and remove one full frame of
honey. Brush or shake the bees off. Handfulls of very long grass makes a good bee
brush, or you can purchase one. Shaking is equally effective, once you get the hand of it,
and probably irritates the bees less.
Put the full frame of honey in the readied super shell. Once you have collected 9 or 10
frames, you can wheel this to your honey house or wherever you extract. You will note
that you have now gained an empty super shell, which you can use to remove 9 or 10
more frames if you have them.
This one frame at a time method has many good points. One, you get to examine each
and every frame to be sure the honey is ripe enough. On the down side, I cannot over
stress the necessity to keep things covered up. This type of honey removal can lead to
serious "robbing" if you drip honey all over, or especially -- if you keep the hives open
too long.
Robbing is much easier to prevent than to stop once it is underway. Be alert for the signs
that bees not from your hive are taking an interest in what you are doing. Be aware of
environmental conditions. Robbing is seldom a problem if the bees are busy with a heavy
honey flow (summer, hot and humid, lots of flowers). It can start very quickly if the bees
haven't had much to do for a week or two (fall, warm weather, after killing frost, etc)
pb
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