Honey Equipment Question - Clarifier

[OneLegJohn]

I was wondering if any maple guys have experience to share with a clarifier. I was looking at two different units to help us bottle bulk honey. I think it would make sense to have one forum topic of "HONEY" on the site.

[psparr]

Try the forum "beemaster" lots of good info there. I'm

[DuncanFTGC/SS]

Beesource is also a pretty good forum to all bee related things. How much honey are you bottling? A simple 5 gallon bucket, maybe set in the sun or a warm room, will also clarify honey, over time.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/forum.php

[spud]

What do all of you use to strain your honey? I used a stainless kitchen strainer but the honey still has a waxy taste. Could I use cheese cloth or a painter screen? thank you.

Spud

[David in MI]

I know of a beekeeper that uses pantyhose to filter his raw honey. Just make sure to get the biggest size possible. :)

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I know of a beekeeper that uses pantyhose to filter his raw honey. Just make sure to get the biggest size possible. :)


Just hope they are food grade pantyhose!

[psparr]

5 gallon mesh paint strainers work well.

[David in MI]

Just hope they are food grade pantyhose!

I'll tell him to ask the clerk and tape the reaction! :lol:

[spud]

5 gallon mesh paint strainers work well.

Ok thank you.

Spud

[stoweski]

Bucket strainer from US Plastics. Has solid plastic sides with a lip to sit in a 5 gal bucket. Bottom is screened and flat. Easily removable and reusable. Many different screen sizes depending on your preference. We use the largest screen size as I want some bits of pollen and comb in my honey. Many customers ask how we filter our honey. I have one customer that wants the honey bottled directly from the extractor - bee bits and all!

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?sku=10879

[gmcooper]

To strain honey use a double screen strainer sold by all bee supply companies. They come in plastic or stainless. Stainless is best option. 2 strainers. 1st is 1000 micron, 2nd is 500 micron. The first takes out the bigger pieces and 2nd finer. Dadant sells them for about $42.00. We have runs 1,000's of pounds thru ours and still looks like new.

[spud]

To strain honey use a double screen strainer sold by all bee supply companies. They come in plastic or stainless. Stainless is best option. 2 strainers. 1st is 1000 micron, 2nd is 500 micron. The first takes out the bigger pieces and 2nd finer. Dadant sells them for about $42.00. We have runs 1,000's of pounds thru ours and still looks like new.

gmcooper- Thanks i looked up the screens and plan to buy one. I have another bee question. I extracted my honey a few weeks ago and then put the frames back in the honey box. The Golden rod and other flowers are still all over the place. I suspect their making honey right now but don't plan to check the hive till the end of October. Do you think I will have much honey and if so what do I do with it? I was told that I probably have honey in my two brood boxs. Would that be enough for the winter? Thanks

Spud

[psparr]

If it's goldenrod then leave it for the bees. It has almost a sour taste to it until it has had a while to mellow out.
Not sure where your at but here in pa the general rule is 60lb. of honey for winter.

[spud]

If it's goldenrod then leave it for the bees. It has almost a sour taste to it until it has had a while to mellow out.
Not sure where your at but here in pa the general rule is 60lb. of honey for winter.

Ok thank you. Should I just leave the honey box on top of the two brood boxes for the winter. Then I would just remove the queen excluder.

Spud

[SeanD]

Ok thank you. Should I just leave the honey box on top of the two brood boxes for the winter. Then I would just remove the queen excluder.

Spud

If you guys don't like your goldenrod, I'll drive over to get it. It's a delicacy in these parts. It has a sour smell when they are curing it, but the honey itself is like candy. I have customers that wait all year for it - myself included.

Spud, it won't hurt to leave the honey supers on although you could argue that it's more space for them to keep warm and it's a lot of unprotected stores begging for mice and wax moth. Most winter over with two deeps up north here.

Whether you leave the supers on or not, you'll still want at least 60 lbs in the deeps. Bees won't break the cluster in the deep cold to go up into the super. It's not unusual for hives to starve to death just inches from food. Get the food down where they will winter over. By the time I open the hive for the last time in the fall, I aim to have two center frames open for brood and four honey frames on each side.

Timing is important, too. It's too early to start packing in the winter feed - especially if our fall is mild again. Your queen will need room for brood right up into November, give or take a few weeks. If you bind up the hive too early, she can't lay the eggs that will be needed for the winter cluster. Right around now, she is laying the eggs of the bees that will raise the bees that get them through the winter. Numbers are important for sure, but a lot of the bees you see now are not going to be around in 3-4 weeks. You want to see a good amount of brood still.

Seriously, try the goldenrod for yourself. It's fantastic.

Sean

[spud]

seanD thanks so much for the information. So if I take the honey box off and just winter the bees in the two brood boxes I still may have a problem. The honey box is 6 inches and the brood boxes are supers. If I want to make sure I have 60 pounds for the bees I can't really put 6 inch frames of honey in a super. I guess this is why I was thinking of turning the honey box into a brood box. Should I just use supers for everything from now on? It seems like that would be easy. I have yet to look in my brood boxes this summer. I have been told there might be honey in the brood boxes. I guess I need to check later in the fall. I have considered converting my supers to handle the Flow Hive frames. I thought if I could put three flow hive frames in the center and two standard frames on each side I would be all set. My thought was I could draw honey throughout the summer from the flow frames and then what honey is on the standard frames could be moved down to the brood boxes for winter food. This also would allow me to not have to buy a extractor and the other things needed. Am I way out to lunch here or am I thinking right?

Spud

[SeanD]

Hmm. I may not have had a clear picture of what you have. You are calling your brood boxes supers. Is that because they are only 6" deep? Typically "super" refers to the honey boxes you put above the brood boxes, not necessarily the size of the box itself - though many beeks use the names interchangeably. Are all of your boxes 6" deep?

Starting at the bottom board and going upward, describe each box you have going to the top. For example, I generally have traditional setups of two 10" boxes (deeps) for brood with 6" supers (shallows) for honey on top. Some people use mediums throughout. It's all personal preference.

I won't get into the advantages and disadvantages of each kind of setup now. You have what you have and we need to get your girls set for the winter. Just describe the configuration of your hive and I'll give you some more appropriate advice.

[spud]

Thank SeanD. The two bottom boxes are deep. The honey box is 6 inches and there is only one of these on top. There is a queen excluder under the 6 inch honey box. The bees seem to be working a bunch still. When the sun comes out there is a bunch of bees at the door of the hive coming and going. I assume they are making more honey and will continue till the weather gets to cold. If that is indeed whats happening then I may have more honey that could be used for wintering the bees. Would it not be a good idea putting 6 inch frames in a big box for the winter? I still don't even know if there is any honey being stored in the lower big boxes. You can tell that I am really new at this. Haha.

Spud

[SeanD]

Ok, good. Even better that the bees are still working something up there. The drought has really hurt the fall flow here.

You definitely have honey in the deeps if you have honey in your supers. A hive packs the honey in the lower boxes then puts the extra or reserve above. So if you have honey in your super it means they had enough to start putting the extra upstairs in the attic so to speak. It won't hurt them if you decide to leave the super on for the winter, but most people take it. The honey in the brood boxes is typically off limits. Personally, I'd take the super of honey and feed them. You still have plenty of time to build them up for the winter.

Once your super is off, you can start feeding them a 2:1 syrup. That's 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. Since you have five gallon buckets from your other hobby, you can mix a ten lb. bag of sugar with 5 lbs water which is just over a half gallon. Or two 10lb bags of sugar with about a gallon and a quarter of water. My tap water gets hot enough that I can just mix it in the bucket, but some people heat their water on the stovetop. Either way, just stir a lot.

If you are feeling really guilty about eating the honey from their super, you can feed it back to them instead of syrup. It probably won't be enough though and you'll need to supplement eventually.

Hivetop feeders take minutes to make if you don't have one. If you don't know how or how to use it, let me know. All very easy, but won't go into it if you all set there. I personally don't sweat the winter feeding until well into October.

It sounds like you are in good shape and you still have plenty of time ahead. You'll have a better idea of how to move forward once you get in there and take a look. They are likely already backfilling the brood chamber especially if you have a flow still on. Get a rough idea of how many brood frames there are and how many honey frames there are.

Have fun. You may be new to this, but they've been doing this for millions of years. They usually end up ok despite our best efforts to "help" them.

Sean

[spud]

Thanks SeanD for your help. On a new hive like mine I already got about 25 pounds of honey out of my top honey box. If this is the extra then how much honey would you think there would be in the brood boxes? Just a guess is all i'm asking. Thanks again

Spud

[SeanD]

No two hives are the same, but generally I find the bees start putting honey up in the supers once there are at least 3-4 pretty full honey frames in the top box and even the brood frames have good crescents. Sometimes they bind up the brood box even when there is room in the super. My summer flow was tremendous and they were filling in the brood chamber like mad. I was spinning some of it out weekly to make room for brood. Once we hit August though, I had a hunch the party was over, so I stopped spinning out brood frames. Sure enough, all the extra honey they had packed in to the brood chamber was gobbled up over the next month. I opted to let them do that over feeding them, so what little flow we are getting this fall is going right into the deeps to replenish their supplies and not much is going up to the supers so far.

So, if I had to guess, your hive may have 4+ frames of honey in the top deep depending on how your dearth was. Just the same, a 15 minute visit will tell you everything you need to know.

[spud]

Due to low back issues I have not been able to mow in my apple orchard for several weeks. I now have tons of little yellow flowers on about a 6-8 inch stem. They resemble a dandelion but smaller. I took a closer look and found that my honey bees are all over these flowers. Does anyone know what kind of flower this is? Also is this a flower that could get me a bunch more honey before the winter sets in? Thanks.

Spud