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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, NOVEMBER 2016
to an electric or steam knife. In Europe they use what we term an uncappings scratcher that is long-toothed like a wool-carding comb. Used horizontally, they slice off just the capping layer, leaving the frame cell wax intact. It’s very clean with no wastage of wax, but relatively slow compared with a knife. Drawn-out frames are a precious asset. It costs a lot of honey to get them drawn out, so look after them. Final thoughts Once you get into a routine of nine-day inspections, or if you split all hives so they are unlikely to swarm, it’s just a matter of seeing that hives have enough food and room to keep expanding. Any that aren’t growing compared to the rest should be requeened or split to make nucs after checking for AFB. Beekeeping is all about timing. If it’s not raining much you are out there in the thick of it, working all hours until the honey flow starts. The drawback is that the bees can be grumpy when they are all home and stings go further into your hands when they are wet. Perhaps I should wear gloves. It’s just stopped raining—time to load the truck for tomorrow. It’s parked on the street. I’m having to remove the batteries each night until I weld a grid over the battery box. In one week, I lost a five-litre two-stroke plastic container and two nights later, the batteries. Perhaps someone had a better use for them. I caught the first offender but let him go as I was in my nightshirt in the rain getting wet at 1.55 am. I won’t be so soft next time.
Things to do this month
Check feed, check pollen. In some areas, November has a period of dearth of nectar and pollen. Unless hives are fed with sugar syrup and pollen supplement, they will go backwards. If there is a brood break at this time of the season, it can affect the number of bees in the field during the main honey flow, so watch hives closely and don’t let them run out of reserves. Check hives for AFB. Hobbyists should get their COIs (Certificate of Inspection signed by an approved beekeeper) in before the end of the month. Raise queen cells and super hives. Put on another honey super as soon as the bees are covering three frames, as a strong hive can fill a super in a week. Undertake swarm control: do a quick check by splitting the hive and tilting the supers back, looking along the bottom bars of the second super for queen cell buds with eggs or young larvae in them until the main flow starts. Once queen cells have started, remove all but one and split the hive— continually removing queen cells is not the answer! Remove old dark frames or those with a lot of drone brood: move them to the outside if they contain sealed worker brood for removal on the next round. Replace with foundation frames in the second super interspaced with frames of brood. Fit foundation into comb honey supers. Monitor varroa mite levels. Plan on getting your strips out just before the main honey flow starts next month. CLEANING WAX FROM A ROLLER Are you waxing plastic frames with a roller? Dirt in the wax soon clogs the roller. Hot water, Handy Andy® and a stiff brush will soon restore the roller surface.
frames. The more wax you roll on, the quicker the bees draw out the frames, but not so much that you lose the hexagon indentations. As you get more experience and more hives, you will need to change your methods and purchase an extractor. Have a five- and 10- year plan and purchase an extractor to fit your future purpose; i.e., purchase one that will last you a lifetime. Many types are available. Tangential extractors throw the honey out sideways, while radial ones cause the honey to flow out the cells towards the top bar and on to the side of the extractor. An extractor is now produced in New Zealand that is a hybrid of each. Both types have their uses. Radial extractors are used for normal honey while tangential extractors are suited toward thicker honeys, but with a honey loosener (pricker) there is very little difference. (When I had 150 hives, I used to have one of each.) If you intend going commercial, consider a horizontal radial extractor. It’s easier to work, there’s no extra lifting, it requires fewer people but these extractors are five or more metres long and require extra room to get around them. The beauty, apart from the labour savings, is that frames can go back into the same boxes they came out of. Any frames removed during/after extracting because of damage or frames that are too old should be replaced by foundation frames to keep everything in order. Most hobbyists start with a serrated bread knife (put in hot water between uses) and graduate
Beekeeping is all about timing
Bee on willow. Photo: Frank Lindsay.
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