Sonntag, 20. Mai 2018
Our beekeeping in May
beekids, 13:49h
After the success at the national competition of young beekeepers in Krško, we decided to check if our bees had some honey of fruit trees.
On Monday, we washed all the equipment and prepared all the accessories, and on Tuesday, 8. 5. 2018, we were first time harvesting our school honey.
Nikita, Ivan, Jacob, and Mihej removed the top and smoke the opening to drive the bees lower into the hive. They took the frames from the hive. They removed any lingering bees from the frames with a bee brush. They set them aside into a plastic container with a lid.
These containers with lids were taken to our beekeeping classroom. The girls at the special table uncap the wax-sealed honeycomb using an uncapping fork on both sides of the frame.
They placed the frame into a honey extractor and spined the frames, forcing the honey to the walls of the drum where they drip to the bottom. They opened the spigot and strain the honey through several layers of strainer to remove any stray bits of wax or other debris.
The boys put the frames back into the hive. We were harvesting about 20 L on honey.
We let the honey lie down. After three and ten days we removed the impurities (wax residues) that drove to the top of the honey.
On Wednesday, 9. 5. 2018, we were also harvesting honey from the hives of the Educational Center Piramida Maribor. We did it according to the same procedure and drained 5 L of honey from one hive.
The removed wax cappings were stored together with some honey in a special container and poured with school brandy. This was left for 4 days, then the mixture was passed through the strainer and gauze and filtered through the filter paper. So we got the first school honey liqueur.
When the honey was clean and we removed all wax residues, we pored it in glasses and seales them. We also marked the glasses with stickers.
From last year's honey produced by bees from the Education Center Piramida Maribor, we made whipped honey with ginger and whipped honey with chocolate and pollen. We also filled this honey into glasses and marked them with stickers.
One week after harvesting we found our first swarm on a small peach. With the most faithful beekeeping team (Ivan, Jakob, Mihej and Nikita) we caught the swarm in a wooden crate, closed it and left for one day in a cool and dark place.
Then, the swarm was treated by spraying 4.2% of the oxalic acid solution in order to eliminate the potential Varoa. Swarm was than settled in a new hive. We added it some food in the form of a sugar solution.
We also ordered new Queen bee and made new bee colony.
The girls continued coloring the hives and assembling frames.
On Monday, we washed all the equipment and prepared all the accessories, and on Tuesday, 8. 5. 2018, we were first time harvesting our school honey.
Nikita, Ivan, Jacob, and Mihej removed the top and smoke the opening to drive the bees lower into the hive. They took the frames from the hive. They removed any lingering bees from the frames with a bee brush. They set them aside into a plastic container with a lid.
These containers with lids were taken to our beekeeping classroom. The girls at the special table uncap the wax-sealed honeycomb using an uncapping fork on both sides of the frame.
They placed the frame into a honey extractor and spined the frames, forcing the honey to the walls of the drum where they drip to the bottom. They opened the spigot and strain the honey through several layers of strainer to remove any stray bits of wax or other debris.
The boys put the frames back into the hive. We were harvesting about 20 L on honey.
We let the honey lie down. After three and ten days we removed the impurities (wax residues) that drove to the top of the honey.
On Wednesday, 9. 5. 2018, we were also harvesting honey from the hives of the Educational Center Piramida Maribor. We did it according to the same procedure and drained 5 L of honey from one hive.
The removed wax cappings were stored together with some honey in a special container and poured with school brandy. This was left for 4 days, then the mixture was passed through the strainer and gauze and filtered through the filter paper. So we got the first school honey liqueur.
When the honey was clean and we removed all wax residues, we pored it in glasses and seales them. We also marked the glasses with stickers.
From last year's honey produced by bees from the Education Center Piramida Maribor, we made whipped honey with ginger and whipped honey with chocolate and pollen. We also filled this honey into glasses and marked them with stickers.
One week after harvesting we found our first swarm on a small peach. With the most faithful beekeeping team (Ivan, Jakob, Mihej and Nikita) we caught the swarm in a wooden crate, closed it and left for one day in a cool and dark place.
Then, the swarm was treated by spraying 4.2% of the oxalic acid solution in order to eliminate the potential Varoa. Swarm was than settled in a new hive. We added it some food in the form of a sugar solution.
We also ordered new Queen bee and made new bee colony.
The girls continued coloring the hives and assembling frames.
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