Yet Another Cycling Forum
Random Musings => Miscellany => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: David Martin on 23 February, 2015, 10:40:40 am
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-23/beekeepers-devise-tap-to-collect-honey-without-disturbing-hive/6222728
Factory farming comes to the beehive.
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If it sounds too good to be true it usually is. May well work to a point in that kind of climate, not crossing my fingers for here. Not to mention filtration is going to be an issue.
PH
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You wouldn't be able to collect rape or heather honey that way. The first sets solid (high glucose content) and the second is a thixotropic gel. It has to be crushed out of the honeycomb, or sold as cut comb.
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So the bees are supposed now to use plastic honeycombs instead of building their own? I'd like to know what the bees think about that! ;)
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The beekeeper offers bees a "foundation! in the form of a sheet of wax printed with a hexagonal pattern and reinforced with wire. This is placed in a wooden frame and the bees then extend the hexagons out onto hexagonal cells. I think it is possible to by plastic foundation sheets. [indeed it is - http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/plastic-comb-foundation_858059566.html?s=p]
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=honeycomb+foundation&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=893&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCcQsARqFQoTCIraqOKgksYCFSKC2wodPOUAEQ shows foundation in various stages of having been extended by the bees.
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Heather honey can be extracted centrifugally provided it is a, mechanically agitated first to turn the jelly to liquid, and b, the extractor is tangential not radial. Having successfully done this with several tons I can assure you this is true.
OSR these days certainly in the midlandss is not a major crop as it is so early and lasts such a short time. In my case less than three weeks and the bees are no where near ready for supering. So these days I am more than happy to miss it totally.
In a suitably warm climate no doubt the device will work to a point. I am not at all sure about here in the UK.
PH
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OSR these days certainly in the midlandss is not a major crop as it is so early and lasts such a short time. In my case less than three weeks and the bees are no where near ready for supering. So these days I am more than happy to miss it totally.
We have loads of OSR around us (Uttoxeter area) so my brood boxes get rammed with honey which quickly sets rock-hard and then gives the bees a jolly hard time when they try to move it to the supers or expand their brood-nest... >:( I sometimes mist it with a fine spray of water to try to encourage them to move it.
PS - I'm guessing you're the same Poly Hive from beekeepingforum... It's a small internet, isn't it?
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Ex that forum yes.
PH