Georgia Prison Beekeeping

I made a final bid in MABA's picnic and live auction. Anything is possible with the hard work of dedicated GBA volunteers and Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. I love the light colored honey and label created by prisoners at Lee Arrendale State Prison, a women's facility.

Follow this link to a article in Atlanta Magazine, At Georgia’s Arrendale State Prison, women inmates forge a bond by keeping bees.

crush and strain simplified

It's called crush and strain, but there are surrounding steps to this simple slogan.  My honey harvest starts with the bee escape and ends with bottling.  So that foam can rise before bottling, strained honey is left to sit for a few days. With just one 5 gallon bottler, lots of honey and a busy day job, I had to modify my sequential honey harvest process.

Lucky for me, Home Depot sells food safe 5 gallon buckets - I bought two buckets to store crushed comb (wax and honey).  When the bottler becomes available, then I pour crushed comb into the strainer bottler. 

I'm trying to avoid making a large horizontal sticky mess in the kitchen.   So, I work in the middle of the kitchen floor.  Imagine a compact vertical stack - from the bottom up: brown paper, 5 gallon bucket, combcapper and medium foundationless frame of capped honey. In under an hour, Melissa and Dillon help cut comb from 14 frames with a paring knife.  Comb is crushed in the bucket using 2 inch Plastic Joint Knife attached to a pole.

sky burial - stack of sticky frames after crush-and-strain

I'm complaining about a good problem, too many frames of capped honey.  I credit the success mostly to honey bees from over-wintered hives and favorable Atlanta spring weather.  

I purchased a Sterilite® ClearView™ Storage Tote - Transparent with White Lid 66Qt. from Target.  The 12.25 " H x 16.25 " W x 23.5 " L dimensions are ideal for the storage of 15 medium frames of capped honey - the maximum processing capacity of the 2 (5-gallon) bucket strainer and bottler.

I'm using a a third 5-gallon bucket and a plastic scraper attached to a pole to thoroughly crush the honey comb.   I'm not a solo act - Ram, Melissa and Dillon volunteered to help - not counting the kitchen clean-up and hanging brown paper, the crush-and-strain process takes about 30 minutes.

After cutting away the honey comb, the frames are returned to the Storage Tote.  Over-night, a considerable amount of honey drips into the Tote and I captured these honey dripping too.  As seen in the photo, I stacked the sticky frames outside and in a location away from the hives.   The bees assist with the final honey clean-up of the sticky frames - a circle of life scene which reminds me of sky burial.

2013 tulip poplar flower

On April 15th, I inspected all three hives. The hive with the most flight activity recently drew 8 foundation strips and filled the frames solid with honey.  I am out of medium boxes, so I quickly supered with a deep box containing foundation strips.  I am surprised to see a good nectar flow (and storage) before the arrival of tulip poplar flowers.  Weeks ago, I planned to use my deep boxes to split this hive, but they chose to build vertically and not place queen cells where I can find them.  This could be my big honey year or this could be my imagination.

The other two hives are drawing their foundation strips and filling the frames with honey at a much slower pace. All hives have an amazing low number of small hive beetles (SHB) above the inner cover - killed 3 SHB per hive.   Knock on wood the SHB population remains within bee manageable limits.

I quickly ordered more medium sized boxes boxes from Brushy Mountain and they arrived in four days. The frames have a new milled shaped, most noticeably with a redesign of the frame sides (aka end bars).  The frames are easier to assemble than the old design.  My only concern is with nooks where sides meet the top bar and how they may become hiding places for SHB - I have an very active imagination when it comes to SHB.

At the MABA meeting, Jerry Wallace suggested gluing the frames on day1 and nailing them on day2 - works great and preformed better at keeping the frame pieces at right angles. Thanks Jerry, you are the bee man.

On April 19, I found pieces of tulip poplar flowers and unopened flowers that the wind and squirrels have tossed to the ground.  Nothing worth photographing until I found one medium sized tulip poplar flower head for this blog post.

Beetlejail Entrance Trap

Over the winter I prepared the Beetlejail Entrance Trap for attachment to an 8 frame Brushy Mountain bottom board.  I used a foam brush for the green paint and white spray paint for the novel grooved entrance.  From the look of the bleeding white paint I should have used the expensive green FROG TAPE. Apparently, the small hive beetles (SHB) try to escape the bees by running around the grooved rectangular perimeter..  The bottom edge of the perimeter leads to a pull-out drawer which has three chambers of olive oil.  Dave Miller suggested a lure is not necessary - "the hive odor is more than sufficient as a lure" says Dave, and I have to agree.

In June I noticed the SHB corralled beneath the inverted 1 gallon pail feeder or corralled between the cover and inner cover.  On July 7th I added the Beetlejail Entrance Trap to a functioning hive, my split.   This installation was slightly tricky.  I moved the box away from landing area, then attached the trap to the existing bottom board.  The last step is to coax back the box flush with the trap.    

Esthetically the hive now has the charming (or outrageous) look of an elephant seal.  I added a rectangle of plastic window screen to the inner cover hole after I stopped feeding with an inverted pail.   The window screen prevents the SHB from entering by way of the top of the hive.  Initially the bees propolized the perimeter of the inner cover hole, now the bees have completely propolized the inner cover hole. 

Has the trap eliminated all SHB?  Probably not, but it has been a lot of fun.

crush and strain 2012

The day before the crush and strain, I removed eight deep frames of capped honey from the freezer and left the frames to thaw inside their plastic bag.  I cut away the honey comb and nearly filled a five gallon bucket - probably the limit of my strainer. 

Including preparation and clean-up, the entire crush portion took just one hour - a new record.  Here's my best effort with a material balance.

• 48.0lb of honey + 8 deep frames + wax
• 42.6lb of honey + wax
• 37.0lb of honey

After two days of straining, stirring and settling, I filled 73 x 8oz bottles of honey.

I rinsed the wax pieces in warm water and dried those pieces on the sunny driveway.  Next, I placed the pieces in bags which are stored in the freezer until I was ready to use the solar melter.  Sounds extreme, but a few years ago wax moths made a complete mess of unprocessed wax which I left  indoors.

Coincidentally, I started the solar melting during Atlanta's all-time record of 106°F.   The block of wax smells great and has a beautiful deep yellow color - I'm blown away.

triangular bee escape

Puzzled why I did not use this triangular bee escape sooner, but after many years in storage, I gave it a try.  The picture shows the interesting triangular side of the bee escape, but remember that this side faces downwards.  I added the bee escape beneath an 8 frame deep super with capped honey.  Above the deep super, I closed the small vent notch of the inner cover.

After twenty four hours most of the bees cleared the deep super except for a small patch of bees beneath the inner cover hole and another small patch associated with drone brood. After removing the bee escape, I found that bee escape exit passages were not blocked by drones--which I heard was a problem with other bee escape designs.

crush and strain honey

Each deep frame of capped honey comb was wrapped in a large plastic bag and put in the freezer a few weeks ago.  Freezing allowed me to postpone the crush and strain and kill any trace of small hive beetle larva.  The day before the crush and strain, frames were removed from the freezer and left to thaw inside their plastic bag. 

Comb was cut away from the frame in 3 parts and dropped into a 5 gallon bucket.  Nearly 6 deep frames of capped honey comb filled the bucket to the top.  Last year, instead of using a complete sheet of wax foundation, each frame was started with a narrow strip of  wax foundation.   What a pleasure that none of frames were wired.  So, I did not have to hassle with cutting away wire.   

I reused the cardboard and packing paper from Brushy Mountain before sending both to recycling.   The cardboard was reused twice, first to catch glue and paint drops (from assembly of deep hive body) and then to cover the kitchen floor during crush and strain.  Packing paper was used to cover the cabinet doors which sped up the kitchen clean-up too.  Including preparation and clean-up, the entire crush portion took just two hours--seems a lot easier than last year.

After straining and settling, nearly 6 deep frames of capped honey fills 40 x 8oz bottles of honey.

condensation: outside versus inside the hive

This fall, water was discovered between the telescoping cover and inner cover.  The dawn temperature of  45 °F, thin plywood construction of the telescoping cover and warm moist hive air is a recipe for condensation.  In the morning, I also discovered condensation on the landing board near the reduce hive entrance.

Using 2 pieces of Styrofoam Block 18"x12"x1" from Micheals, a 1" slab of Styrofoam is fitted to the inside of the telescoping cover.  The small bee escape notch on the top side of the brushy mountain inner cover permits some warm moist air to leak from the hive.  See the photo--Now, the warm moist air leaking from the hive is seen appropriately condensing on the outside of the telescoping cover.   Problem solved, I no longer find water between the telescoping cover and inner cover.

free bees - swarm capture

The swarm trap (+ lure) was being visited by a large number of scouts, and by dusk I was convinced that the swarm trap was occupied. At dawn of the next day, the swarm trap (+ lure) was placed on top of the desired hive. After 24 hours, the bees are shaken or bumped into the hive. Some bees remain attached to the trap and are left to crawl into the hive at their own pace. The small quantity of drawn comb is not placed into the hive.

Swarm Trap

How does the Brushy Mountain swarm trap dimensions and swarm lure compare with the nest-site preferences in Honeybee Ecology? The book suggests:

• a volume between 15 and 80 liters
• entrance faces south
• entrance area less than 75 square cm
• entrance positioned near the floor
• located several meters above ground
• located between 100 and 400 meters from the parent nest
• comes equipped with beeswax combs

The Brushy Mountain swarm trap has a volume of 19 liters and a circular entrance area of 13 square cm. Depending on how one attaches the swarm trap to a tree (or whatever), the entrance is either located near the floor or between floor and ceiling. Does entrance at the bottom of the trap hedge my bets as to what direction the entrance faces? The back deck of the house is 5 foot tall, so in combination with a short 4 foot (manageable) ladder that puts the the trap a few meters above the ground. However, my small property makes it difficult to site the trap 100 to 400 meters from my hives--maybe I will attract swarms from other hives. The trap does not contain beeswax comb, but that's where the the smelly lure and other favorable conditions like smooth and dry interior may help--there are no guarantees to this scheme.

Brushy Mountain Strainer and Bottler

5 deep frames of capped honey were removed from the freezer and the comb was crushed using a stainless steel scraper and a plastic cutting board. How much crushing is enough--stop when the voice of reason, "my spouse," says to stop. Next, the crushed comb was placed into a 5 gallon pale containing a nylon strainer which sits on top of yet another 5 gallon pale used for collection and bottling. The honey filled 30 8 oz. bottles and there was wax too. Residual honey was washed from the wax using the nylon straining bag. I am extremely pleased with this low tech extraction scheme. The only moving part is the honey gate and the only surprise was that I thought the draining was going to complete over-night. However, to complete the straining properly required 3 days of periodically stirring the crushed comb . See the picture of the straining/bottling gadget purchased from Brushy Mountain.