8/14/2013  Lughnasa                                                           Honey Moon

So.  It was going well.  The refractometer reported 19% water content in uncapped honey, too high and expected.  That was from the second honey super of six.  I had my plank across two upended trash cans that I used last time.  My ergonomics were better.  Lowering with my right arm.  All six supers, each with some weight now, maybe 5 total full or close to full were on the plank.  I got the hopguard strips out and had removed last week’s strips from the top hive box when I heard a noise.  Uh oh.

My temporary super holding plank had shifted and all six honey supers hit the ground.  Wow.  A lot of angry bees.  This is where I came in last week.  The difference this week?  I had a sweat band on so I could see out of both eyes and I had used the long beekeeper gloves with the sleeve that goes up to the shoulder of the suit.  Thank god.

The only stings I got this time were on my right ankle and I smoked them right away, dispersing the “sting again, right here!!!!” pheromones.  That left me free to contemplate the huge, sticky mess.  One thing at a time.  I decided I would finish the hopguard strips on the three hive boxes since I had to do it and I had begun.  So I did.

After the last hopguard strip went on, I moved over to the six tipped over supers.  Three I righted with a gloved handle on the top of the frames.  No problem.  Two supers I had to set aside and reinstall their frames one by one, turning them right side up as I did.  The last one though must have caught another super.  The super now sat at an angle.  That required a new one altogether.  Of which I have plenty. After grabbing that one from the garage and replacing the frames into it, I began lifting the supers back on to the stack.  Not easy because of their weight, but it got done.

Now, inside, I’m glad there’s only one more iteration of this process.  If I weren’t doing this mite treatment, I wouldn’t need to be doing all this lifting and moving, but I am, so I do.  Hopefully most of the honey will be capped next week, which means that it’s automatically below 18% since that’s when the bees cap it.  That will mean I can remove the supers for honey extraction and not have to put them back on.

8/14/2013   Lughnasa                                                                                      Honey Moon

Cool weather.  Presents an interesting problem.    Honey has to have less than 18% water content to qualify as honey.  To measure this a refractometer is necessary.  I bought one.  It needs calibration; but, there’s a hitch today, the temperature.  The temperature has to be 68 degrees.  Won’t hit that until 11:00 am according to my weather websites.  I want to check the honey at 10.  On August 14th this is an issue?

I’m picking plums this morning, then I’ll do the refractometer test of the honey, after which I will, again, remove all six honey supers, remove the hopguard strips I placed last week and replace them with new ones.  My plan is better this week.  I have a desire to avoid the hassle of last week’s battle with an angry superorganism.  Aversive conditioning really does work.

Check you after it’s all over.