# Crush and strain honey comb !



## WVMJ

Your link doesnt work


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## Nantom670

I noticed that if you highlight what he has above and then backspace back to photos you can then click on that and look at all his photos. Fact is if you put you pointer on some of the pictures it then lets you look at several in that group, I have never seen that before.


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## chaindrivecharlie

Went back in and edited the link, should work now.
Charlie


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## pelz

thanks for the tutorial, now I know what to look forward to. is the snaky looking comb normal for your bees? I love to look at the artwork of the bee.


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## chaindrivecharlie

@Pelz _ With the warre yes, unless you can get them to build straight with the bars. I dont worry about it myself, I let them build as they please. And yes I like to look at their artwork too! If you look you can see the queen cells left from the swarm in the one box. That box was the bottom and only about 3/4ths full of honey.


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## Groves

Looks like a nice harvest. Can you comment on your clearing board, how well it worked, and maybe a picture or two of it?


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## chaindrivecharlie

@ Groves, I will post a pic of my bee escape tomorrow. Mine is a single triangle escape, it did not do so well. Even after 48 hours, so I took my leaf blower and blew out all but about 20 bees. I believe I will double up on the triangle escape. I made one for my Warre's, and one for 10 frame Langstroths, for a good Friend. My honey is stll draining through the strainer, about 3 gals now. I will bottle it up Thursday or Friday.


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## Groves

That would be great, thanks.

Also, did your 3 gallons come from two warré boxes, then?


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## chaindrivecharlie

One full the other about half full, for got to take pics. I will go and take some, sorry.


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## chaindrivecharlie

@ Groves, my homemade bee escape for my Warre's.
https://plus.google.com/photos/1115...ms/5771522426650640929?authkey=CK6BstmzveqZFQ

I am going to rebuild it, it will be doubled up on triangles. Plus the will come to a point at each apex.


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## Kelbor

Hey Chain-Charlie

I was wondering what percentage of those boxes had 'sealed' honey and what percentage was open? I have a three stack warre and a five stack warre. I wanted to reduce them both to two stack for the winter but am getting a little nervous that they will not cap all the comb. When I inspect there seems to be a random placement of brood and capped honey! Definently more capped honey along the sides with more brood in the center on the top box but it seems they have capped honey in every box. 

Think I should pull out the ol'comb knife and selectively harvest then focus the combs that have more brood/uncapped cells in fewer boxes or should I just go ahead and pull the top box (or two off the larger hive) and sacrifice the brood. On a side note, when I checked them out yesterday without smoke they were not pleased. I should have seen the way the bees were acting on the smaller hive (way more guard bees then normal hassling every bee that entered) and realized they were fending off raiders - They pretty much attacked the ever living sheesh out of my gloves and got my buddy on the legs who was helping me (well, he should not of had shorts on I guess -Hahahah). 

So the reason I want to rob them now is so that they might have time to stock some more nectar away before winter - My thinking is that if they feel like they dont have enough stores early enough they may kick into high forage gear while if they think the are sitting pretty they may slack off some. Maybe this is not the reality....


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## Kelbor

chaindrivecharlie said:


> One full the other about half full, for got to take pics. I will go and take some, sorry.



Ahhhh..reading. What a concept! 
So, the half full one, how many babies got sacrificed? It seems you would have a ton of uncapped honey....how did you thicken it up? 

Thanks!


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## chaindrivecharlie

Kelbor, there was no brood in the boxs, only capped and uncapped honey. The honey that was uncapped was cured enough, none ran out when tipped. When you reduce Your hive's, check each box for capped honey. You should be able to see the capped cells. But it is a little early to get ready for winter yet. You shouldn't reduce till the begining of fall, mine was a queen failure. Which caused a deadout after they swarmed. There are some pics in first post of my box's full of comb. You can see the caps on the comb, and the bees should be in two bottom boxs. I usually wait till temps send bees to brood chamber to keep everybody warm. Then rob them early in the morning while its still cool. Tempature should be down about 45 degrees at night for this. Dont worry to much now and let them keep bringing in the harvest. 
Blessings to Ya!


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## Kelbor

Hey thanks Charlie! 
That sounds like very good advice. I noticed, yesterday, a ton of bees doing orientation flights so I know those queens are still pumping out the workers and keeping the populations high. Im still not 'tuned' to the local flows (apart from spring berries) here in the N.W. so Im not sure the extent of fall forage or how long it will last. I will be patient. Be patient. Be patient. Hahahaha.


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## ubernerd

chaindrivecharlie said:


> @ Groves, my homemade bee escape for my Warre's.
> https://plus.google.com/photos/1115...ms/5771522426650640929?authkey=CK6BstmzveqZFQ
> 
> I am going to rebuild it, it will be doubled up on triangles. Plus the will come to a point at each apex.


Cool! Thanks for the pics. I've kinda always wondered how to build one of those. That'll be up on the project list next year.

When you say that they will come to a point at each apex, I assume you just mean a much sharper point than you have already?


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## beedeetee

Kelbor said:


> So the reason I want to rob them now is so that they might have time to stock some more nectar away before winter - My thinking is that if they feel like they dont have enough stores early enough they may kick into high forage gear while if they think the are sitting pretty they may slack off some. Maybe this is not the reality....


I have bees in Elmira. Our flow starts there about May 1 and will run until about July 15. I remove honey at that time and let what they can find after that be their winter food. After July 15 they definitely become more defensive and will try to rob.


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## Zonker

The potato masher is genius.


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