# Too much honey



## Elizabeth (Jun 4, 2002)

Is there such a thing as too much honey for a beekeeper? DH and I pulled honey this weekend- 82 supers!! We're not sure yet how much honey there is, but we estimated at least 2050 pounds!!!!! The real bummer? We don't have a honey house set up yet but we have to extract this week- so, we're going to use the old 3-frame electric extractor in the basement. If we are not heard from for awhile, ya'll know where we'll be :no:


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## justgojumpit (May 5, 2003)

oh man, that's a lot of hand cranking! I would've left most of them on the hives for the time being!

justgojumpit


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## bare (May 10, 2002)

Golly, no kidding that's a lot of crankin'. If you hadn't already pulled the supers, I'd be real tempted to leave them on for the time being and find someone to extract for you. I'd still be looking for someone even now. Hope you have a lot of buckets!

How many colonies do you have? I'd be looking for a bigger extractor and just buy a prefab honey house for now. You have plenty of honey to pay for it.


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## Elizabeth (Jun 4, 2002)

Good advice from both of you, but I can't use it :waa: 
I moved bees from Florida (a small hive beetle state) to MN (a beetle-free state). Because we had some beetles in the hives I had to start treatment with coumaphos, which means we had to pull the honey right away. 

Fortunately, the 3-frame extractor is electric- woohoo, that'll be a BIG help, lol!
Bare, I also own a 12-frame, two 32-frame, and assorted small electric extractors, a cowan mini-uncapper, cappings auger, pumps, wax melter, etc, basically, everything I need to set up a nice honey house, just don't have time or a place to set it all up. With hive beetles, the honey must be extracted within 3 days or else :grump: we run the risk of damage. The 3-frame electric is the only one we can get into the basement, our only usable space for extracting at the moment. I know, poor planning, but it all just worked out this way this year.

We are thinking about getting a couple of semi trailers to use- one as an extracting room and the other as storage for supers, honey, etc. I have a couple of friends who are commercial beekeepers who have done this- makes a cheap, easy, quick to set up facility. Also, no property taxes since the trailers are not considered permanent structures. Have to do some more research on that though. But hopefully we will have something put together before the next honey harvest.


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## Elizabeth (Jun 4, 2002)

Oh, the 82 supers came off 23 hives. I have a few more hives still in Florida, but we did not have room for them on the trailer!


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## beeman97 (Jul 13, 2003)

How did you get a permit to move beetle infected hives into a beetle free state,
2nd ,, why weren't they treated before the move to lesson the chance of transporting the beetles accross the states you traveled through & then into your state. Regardless of your treatment plan your state is no longer a beetle free state, & again regardless of your treatment plan there are going to be beetles that escape & continue to infect either your hives or others in your area. This seems to be the poor planning part of your plan here not the part of not beeing able to take the honey out of the supers you have.
I appoligize if i'm beeing alittle blunt here with my comments but from the description of what you did, this is the biggest reason for transmitting pests & deseases into other parts of the country where they didn't appear before, Here in N.C. it is illegal to move a beetle infected hive accross a county line let alone into another state. Seems to me there should have been abit more planning before you took on the task you have. & It would probably be a good idea not to discuss this with anyone in your area who is connected with bee's, they are libel to turn you in & the inspectors may very well distroy all your hives & equiptment in an attempt to isolate & elimate the pest you have introduced into there area.




Elizabeth said:


> Good advice from both of you, but I can't use it :waa:
> I moved bees from Florida (a small hive beetle state) to MN (a beetle-free state). Because we had some beetles in the hives I had to start treatment with coumaphos, which means we had to pull the honey right away.
> 
> Fortunately, the 3-frame extractor is electric- woohoo, that'll be a BIG help, lol!
> ...


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## Elizabeth (Jun 4, 2002)

Beeman, I don't mind your blunt approach here, but you need to be careful about what _you_ say on a public forum. Insinuating that someone might have illegally moved bees is dangerously close to slander, and beyond that, you are putting out bad information where other, less-informed readers might see it and think that it is correct since it appeared in print on an internet forum. You _might_ ask for the facts before you start going off.

But, since you brought it up, first let me clarify- when I call this a beetle free state, that does not mean that there are no beetles here, just that "officially" they are not considered to be established here. They do not overwinter here, and the season is too short for them to have gained a foothold. Most of the commercial beekeepers in this state overwinter their bees in California, Arizona, NM, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida, all small hive beetle states. Beetles have been brought here many times in the past, so I am not the first to have done so, nor will I be the last. Besides being transported by migratory beekeepers, beetles are also transported via package bees, and there is evidence that they are also transported via secondary hosts.

You are correct that there was some mismanagement here, but it was not done out of ignorance or malfeasance. My hives were leased to a commercial beekeeper over the winter. Part of the agreement was that the honey would be pulled and the hives prepped for transport before we went to pick them up. When we arrived, we discovered that this had not been done. 

We did have an inspection and obtained export permits prior to moving the bees. We had been in contact with the head of the apiary inspection program in our new state since last October. But think about what you just said- how can the state of destination inspect hives before they arrive in the state? We spoke with the bee inspector as soon as we arrived here we and scheduled the inspection.

You are displaying your own ignorance here when you assume that the laws and conditions in your state also apply to all other states- they do not. It is NOT illegal to move hives with beetles in many states, in fact, neither FL nor MN even regulate for beetles. Please be very careful when you suggest that we have done anything wrong or illegal, we have not. We belong to both hobbyist and commercial beekeeping organizations and are in regular contact with other beekeepers, in fact, tomorrow morning we are going to a neighboring township to work with a commercial beekeeper, gratis, in exchange for the opportunity to further increase our knowledge. We have no fear of anyone turning us in to the inspectors- we contacted them ourselves, almost as soon as we knew that we would be bringing bees here, back in October of last year. I would never keep bees without having them properly inspected and registered and I resent your suggestion that I might do so. In spite of the fact that I have kept bees for almost 10 years and have worked with commercial beekeepers, and have several times been offered a job by the state of Florida as a bee inspector, BEFORE I moved bees here I went to the Univ of MN and took a beginning class on beekeeping in northern climates, just to make sure that I was fully informed about local beekeeping conditions and regulations. So, if you are going to post here, please do so responsibly and make sure that you know what you are talking about, BEFORE you start typing. I appreciate your concern, and share it, but I think I am much better informed than you about pests in my area.


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## xbeeman412 (May 10, 2002)

Well said in Your last post Elizabeth!!

Just a quick thought but could You buy or rent a 8 x 20 shipping container and setup extracting in it quicker than a basement operation? Is the 3 frame extractor a radial one or do u need to turn the frames? Hope its a radial one.

I talked to You a few years ago Elizabeth about having quite a bit of dadant duragilt foundation if You need it..still have it if the moths havent tore it up.

Been out of bees over 15 years now so dont need it.

The best of success on the extracting this year.

God Bless .


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