Probably my last removal this year & a question

[Bill W.]

You can see all the gory details here.

The question: Because it was pouring rain while I removed all the honey comb, it got wet.  I dried it with paper towels when I got home and most of it was capped.  I am currently in the process of bottling it after crush and strain.  Do you think the honey will be OK, or might it have absorbed water through the wax?

[Brian D. Bray]

You can see all the gory details here.

The question: Because it was pouring rain while I removed all the honey comb, it got wet.  I dried it with paper towels when I got home and most of it was capped.  I am currently in the process of bottling it after crush and strain.  Do you think the honey will be OK, or might it have absorbed water through the wax?

I've never experienced water transfer through wax cappings so the honey should still be good, being capped.  You'll want to process it before the wax gets moldy though.  Water can make the wax go moldy, which taints the flavor.

[JP]

Hey Bill nice job, a little tip for you if you don't mind me saying, when they enter a wall void they most generally build comb from the top plate down, when in doubt where the hive is exactly in a wall void, open the exterior from the top working downwards. This really comes into play when the bldg owner has to make repairs.

Looked like a really cool hive.


...JP

[Bill W.]

Yep - usually I would start at the top.  Actually, now that I have an infrared thermometer, it gives me a pretty good idea where the hive is, except that heat rises, so I try to use it to find the lower extent of the hive and then drill some holes to make sure of where the top is.  I went bottom up this time because that is where the owner had already cut into the wall, so it was really the course of minimum damage.  He had actually cut right through the corner studs (looked like with a chainsaw) so I really couldn't do much worse.

It was definitely a cool one.  I just wish I understood what was going on.  It appeared honey-bound, which is a condition I thought only occurred in artificial hives where the bees had no more room to build.  These bees had more room, but no empty comb and not more than a couple hundred cells of sealed brood.

10 quarts of honey so far and still draining.

[JP]

Bill, bees are always at the mercy of the place and space they elect to build their colonies, they don't always make the best decisions as to where to place the hive, and sometimes they have no choice as to where they place the hive as in a swarm that landed and rested in a tree bush and a front comes through or there just aren't enough resources in an area so they settle where they can.

Wild colonies are often subject to the same challenges as bees set up in hive bodies, if the space they elect is relatively small, they run out of room quickly and can become honeybound and thus swarm out to alleviate crowding.

If the hive went queenless they go into survival mode and pack on the honey.


...JP

[Bill W.]

Hey - I got the queen!  I opened the hive today to do an inspection prior to combining it and there she was on the second frame I pulled.  I didn't spot her on any of the combs when I boxed them, so she must have been in the bees I vacuumed.  That is one lucky queen, considering how many bees my vacuum kills.