Session 9 - Saturday 31st July (Horsted Green Apiary or in your / your tutor’s apiary)

• Honey extraction.
• Treatments for Varroa.
• Methods of clearing bees from supers:
  • Clearing boards
  • Chemical fumigants
  • Brushing bees off
  • Blowers used by professionals
  • Pros & Cons of each method
  • Re-arranging full & part filled combs
• Estimating what could be taken.
• Practice “hefting” a hive – to gauge when supers are full
• Potential of robbing & preventing spread of diseases.
• After the honey is extracted the supers are still very wet with honey & given back to the bees to clean up.
• Importance of keeping supers to the same hive they came off.
• Honey will attract robbers & wasps. Reduce entrance to assist guarding bees.
• Only replace the supers late in the afternoon / early evening to minimise robbing.