Bees were quite different during extraction, they were all around the back of the hive and was some fighting going on possibly suggesting a bit of a no flow time as last time there was barely a visitor at the back. Did the extraction suited up after walking behind the hive and getting pinged on the arm without warning likely due to yesterday’s inspection.
Another 9kgs from the 3 frames.
@SnowflakeHoney where did you get your refractometer from?
@skeggley I got it from here: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/291915844147
There are few types. The main thing to confirm is the scale on it as honey is different to wine etc. If you’ve got an ok eye this one is fine otherwise consider a digital one. You need to calibrate this one before you use it everytime (I use olive oil to calibrate it)
I’m seeing lots of gums in the metro area budding and some in flower already. Shame my bee numbers are down. The hive still smells beautiful though.
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Dunc my hive is just chugging along, stripped some honey out again last week as they were doing nothing, and we need to keep them bees busy
Have high bee numbers, the late rains and extra flowers round my way has just not let up in flowering buds, which is great
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Balcatta Stirling area, plenty of water and established trees and more importantly, a wide variety of flowering buds
Im seriously considering buying another hive, just not sure if it will be a langstron or fh…decisions decisions
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Is it just me or does the current weather seem more like spring than spring actually was…!!!
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No arguments from me
My friend has a peach tree that is flowering now!!!
One of my leptospermum is flowering too. Weird times!
My pear tree is growing a new crop of pears - it is seriously confused :).
Unfortunately not too much flowering up on my hill so don’t think there is too much feed around for my girls. Hopefully that full honey super each has will be enough to get them through.
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Yes thank you. All though it is always good to get back in your own bed and sit in your favourite chair. 
Not always good to have a million catch up jobs to do though.
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On Sunday, I harvested one FF which was not full and capped, but it gave me about 2.25Kg of honey.
How much honey would one normally get from a fully capped FF?
All the capped frames I’ve harvested average at 3kgs.
Did you have bees around the back interested in the honey smell?
2 months ago, the Marri blossoms were in decline and the bees were agro, coming at me from all directions, even without opening the hive. This time they showed no interest at all. They were coming and going at the front door and they showed no interest in me at the back door.
I saw some moths on the coreflute bottom board. I will need to inspect the brood box and see if I can see any evidence of them there. The ones I saw were probably kicked out by the bees.
I might harvest a second frame this weekend, because that one must have been fairly full. No cells were capped and few had much honey in them, from what I could see thru the viewing window. That said 2.25 Kg is a fair proportion of 3Kg.
The bees were into the cells that had drained while the honey was still flowing out the back into my jars. They looked to be cleaning the cells up.
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The amount of honey you get will depend on how full the cells are, but also how much the bees have drawn out the frame faces. With repeated use, several people have noticed that they get more honey per frame with subsequent harvests, and it seems likely that this is because the bees are drawing out the frames more and minimizing the beespace between frame faces.
Long story short, you may get around 2.5kg per frame the first time, but later harvests you should get 3kg or more.
You might find it helpful to invest in a cheap honey refractometer from eBay. They are around $30 to $50. Then you can test the honey to make sure it is ripe. If it isn’t 18% water or less, just store in the freezer and use it within a month or two of defrosting. You can’t legally sell it as honey if it isn’t 18% or less, but it is perfectly safe to eat, just more likely to ferment. 
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I averaged 3.2Kg off 8 frames, 6 frames first round, then only 2 were capped enough to harvest after that.
Edit: I got a further 6 Kg (about a kilo per frame) when I took the flow super and frames off for the Winter but was just over 22% water so plenty to use in cooking. LOL
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So, earlier today I did what might be my last inspection until early spring. This is what I observed:
- A reduction in colony numbers
- Bees actively working all 9 flow frames (6 in the flow super, 3 in the hybrid)
- 5 of the 6 flow frame sides in the hybrid super were capped
- 2 of the 12 flow frame sides in the flow super were capped (but not a common frame, unfortunately)
- No queen could be spotted in the brood box (she is marked but I can still only find her about 90% of the time)
- New larvae clustered in the middle of the brood frames, with the outer edges either pollen, honey, or a mix of honey and pollen
- About half of the frames appeared to only be honey and pollen. Has anyone else noticed similar going into winter here in Perth?
- Couldn’t spot any eggs; but that’s nothing new - I can barely ever spot eggs
- The hive is a nice 34degC (I replaced the battery in the logger that I have so I’ll monitor the temp and humidity)
Not being able to spot the queen after I went through the brood frames twice gives me slight pause for concern but I’m going to keep my fingers crossed and hope all is ok. Depending on the weather I might consider inspecting once more in a few weeks to see if I can spot her.
After the inspection today I’ve removed the flow super and left the hybrid super and and brood box only. I’ve left the 4 traditional frames and 3 part filled flow frames in the hybrid. I’ll test the honey in the flow frames I robbed but suspect most of it is not sufficiently ripe.
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Just went down to see how the bees are going, and yes we have had 31mm of rain overnight, but I was really surprised to see only 1 or 2 around the front of the hive. Opened the side window and there were no bees in sight. Opened the back and there were no bees working in the FF’s which they have been happily doing for months. Did see some coming up from the brood box, but I feel a little apprehensive. Will have to wait for hubby to get home to do a full inspection 
If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear from you.
Cheers
Deb
@demak I wouldn’t be too concerned, assuming the last inspection was fine. Given the rain you’ve just had the bees are probably all clustered in the middle and likely centred around the brood box.
Thanks Snowflake - we haven’t had a harvest as yet, so wasn’t to keen on the thought they had all run off.