I’m hoping to an extraction on Wednesday at our Groups apiary!!
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Forgot to mention another Successfully mated Queen Opal at my Out Apiary - In good hot weather so should be a good mating; laying but not caught sight of her yet, but plenty of laying going on
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Valli, thanks for sharing your vid n experience with the Flow n other stuff. How’s your summer weather there.
Ours had been off/on wet/cool then mild. Today is going to pop up to near the low 80’s n sunny. Suppose to get a run of warm stuff the week ahead but never know being on our west coast !! Now back to the 
.
Cheerio my friend,
Gerald.
Weather for the last 2 weeks has been brill - not sure about the weather the week before that as I was in Northern Ireland on Hols - but after 3 false starts where the girls have 1/3 filled and then eaten the stores in April, May and June - all were fed in June Except Emerald (Flow Hive) and now almost full.
Poor Sapphire has not been doing so well - she was mated last year and that may be part the problem - many Queens all over mated last year have had problems. Mainly because the weather was so bad.
I have hundreds of Lime trees near me and the girls are going crazy for it.
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Thanks for sharing Valli. Maybe help to edit a bit?
I was in a rush - been out all day Sat making Skeps at pets world Live and Sun at a Pizza Pudding event for our local group to raise money for “Bee Abroad” - bee related stuff - really need to fix a new strap for the camera - my old camera Strap doesn’t fit the new Camera
I want to go to a Pizza Pudding event!!
Great to hear about your progress, Valli - can’t wait to hear how the harvest goes 
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Eva It was Brill!
Think I have Jerry Rigged the Strap now for my camera.
One of the girls in our group has a pizza oven in her back yard and provides everything! It is “Build-a-Bear” with Pizza LOL and all the puds are made with Honey from her hives.
Each week in Summer and once a moth at the meetings in Winter Mandy and another Lady provide Cakes, biscuits and sweets to go with our Coffee/Tea at the end of the meeting - They are a very sociable group
That does sound fun & scrumptious! I’m thinking I need to gather up some local beeks & start a little group like yours…we had a nice chicken one called COOP (chicken owners outside Philadelphia) but we lost some key members & it fell away. Folks from my bee class were scattered too far apart…anyway, how wonderful to have a backyard pizza oven!
and of course I know that in the UK your word for ‘dessert’ is pudding - but here that only refers to custard, so my instant image of ‘pizza pudding’ is pretty funny 
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Let it Flow, Let it Flow, Let it Flow!!
http://vallicawte.wixsite.com/queenbee/blog
Wow, that is some really valuable honey you have there! Best before 201? Hmm, sounds like the Roman empire!!! 
Seriously though, congratulations. 
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@Dawn_SD Yes I have to put the 8 on I nearly forgot about that.
The lady at Thornes said it is better to just have Lot Numbers and not bother with batch - she was really helpful
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Hello Valli,
congratulations on you first Flow honey!
looks like you had a little leaking at the end of the video there? can I suggest- especially when you crack a frame that isn’t fully capped- that you wait 5 minutes between each increment when you insert the key? I believe this will reduce leakage: the issue is the channel at the bottom of the frame fills entirely with honey- if there are uncapped cells the honey can flow out of the face of the frame. If you crack in increments the pressure should be lower and hopefully this will reduce the leakage…
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@Semaphore Yes I worked that out - it was a test run as I’m doing a fully capped frame at the Bee club tonight so wanted to see how it went - rather embarrass my self here than in front of my group apiary.
It was not a full frame either but the honey was as at 18% - I’m glad I did a test run - now I feel confident to do one with a live audience
That’s very exciting Valli! I bet you’ll get a lot of converts
Hi Eva, if it wasn’t for what happened at 3:26, I’d be inclined to agree with you.
Typical - Video didn’t work - I have about 4 seconds of film 
I set the camera running and handed to a guy I know from our Scouts who is a member; don’t know what happened but it switched off .
Anyway bright side - I wrapped the frame completely in Cling film (Saran, Glad), and it was in my car in the warmth - there was method in this madness - I was trying to keep the honey as warm out of the hive as it would be in the hive and catch any leakage if it got too hot.
Set up on a table well away from out Group Apiary Bees - actually at the entrance - people saw it set up as they came in. I set the whole hive up as we know it, (empty brood box), spare frames in the Flow Box, so people could see the full set up.
The problem was they left me to the coffee time to demonstrate and the honey had cooled by then - I did have to explain that the honey in the hive would normally be at 35°C and it would flow a bit faster (I guess it was about 30°C by then - so my plan did work).
I would have preferred to set it running and then beeks could come and see it running. once I did the initial opening.
I handed around a couple of empty frames and demonstrated the key in the empty ones close up so people could see the mechanism working.
Celia Davis was doing honey collection, processing and legal requirements for sale of Honey in the UK so it fit in rather well with the nights proceedings. The remainder of the group were doing inspections and Varroa treatments in the hives.
Lots of questions asked: explained about the 2° angle of the base, viewing window, need to still lift off the Flow to inspect the brood, I think it went well.
What would I do differently?
- Do the extraction at the beginning of the night’s proceedings - let it continue to drain while you do other stuff
- Only 1/3 or 1/4 undo the frames - you need not do a whole frame - takes less time
- Make sure the person you hand the camera to doesn’t accidentally switch it off
What would I do again?
- Mise en place - as a Chef an important part of working - everything ready helps to keep you on track
- Set up the full kit ready for people to see - near the entrance get’s people talking
- Hand empty Frames around so people can see and talk about them
- Do small close up demo of the Key working 3 or 4 people
- A plastic bag to put the empty frame in
- Keep the frame as close to Hive temperature as possible
Valli,
I’ve had my Nikon weirdly switch off twice in taking vids too in last few months n it was on Tripod. Not sure if it was limit space on my chip or battery level. I was luck to have my I - Pad mini rolling for backup on those. Not the same best angle but got something. I film each inspection, review the event n write my data reports … Later since I have so many that kills my computer space I finally dump all but a couple of the best for my apiary history progress.
Glad you had a successful experience other than the vid. Congrats !
Gerald
Actually I worked out the problem - I had been taking some Macro Photies on tight aperture and left the aperture setting so it only too 2 second vids - will make sure I check next time.
I try to do this sometimes I forget or do daft things
Thanks Gerald
No problem Valli … We’re showing our age or something … I tie strong around my finger to remind me of stuff then forget what the string is for. … Not really … But you know what I mean. Have a great rest of your Thursday ! Gerald 
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