{"id":70,"date":"2014-09-02T15:48:13","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T15:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naplesbees.com\/staging\/?page_id=70"},"modified":"2026-03-11T13:06:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:06:20","slug":"gear","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/naplesbees.com\/staging\/gear\/","title":{"rendered":"Gear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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6\/28\/2022<\/strong><\/span><\/a>– Extractor Use in Honey Harvesting<\/span><\/strong>: A spinner extractor was used for this 420 pound honey harvest<\/span>. This was the second use of the speed controlled 4 frame extractor, with it having been used for the first time on the 11\/4\/2021 honey harvest which came in at 490 pounds.\u00a0 It had become obvious that as the size of my honey harvests have increased over the years, that the move away from the honey press was necessary.\u00a0 When compared to the honey press, the spinner is less labor intensive and allows a faster harvesting from the frames.\u00a0 A heavy wood base was built to give a little better elevation and afford a firm mounting of the extractor.\u00a0 Overall, it is a good improvement in the honey harvesting process and will be used on all future honey harvests.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Motorized extractor. Click picture for a larger view.<\/p><\/div>\n

6\/3\/2022<\/strong><\/span><\/a>– New Bottom Boards Made<\/span><\/strong>: A few bottom boards were constructed.\u00a0 Like all the previously made bottom boards, they consist of a screen above a vegetable oil holding tray.\u00a0 The trays were made from 24 gauge galvanized steel sheet and the corners were welded leak tight with aluminum rod<\/span>.\u00a0 These bottom boards offer some pest reduction in the hives.
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Click on picture for a larger view.<\/p><\/div>\n

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2\/11\/2021<\/strong><\/span><\/a>– Varroa Mite Treatment Tool<\/span><\/strong>: Hive treatment for varroa mites is necessary once or twice per year.\u00a0 My preferred method is to use a vapor based procedure with oxalic acid, which is a naturally-occurring compound in plants. To treat, I use a procedure with a vaporizer called a “gas-vap<\/a><\/span>“.\u00a0 It is very effective and, after removing the supers for the treatment, I can treat 20 hives in a couple hours. Generally, 3 or 4 treatments are done at a 6-7 day interval in order to kill varroa that might be in capped brood cells.
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10\/29\/2020<\/strong><\/span><\/a>– Swarm Trap Boxes<\/span><\/strong>: Using some scrap plywood laying around, a couple swarm trap boxes were constructed and will be hung up in a few trees around the apiary.\u00a0 They hold 5 brood size frames with a large space underneath the hanging frames.\u00a0 Supposedly, the extra space is an attraction to the scout bees.\u00a0 A rotary wheel opening was added to the opening in the finished product.
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Click on picture for a larger view.<\/p><\/div>

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Click on picture for a larger view.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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3\/3\/2018<\/strong><\/span><\/a>– Observation Hive<\/span><\/strong>: A new project of making an observation hive has been completed.\u00a0 An observation hive is something every hobby beekeeper will want at some point.\u00a0 My project started with coming across some nice junk glass pieces that originally were part of some kind of door.\u00a0 They made nice front and back windows for a stacked 3 brood frame size display.\u00a0 The wood frame was made from scrap wood with ventilation holes at the bottom and top and a built in sugar water feeder.\u00a0\u00a0 Exterior and interior temperatures are digitally monitored in order to help make sure the bees are not overheating.\u00a0 We have used it for several southwest Florida display events and it is always a big hit.
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12\/19\/2015<\/strong><\/a>– Candle Making<\/span><\/strong>: We did a little candle making the last few days after getting ahold of a couple molds.\u00a0 For fun, we also purchased some candle die to try our hand at adding a little Christmas color to our candles. The natural color of the bees wax is shown in the yellow tinted candle.\u00a0 Click on a picture for a larger view.
\nUpdate 3\/11\/2026:<\/strong>\u00a0 Here is an interesting article<\/a><\/span> that puts in perspective why that emphasizes why in may not be a good choice to burn non beeswax candles in your home<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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11\/22\/2015<\/strong><\/a>– Bee Vac<\/span><\/strong>: It has become apparent that in order to be more successful at getting swarms, a bee vac was needed.\u00a0 To that end, we constructed a simple bee vac that will vacuum the bees into a brood box.\u00a0 It consists of a bottom vacuum inlet chamber positioned below the brood box, a screened top board above the brood box and a vacuum control top cover above the screen board.\u00a0 Although more involved to make, by using a brood box bee vac design instead of the more commonly seen bucket bee vac design, movement to the apiary is less disruptive to the bees since they can remain in the brood box home permanently.\u00a0 Not shown is an additional sliding screen board to separate two brood boxes to facilitate a possible need to have the bees move from the initial capture brood box to a brood box with their natural built comb.\u00a0 Over time this has been shown to be almost mandatory, because the captured bees do much better if they can be introduced back in to their original comb once their original hive built comb has been cut and fitted to frames that go in this top most brood box.
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10\/14\/2015<\/strong><\/a>– – Honeycomb Press<\/span><\/strong>: Today we used our homemade honeycomb press for the small harvest of one super of honey.\u00a0 Previously, we had been crushing the comb with plastic gloved hands, which was time consuming and not efficient at getting all the honey out of the comb.\u00a0 The press consists of a perforated aluminum bucket (actually a fryer strainer basket) and a homemade frame made out of wood and some scrap chrome bars.\u00a0 By using a small car jack pushing down on a circular piece of wood,\u00a0 the honeycomb can effortlessly be compressed to squeeze out every last bit of golden honey.\u00a0 It is a great tool for the job and fun to watch the golden honey just effortlessly flow into the bucket.\u00a0 Total cost was around $25 which was mostly for the cost of the fryer strainer basket.\u00a0 More details about the construction of the press is here<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0 As of May, 2017, an electric motor has been added to the jack operation on the press.
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\"homemade_honeypress_2\"<\/a>Click on a picture for a larger view. The jack pushes down on a spacer block on top of a circular piece of wood that fits snugly in the strainer.\u00a0 Advancing the car jack squeezes the comb with the ability to hold the pressure which allows time for the honey to ooze out of the comb. The end result is a cake of almost solid wax with very little honey residue.
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10\/3\/2015<\/strong><\/a>– Victoria’s Lip Balm<\/strong><\/span> — We received an awesome gift from someone we met along the way in this beekeeping adventure.\u00a0\u00a0 Victoria and her Mom, Vicki, brought us a sample of their homemade recipe for lip balm using some wax harvested from our honey gathering process.\u00a0\u00a0 Victoria, who is 8 years old and in the 3rd grade made the lip balm as part of an educational project.\u00a0 She included a detail recipe note.\u00a0 We’ve all tried it and it is fantastic, and, just like the honey, better than anything you can buy at the store.\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you, Victoria !!<\/span><\/p>\n

Click on the below picture for a full size view:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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6\/5\/2015<\/strong>– In an effort to improve the tops so they stand up better to the rainy weather, I started to cover the plywood made tops with scrap galvanized tin. \u00a0The trick to getting it flat on the plywood top was to use liquid nails and then turn it upside down on the concrete floor and roll my truck tire on it and leave overnight…….it makes everything flat and glued, and then just fold over and staple along the bottom edge.
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3\/20\/2015<\/strong>– Donated scrap 1X12 lumber was used to make four more finger joint brood boxes and a few top entrances to experiment with.<\/span> \"brood_boxes_made_from_old_wood\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Gearing up for the spring 2015 season, here are the homemade hives recently built that are ready for the apiary.\u00a0 We made four complete 10 frame langstroth hives consisting of an oil pan screened bottom board, brood box, super box, and feeder top, populated with appropriate plastic foundation wood frames.\u00a0 A couple previously made starter nuc hives are also shown.\u00a0 Everything was made from scrap wood.<\/span> \"hives_ready_for_season\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Details:<\/span> Here are some of the custom made hive and hive accessories we made for our use in our local wood working shop.\u00a0 Click on the pictures for full size image.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 Wooden frame pieces made and yet to be assembled<\/span> \u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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The ultimate beehive stand. Nothing can crawl up the legs into the hive and it is easy to maintain in a rainy south Florida.<\/span> \"early_hive_stand_prototype\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Using a handheld refractometer allows the moisture content of the honey to be determined accurately before harvesting.\u00a0 Ideally we want to see 18% or less moisture content.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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6\/28\/2022– Extractor Use in Honey Harvesting: A spinner extractor was used for this 420 pound honey harvest. This was the second use of the speed controlled 4 frame extractor, with it having been used for the first time on the 11\/4\/2021 honey harvest which came in at 490 pounds.\u00a0 It had become obvious that as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-70","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naplesbees.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naplesbees.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naplesbees.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naplesbees.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naplesbees.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":137,"href":"https:\/\/naplesbees.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7953,"href":"https:\/\/naplesbees.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/70\/revisions\/7953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naplesbees.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}