Using the Capping Scratcher

I suppose everybody has their own technique when it comes time to scratch the honeycombs.

Dad and I learned a lot our first year about how to uncap.

Our first year we found using the scratcher to be difficult. It was damaging the comb. Damaged combs mean the bees have to spend a lot of time and energy fixing them.

I was not happy with the result. In frustration I turned the tool over and used it "backwards".

Turns out that was probably the right way to do it.

If you approach the comb with the scratcher tines down in a clawing motion, that's what you get--clawed combs.

With the scratcher faced in a scooping fork position you can just prick and lightly lift off the caps without too much damage.

Don't dig deep or the combs will get torn and ruined. A light scoop is best with the tines held parallel to the combs.

See the video (below) of Dad as he demonstrates.

A beekeeping friend made a point when he said, "You just need to put a hole in the comb." Good point. The cap doesn't have to removed entirely for the honey to come out--the extractor can take care of that part.

So why use the scratcher? If you haven't got an extractor yet and you're not cutting out the combs and doing the crush and strain method then you'd scratch the caps to remove them and then let the honey drain out.

Another use, and this is what we did, is when the bees haven't built the combs out past the edge of the wooden frames--so the hot knife can't get in there to cut them off.

Sometimes a frame will be a combination of both. First we use the hot knife to cut the caps and then for the uneven spots that the knife couldn't reach we use the scratcher.

Note in the video how Dad wipes the scratcher off on the wooden beam on the uncapping tank. Why get sticky fingers if you don't have to?

I'm sure the bees are glad we finally got it right. I'd hate to have been a fly in the hive that first year. I'm sure there was a whole lot of complaining going on.

Using the Electric Uncapping Knife

When I first saw how to uncap honeycombs it was on an instructional video that I rented from the Ontario Bee Association.

So we tried our best to follow those directions. I can report its easier to watch than to do.

My electric knife is the yellow handled one - pictured above and below resting on an empty frame with a bowl underneath to catch the drips.

Note that you will need a place to set the hot knife down when you're uncapping so plan ahead and have a heat proof place to put it. This large metal bowl/empty frame worked well for us.

The wooden handled knife, pictured below, belonged to a friend of mine. I used it the first year. I must say that it got nice and hot and I thought it worked better than my new one.

Here's how to uncap a frame of honey.

This set up uses an uncapping tank to catch the combs. The advantage is the beam of wood across the tank. It has a screw that sticks up and catches and holds the frame while you work.

First hold the frame vertically, catching the bottom edge on the screw. You can swivel the frame back and forth with one hand as needed.

Our first mistake was not turning the knife on early to give it time to warm up. No so with my friend's knife. His was hot in a few seconds (I should have swapped him my new one).

Lean the frame forward and start at the bottom and slide up slowly. Let the knife work the combs, rewarming them somewhat as you slide up. The goal is to cut off the bottom 3" of comb. Then go to the top and work down until you meet the cut off bottom section.

The reason why you lean the frame forward is shown in the video (below) where it's NOT done right. (I could say we set up the demo this way on purpose to show you but... I did have a video of it being done right but I can't find it on my computer.)

If held straight, the cut off sheets of wax will fall straight and land on the frame below, melting the combs there and making a mess. Don't poke your knife in them (like in the video) to remove it or you'll melt more comb. This is where the cappings scratcher can come in handy to lift off the wax.

The knife can slide along the wooden edges of the frame as a guide but if the bees have gone to so much trouble to build the wax out from the edge- don't cut that all off unless you need a ton of candles.

Ask yourself what you want more of: Honey or Wax? The more wax you remove the more the bees will need to put their energies (honey) to wax making and rebuilding. If you give them back a frame with lots of deep combs, they'll spend their time refilling them instead.

We notice that the flat part of the knife can warm up the wax and make it slide off easier. The other advice is to let the heat of the knife do the work.

I hope this is helpful.

If you haven't purchased an extractor--and I can't blame you since there are a lot of expenses the first couple years--there are many commercial operations that will uncap and extract your frames for a fee.

Take Your Cap Off, Honey

Many things we finally figure out how to do right but only after the fact.

I made a mistake. But I get ahead of myself so I'll tell you that part in a minute.

I bought an uncapping tank last summer. It's a wonderful tool for the hobby beekeeper and easy to use. I got mine from Benson Bee located in the Ottawa area.

A wooden bar that rests securely across the top has a screw sticking up in the middle. That's where you rest the end of the frame while you're using your uncappi knife. You can then swivel the frame around with one hand without having to lift it.

When you run the hot knife up the combs the cut off sheets of comb slide off the knife and drop into the waiting tub below.

The tank itself is two tubs made of a very heavy food grade plastic. They're built so that one sits inside the other. Between the tubs sits a metal grill that looks a lot like a queen excluder.
When the cappings are cut off they fall and rest on the grill--so in effect an uncapping tank is actually a really big strainer.

As the combs sit the honey drips down and is collected in the second tank which has the all important tap. After the cappings have been left to drip for a few days, you stick a pail under the spout and let the honey pour 0ut.

Unless you're me. This is where the mistake part comes in. We did an extraction and I left the cappings to collect later. Dad emptied the honey into jars. Then we did a second and third extraction shortly after (working with 4 hives). Again, Dad got the honey into jars.

But we left the cappings until "later". That was the mistake part.

The amount of honey we ended up with was overwhelming. Dad and I were busy scrambling for containers, jars, etc. We were so focused on the honey we forgot about the cappings.

The honey sat long enough in the cool basement that it crystallized into a solid mass.

Nothing is wasted but it'll be a difficult to clean it up. I could really use a hot sunny day for that but that'll be a few too many months from now.

I like the tank. The inside tub sits on ledges in one of two positions. In the higher up position there is more room underneath for the cappings to collect.

I've just got remember to remove them.

The Wonderful History of Honey Extraction

Over a hundred years ago, honey was either eaten straight from the combs or they were crushed, usually by hand, and left to drip to extract the liquid honey which was then put in jars.

The beekeeper would cut chunks of honeycomb out of straw skeps. People dug their spoons into the combs and ate it--both the wax and the honey.

Back then, they didn't know of a way to remove honey from the combs without destroying them.

But the honeycombs had a secret that it would soon be revealed... by a child.

Imagine yourself as a child in 1869. Your father is a Major in the Italian army and he gives you a basket with a string on the handle.

Inside the basket is some honeycomb with the caps cut off and you've been asked to carry the basket.

Would you hold the basket carefully? Or would you do what I'd do? I'd swing that basket around by the string.

That's what the Major's son did. He swung that basket around and something happened--something important--the honey was thrown out of the honeycombs by the centrifugal force of the swinging.

The Major noticed the messy honey all over the inside of the bakset and he noticed the empty undamaged combs.

He saw that it was possible to throw honey out of combs without crushing them. No one had realized that before.

He then set to work to make a machine that would throw the honey from the combs by spinning them just like the basket on the string.

That's where the first honey extractor, came from.

We still use the extractors to this day. Some have hand cranks and some are electric but they all spin the frames of honeycombs.
Once the combs are empty they are given back to the bees to refill. It's less work for the bees because they don't have to make the honeycomb all over again.

After his discovery and invention Major Hruschka decided he'd like to become a beekeeper.

And he did just that.

Juicy Bugs

Last spring when I opened the hives for the first time I noticed something.

My bees were big. They were kind of fat looking, but in a healthy way.

Like chubby toddlers I watched them hanging around on the frames and bars of the hives. The young ones would come out to fly--but they weren't very good at it. Not yet.

And they were bursting at the seams thanks to a short winter and quick and hot spring.

They gobbled their sugar water and pollen patties like well behaved children.

As spring moved quickly into an even hotter summer I noticed that the bees were looking different.

They were out flying and foraging. They weren't toddlers stumbling around when trying to fly. They were an experienced work force.

Like a prize fighter, they were fit and trim from all that flying to forage.

They'd lost weight while they laboured.

I think about them now as snow covers the ground and they eat from their stores.

Will this be a fat bee spring? I hope they aren't going hungry.

I wish I could crack the hive for a look, but with temps at -21 and windchill of -25, this is the coldest weekend we've had in southwestern Ontario.

I guess that's an advantage that beekeepers in warmer climates have. They can open their hives to check on the bees and give them supplemental food if necessary. (winter feeding has been a topic of discussion lately on the yahoo beekeepers' list).

Here in the cold white north, I make plans and resolutions for the 2011 fall/winter. I'll take the supers and treat much earlier. I'll leave them an extra super. I'll make fondant boards for them just in case (fondant candy placed on the small space on the inside lid of an inner cover).

I tick off the days on the calendar and think about ordering pollen patties, just so I have them on hand when that warm day comes.

Soon I hope.

Soap Bubbles and Honeycomb

Honey bees make their honeycombs like a soap bubble.

If you drew honeycomb cells you would draw them with six sides - in a hexagon.

When bees draw comb, they actually start off by making the cells round.

They're somewhat like what a single soap bubble looks like. Round.

A soap bubble will stay round until it touches another soap bubble. The bubbles latch onto each other, sliding together. The round sides turn into flat sides--six sides--a hexagon.

Next time you wash your hands you can watch this happen. Show your kids this trick by creating a single bubble and then sliding other bubbles next to it.

Kids love this one and it's a great way to get them to spend a little more time with the soap and water.

But how do the combs change shape?

The bees take care of that. They warm up the combs, until they melt a bit.

They warm them to between 37 and 40 degrees Celsius.

Once warmed the tension of the adjacent cell walls, cause the cell walls to shift into a six sided hexagon shape.

Viola!

New combs are white and clean.

Golden or dark brown coloured combs are older combs that have had had lots of foot traffic. Tiny foot traffic.

Like a rug in the front hall, they get a little dirty with thousands of feet treading on them.

After thousands of bees walk over the combs month after month, all their sticky little feet leave stains on the comb which turns them brown.

Why is this structure so amazing that people copy it in design and architecture?

If the cells were square they'd hold the most liquid but not be as strong and they'd take more wax to create. The hexagon creates the best storage size with a minimal use of wax. Isn't nature conservative?

This information was discovered in the amazing book: The Buzz About Bees written by Jurgen Tautz that's available on Amazon.

The Benefits of Politics

Some would say there are few benefits to politics.

They might be right.

But beekeepers will nonetheless advise you to get to know your local politician.

Why?

Your mind might jump immediately to noble reasons like petitioning the government to fund more research into bee illnesses or to stop the use of pesticides.

All very good reasons.

But no, their first bit of advice is to get to know your local politician, especially just after an election. Win or lose, he or she will have all those plastic corrugated signs to dispose of. You can save them from the trash by offering to collect them.

These signs are perfect to make sticky boards to put under your Varroa Screens. Note: They cut more easily with a box cutter blade than with scissors.

I put a small hole and a strong cord through the end of mine so I have a pull cord to remove them more easily.

Another use is to put on top of your outer cover, secured by a couple bricks.

They can create a 3 or 4" roof over the front and/or back of the hive. They create shelter for bees that are hanging around the front stoop and on hot days they give shade to the bees.

We also found the very handy to use as a lid for a super.

They were a quick and light weight solution to an immediate need to cover both underneath and on top of a super. Those bees will get back into the super in a hurry if you don't cover it top and bottom.

But don't forget to do the petition thing to. It's pretty important.