Keystone State Thread

We always gear up for any ride: helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, and wrist guards.
Dress for the fall, not for the ride!

 

Try to compare wire pigtails coming out of the plug against Curt (maybe on-line pics), if it doesn't match, don't try. If it does, I'd go ahead and run it. BUT verify with controller's installation instructions! You might need to run an extra ground or something (I had to for my controller, even though there should be ground coming from the plug).
I have a feeling that it was designed back in 2018 and they didn't update their packaging.

 

Good morning fellow Pennsyltuckyvanians!!

We ventured in to the apiary yesterday to do a basic check - we have 3 active hives - and to start mite treatments. You have to remove the supers - the boxes designed to collect honey - so we decided to see if we had enough both to take some for us and also to have enough to feed the bees for the winter. Ended up with what should yield us somewhere over 100lbs of honey. We moved the frames in supers into the garage and sealed them up. You can't get all of the bees off when your moving the frames from the hive super to a storage box so we need to let them sit for awhile until the residual bees die out - don't need angry bees flying around the house while we're trying to extract the honey.

Today is grass cutting day!

Be safe out there!!

 

Morning Pennsylvania

 

Looks like fun, but I would most certainly crash that thing. Hope you had a good time.

My weekend was pretty good. Went down to the races, like I mentioned a few days ago. I really struggled with how rough the track was and just overall not much went my way (last gate pick, bad start, went down, struggled bad in sections of the track, just couldn't find my flow etc.) BUT, at this point in my life, results don't matter and I'm just there to be on the bike and hang out with friends. So it was a great day. A little sore today though haha.

 

Just how many bees does it take to make 100 lbs of honey? Bees are quite intimidating to me by the way.

 

^^^ If more folks had this outlook on life the world would be a more cheerful place.
Great way to start my day, thanks!

 

We have 3 hives - all are very active. Each hive probably has in excess of 60,000 bees at any given time. Worker bees live about 6 weeks during the active honey collecting season and the queen is constantly laying brood during that time. We always wear suits if we are working inside the apiary. Otherwise, I have only been stung by our honey bees twice - while cutting grass near the apiary when the bees got stuck in my hair. Now I make sure I wear a hat. Typically, honey bees are not overly aggressive unless they feel threatened...or you are messing with their honey.

Honey is collected by putting frames that the bees can use to build out wax comb and store the honey in it into boxes called supers. We put a queen excluder between the hive boxes and the supers - a mesh that is wide enough for worker bees to get through but not the queen so she does not lay brood in those frames. We use boxes that hold 10 frames - 18 frames yields us about 60 pounds of honey when extracted. We've got 34 - might grab two more since the extractor holds 18 at a time - so I'm guessing we should end up with somewhere north of 100 pounds or more.

 

Then you make mead, right?

Right?

 

Bees don't scare me. I don't think I have ever been stung by one of those. Wasps, they scare me and they are very active and very angry this late summer/Fall.

 

You ever see that goof on u tube that gets stung on purpose by every insect ? Well check out the one with him getting stung by a murder wasp!

 

Almost 200,000 bees -- I can't imagine...

I seem to remember when I was very young my father bringing home honeycomb in a small wooden box with a sliding lid as a special treat.

Haven't thought of it in many years, thanks for the explanation and also for jogging my memory.

 

We have two in ground nests in our yard. My crazy step son, encouraged by some homemade moonshine, poured gasoline down the one, doused a large rag in gas, lit in, then threw it over the hole. A mini eruption of fire followed. Once the fire diminished, he took a shovel and tried to dig up the nest. Surprisingly, he did not get stung once. He was wearing a cut off t-shirt with the American flag and an eagle on at the time and my teen grandson, dryly remarked, "now that's an American." I was cracking over the whole surreal scene. I am not sure though if he got the nest because I have noticed a dozen or more yellow jackets flying over the hole. Those may just be the ones who were out when the nest was destroyed. I'll find out when I cut the grass in a few days. I don't wish to get too close because I am allergic to their sting. The last time a handful got me my blood pressure dropped to nil and I had to go in an ambulance to the e.r. to get a shot of epinephrine.

 

I have the don`t build nests in stove pipes or project and parts vehicles and I pretty much leave them alone .

I do have the spray just in case and carried it in the Truck I have been stung over the years not fun.

 

I generally leave them alone, but they are in the parts of the yard where I walk the dog and mow. The last time I mowed over a nest I got stung about 8 or 9 times. So, these really have to go.

 

Just last week, early before (dark out)work stopped at my mother's house, poured a gallon of gas in a ground nest the packed it with dirt. I was told the fumes alone will kill them. I'll find out this week.

 

That's the way my old neighbor use to do it. Gas down the hole and then an apple off the tree to plug it.

 

have you been planting wild flowers to keep em busy

 

@MoneyMan55

Bout nother' 30 minutes and it's coming out of the oven! The apple slices we had left over were delicious!



This is my first pie, if it taste like it smells it'll be wonderful. We got two left and I have some pie crust left over so probably gonna make a couple dumplings with them.

 

Thanks Adam there goes my diet!