Nice pics Tony

This looks good Tony!
Also, I like your labels!

Getting some water
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This one of the last pollen source for late fall, honey bee to the left.
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Konrad

Konrad, as always, great photos. Looks like you had a good year. Here's a couple of wax melting photos.

Melting and filtering in a modified pot with a valve and spout added.
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A six pound block of filtered beeswax that needs a once through the fine filter, then it's set for use.
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great photos guys!

So it's fall and the bees are clustered in their hives. There are still plenty of things to do. Here's a couple of pictures of soap curing, lip balm, and candles handmade using honey and wax from my hives
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Here is a link that might be useful: berkshirebee

Cool pics.

Very nice Tony!

>>Konrad, as always, great photos. Looks like you had a good yearWell...it was just a bit below average, about 100 lb a hive, last year was terrific, about 190 lb. / hive.
How do you melt the wax off the frames?
Some day I have to ask you for recipe on the soap bar.
I love the color of your wax, is this natural yellow? Here it's more of a brown I think? I'm in the 3rd. year Bee keeping, so there wasn't any to melt yet, actually, I have set two hives aside to melt, the ones where the colony performed poorly and I shook out all the bees.
But...now I decided to keep them for next years swarm trap, I had good success when placing them high up!
Have a old fuel stand I bought, originally wanted to make a water tower first but bees came priority, have placed a
old hive on top this year and when I noticed some days later after a swarm went in that it was sooo...heavy! I had a terrible time getting it down because there was only some old pallets as a floor.
This fall I putt a nice floor up and later decided well...it could have a roof.
As it stands right now it looks like this.
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One hive I shook out late fall....some day's later I found about a fist size cluster on a tree, I played around a bit,
took some pictures before the queen had to go.

You should be able to see the queen in the center, note:
Look how bees make a kind of cicle around her.
Konrad
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Konrad, Top notch queen photos! You should be published. Turn that stand into a tree house condo. The wax pictures are the natural color and it smell SO sweet. It's made from cappings when I extract, damaged frames that I melt down, and all of the extra burr comb that the bees seem to build on top or frames and under the inner cover. I put the frames in a little solar melter I made that's nothing more than an open ended box lined with the thick pink sheet insulation. I set a pan of water on the blacktop, set the box over it, put the frames or dirty wax on a screen over the pan then set a frame that has 2 small storm windows on the top. Between the double window and the blacktop it holds the heat in well. After the wax melts into the water and hardens, I wash the excess honey off, let it dry, then heat in my modified presto pot and let it drain through a double filter and it's ready for making candles etc. Here's the recipe for a basic unscented soap which is great.

1 cup of distilled water
2.4 oz of lye (sodium hydroxide)

6 0z olive oil
5 oz coconut oil
5 oz vegetable shortening
1 tsp castor oil
1 tsp honey
Note: All of the oz. measurements are by weight. You need a small accurate scale especially for weighing the lye. The one I use is proscale 500. It's available on ebay from Old Will Knot Scales. You can get one for under $12 with shipping. Just bid 99 cents. I have a little larger scale for weighing the oils etc.

you should wear safety glasses when working with lye. Measure lye carefully in a small baggie, then carefully pour it into a mason jar containing a cup of distilled water. Stir until clear. It will get very hot.
Weigh all of your oils except for the castor oil. Melt in a saucepan over very low heat or in a double boiler while stirring. Remove from heat. When the mixture gets down to around 100 degrees add castor oil and honey ( for scented soap this is also the time to add essential oil such as lavender). Pour into a plastic bowl and let cool until oil mixture and jar with lye and water are warm enough to hold. Pour the water and lye into the oil mixture and using a small mixer with blade on the bottom, mix at low speed until the soap has a gravy like consistency. If you lift the mixer out of the soap and let it drip across, you should see a line or "trace". It's now time to pour into molds which can be any kind of containers. After 24 hrs you can remove from mold. You can then put it on a rack, freezer paper or tray to "cure" for 2 to 3 weeks. Curing gives the lye time to completely combine with the oils. Test on a small patch of skin before using. You can find many recipes online for different soaps. Once you get started it's easy and you'll want to make more. Also, the people you give to to try will be asking for more. Just like honey from your hives, there's no comparison with what you get in the stores.

Thank you so much Tony for this so in detail information,...when time comes, I'm sure this will help me out!
Konrad

Tony -- your jars of honey look wonderful, do you sell by mail-order? I would be interested.

rosefenn, Yes, You can email me at antpisano@hotmail.com

I enjoyed reading the posts and seeing pictures.

One day, when I win the lottery and buy a farm, I would love to raise bee's.

For now I have a small garden and here are some natives. I love watching them in the garden, they are so
facinating. I love bee's.

Tiny little guy in a poppy
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This is my pollen so back off
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Bee on chive flowers
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Carpenter bee? They love my sweetpeas.
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This carpenter bee was so heavy the flower kept bending.
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Edna

Thank you Edna, I'm glad you love bees and flowers... thanks for posting your lovely pictures!

>>One day, when I win the lottery and buy a farm, I would love to raise bee's.LOL...I wouldn't wait for it, your local bee keeping club could give you advice, you could set up some hives
on farm properties, just go around and ask, a few boxes along a tree line, [south facing] or bush doesn't really need much space,.. for some honey in exchange.
Konrad

HI Tony,
How do you feel about visitors? We live in Metrowest Boston, and would love to take a day trip out your way this summer. I know you'll be straightforward!
Marie/Idabean

Tony,

great pics. would you be interested in the cover of Midwest Beekeeper?

Edna, Nice photos. I agree with Konrad, but you don't even need a farm or land outside town. I live close to the center of town and have 5 hives in my small yard with room for my garden and there are other houses close by.

Marie, I'd love to have you visit this summer. I could also take you over to the farm where my other hives are. It's a small farm that is licensed to sell raw milk. They also make cheese there, sell eggs, my honey,local maple syrup and just started up a small bakery. The scenery is great out here.

ccrbl, Would Western Mass bees be allowed on the cover of MB? If so, I'd be glad to oblige. Tony

Tony, bees are bees. It wouldn't make sense for a photo of bees on a desert plant, but I'm pretty sure your plants are similar to ours, presuming there's even plants in the photo.

I need huge, hopefully untouched, uncropped, un-color corrected. Everytime a jpeg gets modified it gets uglier, so I'd prefer to get one out of the camera direct. need vertical format, without much busy stuff at the top, which is where the publication title goes.

email me at keeper (at) indiana beekeeping school (dot) com

Hm...I'm excluded, just wanted to post a picture to see what ccrb1 is looking for?
Is this the idea?
Konrad
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OMGodness, I haven't visited this forum in a while. I've missed a lot.

Anyway, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the pictures! All of them! The bee in the poppy is stunning.

I'm humbled by both Tony and Konrad's craftsmanship.

I made a mason bee house. So far, so good. Have two holes plugged *whoo hoo*. Illusive little fellas, I haven't seen them working.

As for bee hives, well, my neighbors think I'm already too eccentric raising moths and butterflies. They would freak if I had a hive.

Edna

Tony, email me asap at keeper (at) indiana beekeeping school (dot) com.

or call me at 317.536.9800

ccrbl, I'll see what I have and be in touch. Been out straight with regular job plus a seasonal that ends on tuesday. My Bees have been bringing in pollen. It's good to see them flying finally. Tony