NORTHWEST INDIANA BEEKEEPERS ASSOC.
QUEENRIGHT
JULY 19, 2025-Editor Janice Wrona, Secretary
Hot and busy July days are here! All the extra supers you’ve been stacking may be ready for harvest! Check hives and look for frames that are mostly capped. If there is a frame with more brood than capped honey, don’t pull that frame. Capped honey has a waxy look, whereas capped brood looks papery. If a frame has a small section of brood, don’t uncap that section but you can still extract the honey from that frame. Pull on a dry, sunny day and have all your equipment ready before starting. You’ll want to move bees down from super you’re pulling. Using either a blower or smoker is a good way to get bees away. Bee Go and fume boards are other resources for moving your bees. Use a refractometer to test for moisture content in the honey. A target is 18% or less. If extracted honey has too much moisture, it can ferment. Plan to extract within a few days of pulling. Extracted honey can be stored in a sealed bucket at room temperature in a dark, dry space. You’ll find ours in the crawlspace! The club does have an extractor available for members to use. It can be kept for 48 hours and should be cleaned before returning. When pulling frames if you come across a particularly nicely filled frame (either wood or plastic), consider entering it in the Lake County Fair!! If you plan on entering honey, you’ll need four queenline jars of either light, medium or dark. Guidelines for entries are in the blue Ag Dept. booklet. If you don’t have a booklet, you can pick one up at fairgrounds. Entry forms for fair must be in by 4:00 p.m on Friday, July 25th. Our volunteer schedule for working NWIBA booth at the fair still has several time slots that need to be filled, especially in the evenings! Remember, if you work for 10 hours (2 shifts) you’ll earn a free ticket to our annual banquet held in November! Text me, Janice Wrona at 219-613-5368 if you can help out! Families or Natalie White and Ken Theis hosted a picnic on July 12th. Good food, fellowship and weather made for a wonderful event! Our next meeting at the Moose will be on September 4th at 6:00 pm. Happy harvesting and see you at the fair!!!