Honey

[gwizzie]

Hi everyone, some of you will know that I am new to beekeeping and this being my 1st year I have a lot of unanswered questions that I will need some kind of answers to If I can from time to time. Now the one that is bothering me at the moment is this, I have my bees at the heather or should I say were I keep my bees there is lots of heather!!.

question is this if I take the supers off at the end of this month and they are not capped can I still use it ? (not selling) I know it has to be below or about 17% water content the thing I would like to know is this what to do with it ? can I still press it out and jar it.

Thanks again in advance for your kind comments.:D

[Kate Atchley]

I'd recommend you clear the supers early in the morning, so the bees have had overnight to work on evaporating off moisture and no fresh nectar has been added that day. You may not want to leave it until the very end of September though as the bees may start moving honey down into the brood box for winter if they are light on stores.

If you shake a less-than-fully-capped frame vigorously, one side then the other side facing downwards, and no nectar flies out (do this outside away from the bees or over a sink!) you're probably okay to process the honey and bottle it. But borrow a refractometer or buy one. This will measure the water content which, for heather honey, can be higher than for other honeys but no higher than 20%. Enjoy!

[gwizzie]

I'd recommend you clear the supers early in the morning, so the bees have had overnight to work on evaporating off moisture and no fresh nectar has been added that day. You may not want to leave it until the very end of September though as the bees may start moving honey down into the brood box for winter if they are light on stores.

If you shake a less-than-fully-capped frame vigorously, one side then the other side facing downwards, and no nectar flies out (do this outside away from the bees or over a sink!) you're probably okay to process the honey and bottle it. But borrow a refractometer or buy one. This will measure the water content which, for heather honey, can be higher than for other honeys but no higher than 20%. Enjoy!

Hi Kate, once again thank you for your informative answer that makes sense and have read about shaking it to see if it runs out or not. I had not heard about removing the comb in the morning (nice tip) I plan to leave the supers on until about the 3rd week in september as weather forecast for up here is supposed to be ok, if they move some down stairs for their toast then thats ok with me as this is my 1st year and 1st attempt at getting honey.

I believe that some of my bees are Italian bees and they do not store honey in the brood box that well? so I will need to feed them and prob some of my others for a bit to build them up.

anyone know good place to get cheap refractometer link ? thank you :)

[Bridget]

I'd recommend you clear the supers early in the morning, so the bees have had overnight to work on evaporating off moisture and no fresh nectar has been added that day. You may not want to leave it until the very end of September though as the bees may start moving honey down into the brood box for winter if they are light on stores.!

So do you shake and/ or brush the bees off Kate rather than use a porter bee escape to allow them the leave the supers overnight?


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[Kate Atchley]

So do you shake and/ or brush the bees off Kate rather than use a porter bee escape to allow them the leave the supers overnight?

I add the porter bee escapes, or shake/brush the bees off, in the morning before foraging has begun. This allows the bees all night to fan the latest batch of nectar to drive off water. This usually leaves the honey at about the right water content to process.

If I'm using unwired foundation, and the outer areas of a frame of honey seem too liquid, I'll harvest the capped/concentrated honey and feed the rest back to the bees above the crown board.

[gwizzie]

I add the porter bee escapes, or shake/brush the bees off, in the morning before foraging has begun. This allows the bees all night to fan the latest batch of nectar to drive off water. This usually leaves the honey at about the right water content to process.

If I'm using unwired foundation, and the outer areas of a frame of honey seem too liquid, I'll harvest the capped/concentrated honey and feed the rest back to the bees above the crown board.

Hi Kate, it's all unwired comb that I am using as hives are at the heather, so I would just use the capped stuff and the rest feed back the the bees?

[Kate Atchley]

Do the testing explained above and feed back anything looking too runny, would be my advice.

[gwizzie]

Do the testing explained above and feed back anything looking too runny, would be my advice.

Thanks Kate, just checked them yesterday and one of the hives is now starting to cap the honey off :D and the smell of warm honey when I open the hives up well that I will never forget YUM YUM......

here is a video I did last week showing the differences i'm getting between the poly hives and the wooden ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxLxaM38KnE

[gwizzie]

Small update for those that watched the video above! the only hive that I think I will get a few teaspoons full of honey from is the swarm hive this year as the other ones have used most of their honey due to weather turning bad and the ling heather at its end now :(

O well there is always next year, I hope to be better prepared for the heather next year :D

[gwizzie]

Hi everyone sorry not been around much last few weeks but been away on holiday to Crete for 10 nights:). Well got back Saturday morning after being up for 28hr with no sleep went to go back out to the car and the wife said were you going ? I replied to going to check on my bees, which I did and they looked all ok.
I checked on them today and put some sugar syrup on them but didn't take of the suppers as they did not look caped, but after conferring with a very knowledgeable member on here he advised me to take them of and the honey would be ok as they stop capping it when the flow of nectar stops, so tomorrow I will raid the suppers to see what I get?. One of the hives was very aggressive today when I had a wee look at its supper "humm not surprised" it's all there hard work i'm thinking of taking.

[The Drone Ranger]

.
I checked on them today and put some sugar syrup on them but didn't take of the suppers as they did not look caped, but after conferring with a very knowledgeable member on here he advised me to take them of and the honey would be ok as they stop capping it when the flow of nectar stops, so tomorrow I will raid the suppers to see what I get?. One of the hives was very aggressive today when I had a wee look at its supper "humm not surprised" it's all there hard work i'm thinking of taking.

Hi Gwizzie
try and make sure that you leave them enough stores for winter
It's a bit late for sugar syrup feeding now I would think

[Calluna4u]

Hi Gwizzie
try and make sure that you leave them enough stores for winter
It's a bit late for sugar syrup feeding now I would think

Hope not. Our second tankerload just arriving this evening.

All depends on hive type and location however. Bees we fed in the middle of last week are pretty well all finished their 14Kg of invert, and as recently as this weekend were still drawing foundation. Still have ovewr 800 to feed, and actually not worried about them taking it. Want to finish the wooden hives this coming week,or 10 days, but the polys will take syrup fairly readily well through to late November unless particularly weak.

Fed two large groups on Friday and Saturday, and peeked in on some of them this afternoon, and the best of them had already taken well over half the syrup.

However, wooden hives and Ross-shire means it is getting late, though the forecast for the next ten days or so is generally favourable.

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi C4u
You are able to get wax drawn in October and are still feeding syrup in November so I am probably over cautious
I find they are not keen to draw wax in colder weather and if they take syrup down late the hives have condensation and damp through Winter
I must try to take more chances but am always worried about just losing them over Winter

So Gwizzie apologies for planting seeds of doubt
You are on the right track it seems
DR

[gwizzie]

However, wooden hives and Ross-shire means it is getting late, though the forecast for the next ten days or so is generally favourable.

Its ok there in polys ;) and there taking it NO prob..... even seen some bees taking in pollen this afternoon ????

[gwizzie]

Hi C4u
You are able to get wax drawn in October and are still feeding syrup in November so I am probably over cautious
I find they are not keen to draw wax in colder weather and if they take syrup down late the hives have condensation and damp through Winter
I must try to take more chances but am always worried about just losing them over Winter

So Gwizzie apologies for planting seeds of doubt
You are on the right track it seems
DR

NO worries Bud :p I took of the supers this morning and got about 15 frames with honey in them, BUT not all full about 3 out of the 15 were nearly full. I gave them a good shake and the bees fell off back into the hive and the honey that was not ready fell into the hive on the bees, and they seemed happy with that. All the hives were checked for weight and they did seem all to be ok for weight.

All frames drawn and fill with stores for the winter in the brood box just topping up with some sugar syrup before they wont take in any more, one of the hives the feeder was jam packed with bees trying to get to the syrup, but this is in a poly hive......

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi gwizzie
Fingers crossed for a reasonable Winter where the hives stay upright and we don't need a canoe to get to them
What's your plans re varroa
Are you going to treat with oxalic

[gwizzie]

Hi gwizzie
Fingers crossed for a reasonable Winter where the hives stay upright and we don't need a canoe to get to them
What's your plans re varroa
Are you going to treat with oxalic

I they should be ok were they are, well above flood zone lol. Not sure yet what i'm going to use as not seen any !!!! might go for the oxalic drizzle as want to get a Sublimox but its a bit much for 6 hives maybe next year if i go to my quota of 20 hives.

[prakel]

Some interesting observations with regard to water content of honey in this recent blog post from Erik Osterlund:

Cell size affects water content
http://www.elgon.es/diary/?p=779

[Kate Atchley]

Some interesting observations with regard to water content of honey in this recent blog post from Erik Osterlund:

Cell size affects water content
http://www.elgon.es/diary/?p=779

Fascinating. Reasonable to deduce perhaps that in polyhives the bees might achieve lower water content more evenly across the frames?