Oil seed rape honey help

[Silvbee]

Hi all,

I've just moved to a new apiary site and for the first time I've had to deal with OSR honey. I've taken all the honey off and it is now sitting in a tub, pure white and solid. I know the process that I have to go through to heat the honey up and then give it a good stir but I don't have any of the equipment. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give me a hand processing the stuff i.e. i COULD provide a hand processing their stuff in return for doing mine or knows of some budget ways of getting the stuff into jars without IT setting rock solid.

All advice and help welcome.

SB

[greengumbo]

Hi all,

I've just moved to a new apiary site and for the first time I've had to deal with OSR honey. I've taken all the honey off and it is now sitting in a tub, pure white and solid. I know the process that I have to go through to heat the honey up and then give it a good stir but I don't have any of the equipment. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give me a hand processing the stuff i.e. i COULD provide a hand processing their stuff in return for doing mine or knows of some budget ways of getting the stuff into jars without IT setting rock solid.

All advice and help welcome.

SB

Hi Silvbee - not sure if I can help but let us know the area and someone might be able to !

For a single bucket you could put it in your oven on lowest setting. Our oven has a 40'C plate warming setting for example. Then leave it for a day stirring every so often. Once very runny you can put it through a sieve, let it settle for a day and then jar it up using a ladle. This is how I did my first few buckets of honey before I have equipment.

Good luck !

[fatshark]

You need to seed the melted OSR with something suitable otherwise there's a danger it'll just set rock solid again.
You can either beg, borrow or buy a suitable seed. About 10% by weight is what you need.
Alternatively, take a pestle and mortar to some of the set OSR and grind it to make your own seed.

Look up soft set honey. There are some good guides online (including a nice YouTube video by somewhere in Devon? Can't remember his name.)

STOP PRESS - here it is:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLGE-7n0_Ko

[rogerb]

Gents this was written by a member called the Apiarist on the 03/06/2012;

"Extract oilseed rape honey as soon as possible from the combs. They can be taken from the hive as soon as a shaken comb does not shed any drops of honey, even though it is not capped. To achieve this it is best to put the clearer boards on first thing in the morning, after the night when the bees have not added more and have had the whole night to ripen the contents.

Extract the frames and, if there is any chance of the honey sitting in the tank and solidifying, run it immediately into 7 or 10 pound plastic pails, seal them, and put them in the deep freeze. Leave for 3-6 months. When you remove the pails, you absolutely must allow them to return to room temp before removing the lid, otherwise condensation will form on the honey surface and spoil it. When you do open them, the honey will have the consistency of thick cream and the lustre of a pearl! Now bottle it. This method is foolproof, and works every time."

I have not tried this myself, but it seems like a easy way of dealing with the issue.

Cheers Roger B

[Mellifera Crofter]

You need to seed the melted OSR with something suitable otherwise there's a danger it'll just set rock solid again.
You can either beg, borrow or buy a suitable seed ...

But, Fatshark, OSR honey has fine crystals. Silvbee doesn't need to beg and borrow more honey with fine crystals. She already has it in abundance. Stirring it as she heats it will turn it into soft-set honey - and that's her problem: heating it.
She could try GG's suggestion.
Kitta

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[The Drone Ranger]

Last year in the Scottish Beekeeper mag there was a detailed article on how to deal with OSR honey
Exact timings and temperature etc

Without access to anything big like a warming cabinet you can use a microwave
Stand the honey bucket in hot water in the sink to soften the stuff at edges of the bucket
Use a strong wooden spatula etc to chop big chunks out
Put some in a 2ltr kitchen jug
Put the jug in the microwave for a min or so
Take it out give it a stir and put it back for another min
While your stirring it a second time use the microwave to warm 4 or 5 jars
Pour the honey from the jug into the jars
It will set again but not like a brick :)

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[Feckless Drone]

including a nice YouTube video by somewhere in Devon? Can't remember his name.)


I do admire the clarity in communication here.

[Silvbee]

Thanks for your suggestions all. I'm based in Inverkeithing and currently have about 10 liters of set honey so not a huge amount. I'll have a look at my oven tonight and see if a 40c setting can be achieved.

SB

[Mellifera Crofter]

Just take it out often and give it a good stir each time. You don't have to get it completely runny again if you've already filtered it when extracting - just stir until it is nice and creamy, and liquid enough so that you can pour it into jars.
Kitta

[fatshark]

Off topic ... but when has that ever been an issue on this forum?

What's the yellow stuff flowering at the moment? Looks from a distance exactly like OSR, but is a good 6-8 weeks too late. There's a field of it on the A91 outside St. Andrews.

[Poly Hive]

OSR. The Spring Sown type. Coming into flower around the Borders too. Murray recons it can produce quite well but personally never had much off it in Aberdeenshire. Might be better this bit further south but not moving bees for it.

PH

[Feckless Drone]

How about mustard? I think I have seen this in Angus fields in late summer. Fife being a completely different part of the world then maybe the timing is right. FS - having asked the question I presume you now have a plan to get the answer with experimental evidence cause now we want to know.

[fatshark]

While I'd normally plan a well-funded random double-blinded study with sufficient biological repeats to ensure robust statistical significance I think this time I'll just not blast past at 60mph but will have a closer look.

[The Drone Ranger]

Thats possibly Spring sown oil seed rape
or it may be just a beekeeping mirage caused by the blazing sun on the dry desert sands of Fife (global warming)

slight tangent
Why are there no effective chalkbrood treatments
It time there was a bit of research on that front instead of non existent issues like why bees are disappearing [emoji85] [emoji86] [emoji87]

Question 2 which museums house the collections of Viking bees I would like to see some

Question 3 why after all these years do I still lift broodboxes off the ground an do my back in

written sitting in the sun being pestered by birds (feathered)


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[fatshark]

Why are there no effective chalkbrood treatments
It time there was a bit of research on that front instead of non existent issues like why bees are disappearing [emoji85] [emoji86] [emoji87]


Fungal gut infection. Fungal infections generally more tricky to treat than bacterial - certainly in humans where there are compelling reasons (a million Cryptococcosis cases/annum with 20-70% mortality) for improved treatments. Closer evolutionary relationship of pathogen to host means cross-reactivity/side-effects is an issue. Lots of other problems. With poor range of anti-fungal treatments for humans I have little hope for chalkbrood.

At least we can requeen our colonies, which I think is the favoured 'solution', suggesting a strong genetic component to susceptibility.

[The Drone Ranger]

Fungal gut infection. Fungal infections generally more tricky to treat than bacterial - certainly in humans where there are compelling reasons (a million Cryptococcosis cases/annum with 20-70% mortality) for improved treatments. Closer evolutionary relationship of pathogen to host means cross-reactivity/side-effects is an issue. Lots of other problems. With poor range of anti-fungal treatments for humans I have little hope for chalkbrood.

At least we can requeen our colonies, which I think is the favoured 'solution', suggesting a strong genetic component to susceptibility.
I was hoping that there would be conditions unfavourable to fungal spores developing on dead mummies
Perhaps an acidic environment (following a line of thought from Eric McArthur some years back)
I have tried a few things without much success in the past
I think any combs that have had mummies are useless and might as well be burned (with any mummies)

Is the fungus spread by stores of honey /syrup ?
Or by pollen as I read somewhere

Bee diseases by and large affect the bee at only one stage of its life either larval or adult
Shook swarm should work in principle but doesn't seem to in the real world for some reason probably due to stress

Resistance to other maladies is often tested by exposure to a measured dose of infectious agent and selecting the best performers

I asked a friend if the Lasi hygenic bees showed increased resistance
They felt they didn't, but on limited evidence

There must be as you say fatshark a suceptability in some cases because out of the mininucs I have made this year two showed chalk brood which is something I never expected to see









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[Thymallus]

Why are there no effective chalkbrood treatments
It time there was a bit of research on that front instead of non existent issues like why bees are disappearing

My little understanding is it is probably easier to change a queen to a diffrent one whose brood do not suffer chalkbrood, than cure those that do. In the dampness of the upland Yorkshire moorland habitat (not dissimilar to parts of Scotland, arid Aberdeenshire excepted) I find the local bees suffer very badly from it. Even after bananas skins have dried out and the weather has improved. Without casting nasturtiums I find the hives I have of our native bee (imported from ROI) are particularly susceptible to it, although I,m sure this is more my bad luck in the queens sent to me.

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Thymallus
I think you might be right on the queen front I have biased selection toward the black
The dampness may assist the chalkbrood so possibly low humidity might be something to explore
Eric Mcarthur thought an acid environment (formic) followed by heavy feeding held some promise
That might be because the bees would have need of space and clear out mummies earlier
Also the food stored in the cells might be more acid​ and affect the spores in old cells
Plus its likely that the youngest brood might be killed by the treatment so a mini brood break at the same time ?
just guessing because I dont know enough about the infection path yet

Im adding lemon juice to any syrup I give to test the theory


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[Thymallus]

Dampness is a good environment for fungi to develop in. I see a bit in most colonies in the spring. It clears up apart from the local mongrels and Amm's which suggests there is more than one factor at work. Interestingly we are having a very dry summer in North Yorkshire and both locals and Amm;'s are currently showing no signs of Chalk-brood, which is unusual. Acidic would be good as many funal spores need slightly alkaline conditions, or so I seem to recall from a past life..of course memory plays tricks.

[Feckless Drone]

Thymol is a good fungicide - helps keeps the syrup free of any fungal growth and I have wondered if this might help with chalkbrood. Thankfully been less in evidence this year with only one colony with noticeable levels. I followed DRs advice and gradually got rid of the comb.
I don't use any thymol treatments in spring when the disease is most evident.

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi FD and Thallamus
here's Vita link which agrees with your thymol observations FD
http://www.vita-europe.com/diseases/chalkbrood/

If something which is a foodstuff like lemon juice did help though that might be better in case some ends up in the honey
Wishful thinking :)

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[madasafish]

Two of my hives were poorly this spring with chalkbrood and slow (very) build up.
Sprayed all the bees and combs with thymolised 1:1 syugar solution.
No chalkbrood and strong hives now..

[The Drone Ranger]

Thanks madasafish thats very interesting
and worth testing out

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