Recent content by russ_01

Yeah it is the potato masher type. I don't mind standing over the bucket and "mashing" if it will give me a smooth finish.

Is there an option to melt the honey back down to liquid state and try again or do you only get one go at it? Or would melting it down to liquid again ruin the quality?

Hi All, Looking for a bit of help on how to make soft set honey smooth. The bucket is OSR so I melted it down in my warming cabinet and then seeded with a jar I had from last season (10% ratio) which is very smooth (like butter). The honey after 12hrs of settling is still a little coarse but...

PH - does that mean it's best to follow same philosophy as OSR honey i.e. let it set in a bucket then break the crystals up or is it safe to jar it up without letting it crystallise?

Hi - I've got a question on raspberry honey as the information in books & internet is a bit thin. Has anybody managed colonies on raspberry fields, if so what does it taste like and does it crystallise like OSR or does it just granulate quickly? Thanks, R

How long should I go on feeding 1:1 syrup? The OSR is about to burst into bloom in next 7-10 days but at same time don't want to keep feeding them so they become reliant upon the syrup.

Sorry yeah I should have said, sealed brood (workers only), there was no drone brood. I don't have any pictures as today was more about seeing what I've got and then work out what I needed to do... All the frames in the hive are fully drawn with centre 3 frames where the colony is located then...

Hi I picked up a hive off a local beekeeper who is scaling down however when I went through the hive today one of them is very weak (it was a split from either late last season or early this year). The hive has 4 frames of capped eggs but in small groups not side to side/top to bottom, there...

I was under the impression that bees can't do anything with crystallised OSR honey, or is this just crystallised in the super? Going by the answers, if the honey crystallised inside the brood box the bees could still use it for food or wax?

So how do you handle the OSR honey in the brood?

Hi, I'm going to attempt my first year on OSR (winter) this year however there are a couple of questions that I can't seem to find an answer on and looking for a bit of advice: 1) When the bees store OSR honey in the brood box does it crystallise like it would in the super or does the heat...

When are the spring auctions & where are they?

I had a nasty hive last season and the experience was so awful that I almost gave up, some times i ended up with 7 stings per hive visit. I also don't react well to a sting never mind 7. I spoke to the beekeeper who I got the bees from & he posted me a new queen free of charge, this was back end...

I've bought other stuff from STBK in the past & find it good quality/does the job I want it to. I've only got 4 hives & I'm away to put 2 of them on OSR very soon with 12 frame supers, would I be better to splash the extra £50 & go for a radial 6/3 honey extractor?