Amount of brood at this time

[drex]

I do random checks before I put frames into the spinner. Whether capped or uncapped. Also a final check on each bucket after a good stir. Certainly this year some uncapped had a lower water content than capped, but nowhere near always, but all were under the 20 limit. Very poor harvest this year as it has been so dry here.

 

[elainemary]

Yes that is a pretty clear routine. It is what I set out to achieve. It just seems I set off too early in the year. Still appears to be forage available up here and brood box still rammed with brood so little space for stores. In fact the two colonies I checked have virtually no stores in the brood box but 6 or 7 frames of uncapped nectar in the super. I took a couple of capped frames off but the refractometer gave a reading of 21.5%, even though capped! Very disappointed and puzzled.

Are you anywhere near heather? If so this could explain the higher reading too & might be ok to extract (can extract pure Heather up to 23, though if a mixture of heather and blossom a lower reading is best).

 

[HarryO]

Are you anywhere near heather? If so this could explain the higher reading too & might be ok to extract (can extract pure Heather up to 23, though if a mixture of heather and blossom a lower reading is best).

No, no heather around here - unfortunately.

 

[MuswellMetro]

The old regulations used to allow 23% for Clover, it was surprising the amount of honey that used to be labelled "clover Honey"