Any "Heath-Robinson" bodges for spinning out a bit of heather honey

[user 20297]

I had a strong suspicion that my bees were finding a certain amount of heather....we are in the Scottish Highlands after all. I was hoping they would mix it with other sources to make an extractable honey, and to a certain extent, they have. But the extracted frames still contain maybe 20% solid heather honey. I'm happy to let the bees clean the frames out, but I would be happier if there was anything I could do to small areas of comb, without having to wait for a loosening tool from a supplier.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

try extracting tangentially but it will take time and need the extractor ramping right up

 

[Wilco]

Student project showed sound waves in the ranges tested didn't seem to work. Sorry. Got another idea for next year's project so if you're happy to wait on an unlikely possibility...

 

[Swarm]

I had less than you Beebe, probably would have filled an 8oz jar in total. I spun it and spun it with no joy, it was going nowhere.

 

[Wilco]

I had less than you Beebe, probably would have filled an 8oz jar in total. I spun it and spun it with no joy, it was going nowhere.

Surely it was going in circles?

 

[user 20297]

I had less than you Beebe, probably would have filled an 8oz jar in total. I spun it and spun it with no joy, it was going nowhere.

I think mine is going back to the bees.

 

[Swarm]

It was just lovely to see and I can say I tasted my own heather honey, which is hard to believe.

 

[Loxley]

Last year I successfully extracted a small amount of Heather honey by carefully using an uncapping fork as a loosener. It was very slow going but it did work. This year I bought a proper handheld loosener - which was frankly also pretty slow.

 

[user 20297]

Last year I successfully extracted a small amount of Heather honey by carefully using an uncapping fork as a loosener. It was very slow going but it did work. This year I bought a proper handheld loosener - which was frankly also pretty slow.

Thanks....that's a great solution and I'll give it a go if the next batch is the same.

 

[Sutty]

I've posted tonight on this as I think I have enough heather in it to gel. In a radial extractor it just sat there even in the not yet capped cells (18%).
It did seem to move better after rolling with a handheld heather roller. Makes quite a mess of the combs but nothing the bees won't fix.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I've posted tonight on this as I think I have enough heather in it to gel. In a radial extractor it just sat there even in the not yet capped cells (18%).
It did seem to move better after rolling with a handheld heather roller. Makes quite a mess of the combs but nothing the bees won't fix.

you really need a tangential extractor to budge heather

 

[Sutty]

It did extract after rolling, though a few frames clearly still had significant amounts in it.
Stupidly I didn't think to try with the tangential screens. Doh!!

 

[elainemary]

I had a strong suspicion that my bees were finding a certain amount of heather....we are in the Scottish Highlands after all. I was hoping they would mix it with other sources to make an extractable honey, and to a certain extent, they have. But the extracted frames still contain maybe 20% solid heather honey. I'm happy to let the bees clean the frames out, but I would be happier if there was anything I could do to small areas of comb, without having to wait for a loosening tool from a supplier.

Only way is to loosen or scrape out I’m afraid. If you scrape back to the midrib of the foundation with a hive tool on the patches of heather, the bees will rebuild the frame next year. Only other thing that helps spin in a tangential or swing cage is keeping the frame v warm (ideally 40c in a warming cabinet or as a minimum a nice warm room)

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It did extract after rolling, though a few frames clearly still had significant amounts in it.
Stupidly I didn't think to try with the tangential screens. Doh!!

Only way is to loosen or scrape out

Nah - when I started keeping bees at Brynmair, and with only a few hives it took me a while to realise that they were bringing in a bit of heather at the end of the season , it was more of a nuisance than anything else , but each year I managed to get quite a bit of heather honey, with no other effort (no loosening or scraping) apart from giving it (as we said on the boats) a fair bit of DF in a tangential extractor.