Are your bees making honey?

[Queens59]

VEG - If I PM can I get a price???

 

[victor meldrew]

This ,so far has been a confusing year for both bees and beekeepers !
Phazye, around this area the main honey flow seems to commence last week in June first week in July, seemingly irrespective of Spring/early Summer weather Let's hope this year isn't the one to break the mould
VM

 

[RoseCottage]

So far 100lbs give or take from 5 supers...problem is there are 5 more at least 2/3rds full of OSR...not capped at all...what to do with it?
Sam

 

[Winker]

So far 100lbs give or take from 5 supers...problem is there are 5 more at least 2/3rds full of OSR...not capped at all...what to do with it?
Sam

mine was 90% uncapped when i extracted it. When i tested it with the refractometer its at 18% watter. But i did give all the frame a shake first to see if the honey was runny first.

 

[busybee53]

Wow. Nice to see people doing so well, mainly in the OSR areas - which I'm not. Fingers crossed for sunshine later in the month.

 

[beestie]

Last weekend I thought I was going to have at least one and possibly 2 supers ready to extract. Took a quick look this afternoon, and what with the weather this week they have gone precisely nowhere. Which is annoying because they will contain at least some OSR, so I will have to keep an eye on things, even if the weather is dire for yet another week as forecast...

 

[hallshoney]

lots of half full supers nothing ready same old june out comes the bramble down comes the rain

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

nothing yet,a few heavy supers but nothing capped.No osr round here and typical welsh weather

Same here - the heaviest super is 50% pollen, but nectar is coming in slowly but last year i had superb honey of the late forage (blackberry and balsam)

mmm I wonder if balsom seed has a good price

Hmmm - bit of a cleft stick situation for me being Chairman of the Carmarthenshire Fishermen's federation and all! have to keep my head down a bit when the subject of the meetings turn to balsam - furtive looks between me and the secretary (he's a beekeeper too!) if only balsam had deep strong roots we'd all be happy! because everyone agrees it's a pretty plant.
Been offered an apiary on the river Towy slap bang in the middle of balsam country - aim now is to expand my apiary to have enough bees to populate it!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Nearly 3 supers uncapped on the 7th on one colony.
The rest are as'd/swarmed etc etc.
Went to local stately home garden festival today where there was a young lady discussing invasive species. Hubby said, "Ahhhhhh, himalayan balsam- we keep planting it and somebody keeps pulling it up." Then he ran away leaving me to explain that he was only joking!!!!!
She said, "you must be beekeepers."

 

[RoseCottage]

So we decided to take much of the rest today and extracted another 3 supers...some was already beginning to crystalise in the frame. We've taken what we can and hope that the bees disolve and consume the remainder...
There is lots in the BB but I hope they will eat that soon too,
All the best,
Sam

 

[oliver90owner]

Re - uncapped frames.

The bees will continue to reduce nectar to honey when there is little or no incoming forage. They will not cap those frame due to the cells not being full. However if there is little forage for a few days, they will not be adding further nectar to those part-filled cells - all collections will go straight to the brood frame honey arch. This likely means that the most frames will be OK for the 'shake test' and extraction. What will muddy the waters is awaiting for a couple of good days - which is likely to mean more nectar added to those part-filled frames and most of them failing the shake-test.

Careful selective removal and extraction of some frames at the right time can avoid the OSR granulating in all of it.

This may assist the thinkers out there to get some of a fair crop gathered, rather than it all being granulated.

RAB

 

[YorkshireBees]

Most of my OSR frames have been at most 40% capped and a lot totally uncapped.
I do an initial shake test of several frames before deciding whether to clear the super for extraction and then a 2nd very hard shake test before uncapping / extraction.
I also purchased a refractometer last year which I have started using this year as a safe guard.

 

[susbees]

A tad difficult being separated from my bees....partner and 20yo daughter may have to take next lot off if I can't hatch an escape plan tomorrow....

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[AndreaW]

Nothing from my two yet. Both headed by newly mated queens and building up. Only one full super but that is a mixture of stores from overwintering and honey so won't be extracting that :-( one super starting to be drawn out and filled though

 

[Snail368]

Took off 68lb from 2 hives in last week. First honey for us!

 

[Easy Beesy]

Nowt!

 

[aberreef]

One super almost full of nectar and another with a huge amount of pollen and some nectar. Not capped and then the hive fell over. They're building QCs as I type

 

[Ely]

One super almost full of nectar and another with a huge amount of pollen and some nectar. Not capped and then the hive fell over. They're building QCs as I type

Thats a buggar. Did it happen in these strong winds?

 

[busybee53]

Andrea, I have newly mated queens in 2 of my 3 colonies which have just begun to lay. I am grateful they got mated at all in the bad weather so no wonder there is no honey. I am hoping for a mated queen in the other colony too when I inspect at the weekend. Still it's good to have bees isn't it?

 

[flemage]

Nothing for me.

all my hives but one have had A/S and are building slowly.

One that hasnt needed an A/S, has an old 2010 queen who will need replacing at some point this year. She has done well in the brood box but its a commercial which is too big for her really so they havent needed to move up and draw the super.

Looks like second year with out any crop for me but then i knew this year was going to be about making bees not honey..........but just some would be nice.