Danger of honey adulteration

[Gadgetman]

I'm planning to have a go at some queen rearing for the first time this year. Several of the methods involve feeding syrup while the production colony is raising the queens, while leaving supers on. Isn't there therefore a danger of honey adulteration? And in which case what's the best way to avoid this?
Thanks

 

[JamezF]

I watched a lecture by David Evans last night on queenright queen rearing. His suggestion was to feed small amounts at a time and only if there is not a flow on. He also moved the box containing the frame with the queen cups above the supers once the grafts were accepted.

James

 

[Gadgetman]

I watched a lecture by David Evans last night on queenright queen rearing. His suggestion was to feed small amounts at a time and only if there is not a flow on. He also moved the box containing the frame with the queen cups above the supers once the grafts were accepted.

James

Yes I was there too. Good wasn't it? I missed the to only "feed small amounts" - but isn't there still the danger that they'll simply keep draining that and putting it into the supers?

 

[JamezF]

Yes I was there too. Good wasn't it? I missed the only to "feed small amounts" - but isn't there still the danger that they'll simply keep draining that and putting it into the supers?

I don't believe they'd do that if they need it to feed the brood in the frames that are also present. If there's not a huge amount of nectar coming in, why convert the syrup to honey and then use honey to feed the brood? I feel sure evolution would have sorted out that kind of inefficiency fairly sharpish.

James

 

[madasafish]

Yes I was there too. Good wasn't it? I missed the to only "feed small amounts" - but isn't there still the danger that they'll simply keep draining that and putting it into the supers?

Not if you only top it up every 2-3 days.

 

[JamezF]

Not if you only top it up every 2-3 days.

Yes, I think he said a few hundred millilitres every couple of days or so.

James

 

[rolande]

Didn't see the presentation so as usual, I don't know what I'm talking about, but why on earth would anyone even want to use a colony with supers as a cell builder? There are surely easier ways/systems.

 

[JamezF]

Didn't see the presentation so as usual, I don't know what I'm talking about, but why on earth would anyone even want to use a colony with supers as a cell builder? There are surely easier ways/systems.

The talk was really aimed at people who hadn't tried queen rearing before and had small numbers of colonies to work with, so perhaps wouldn't want to excessively compromise their honey production.

It's Ben Harden's method for raising small numbers of queens. There's an introduction to it here:

Ben Harden queen rearing - intro - The Apiarist

James

 

[Mabee]

Didn't see the presentation so as usual, I don't know what I'm talking about, but why on earth would anyone even want to use a colony with supers as a cell builder? There are surely easier ways/systems.

it’s the Ben Harden method he was describing so a fairly easy method for small scale beekeepers.

 

[fian]

Didn't see the presentation so as usual, I don't know what I'm talking about, but why on earth would anyone even want to use a colony with supers as a cell builder? There are surely easier ways/systems.

The ideal would have been the previous year to write down that hive for reproduction, that is, to exclude it from the harvest and not to have supers in it, so this year you can organize the best way to obtain real cells from it.

 

[Ian123]

Didn't see the presentation so as usual, I don't know what I'm talking about, but why on earth would anyone even want to use a colony with supers as a cell builder? There are surely easier ways/systems.

You actually want the supers on even if not full to create distance between queen and the cell raising box!

 

[JamezF]

it’s the Ben Harden method he was describing so a fairly easy method for small scale beekeepers.

Were you watching as well? I was quite impressed by the number of people from all over the world who were there given that it was just a Somerset/West Dorset/East Devon BKA thing.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Isn't there therefore a danger of honey adulteration?

there is

And in which case what's the best way to avoid this?

don't feed syrup or don't use that colony for honey production

 

[rolande]

You actually want the supers on even if not full to create distance between queen and the cell raising box!

I imagine that's a generic 'you' in regards to people using this method.

 

[Mabee]

Were you watching as well? I was quite impressed by the number of people from all over the world who were there given that it was just a Somerset/West Dorset/East Devon BKA thing.

James

I was.

 

[Michael Palmer]

I feed syrup to my cell builders on grafting day. One gallon. The cell builder is a medium super on the BB, with a deep on top. The grafts are in the deep. 5 days after graft, the cell builder and super are placed on an excluder above the queen right colony. When the cells are harvested, the deep cell builder...now without cells, is removed from the hive. The bees are brushed out in front of the hive and the combs are used to make nucleus colonies. The super that was on the bottom of the cell builder is usually very light...as the syrup/nectar was located on top, in the combs of the cell builder.

Just saying you can feed a bit of syrup to cell builders with supers on. I'm sure some will disagree.

 

[mbc]

I'm planning to have a go at some queen rearing for the first time this year. Several of the methods involve feeding syrup while the production colony is raising the queens, while leaving supers on. Isn't there therefore a danger of honey adulteration? And in which case what's the best way to avoid this?
Thanks

Take the hit, feed continuously while raising cells, if the frames get honey/syrup bound swap them for empties and use the full one for nuc building, thats what I do anyway.

 

[plain_hunt]

Were you watching as well? I was quite impressed by the number of people from all over the world who were there given that it was just a Somerset/West Dorset/East Devon BKA thing.

James

We always have a good mix of people from across the world at the zoom lectures. Have you ever stayed for the chat afterwards? There’s opinions from the across all the States, Europe, and the UK all mixed in together about all sorts of subjects.