First honey harvest

[Laureldene]

Extracting capped honey in mid April! I did extract at the end of April on one occasion a few years ago but usually it's mid-May. OSR of course.

I take it you must be surrounded by osr to be harvesting already. Well done! Just so other beginners understand osr ( oil seed rape) is an early crop that needs to be extracted before it sets. It is not normal to be harvesting any other crop in the UK yet so please dont think you are doing something wrong!

 

[Laureldene]

Hi All lots of OSR near me.. do you still wait until this is capped in the supers prior to extracting? My second season and there was no OSR around last year.

 

[Nighthaunt]

Had some advice that with OSR you should extract when can turn the frame flat and shake and nothing if you have a refractometer you could also check that water % is below 18.

Not an expert but sharing advice from one of the longer serving beeks in Kent on how he handles OSR.

When the flowers in the rape fields start to turn green, check the honey frames to see
if it is ripe. Shake off the bees and lay the frames flat in your hand over the top
of an up turned roof, shake 3 or 4 times down. If no honey falls, take and
extract before it gets cold. Do not wait for the frames to be sealed, if the honey
shakes out it is not ready to extract.

Credit to Roland

 

[Amari]

Had some advice that with OSR you should extract when can turn the frame flat and shake and nothing if you have a refractometer you could also check that water % is below 18.

Not an expert but sharing advice from one of the longer serving beeks in Kent on how he handles OSR.

When the flowers in the rape fields start to turn green, check the honey frames to see
if it is ripe. Shake off the bees and lay the frames flat in your hand over the top
of an up turned roof, shake 3 or 4 times down. If no honey falls, take and
extract before it gets cold. Do not wait for the frames to be sealed, if the honey
shakes out it is not ready to extract.

Credit to Roland

Yes, the shake test is useful, but better still, get a refractometer. I've often tested freshly-capped OSR nectar and found it to be @ 20% and therefor susceptible to ferment several months later.

 

[pargyle]

Yes, the shake test is useful, but better still, get a refractometer. I've often tested freshly-capped OSR nectar and found it to be @ 20% and therefor susceptible to ferment several months later.

Yes ... for the sake of about £18 on Amazon for a honey refractometer it's better to be sure ... small price to pay and it's a device you will use every year.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Yes ... for the sake of about £18 on Amazon for a honey refractometer it's better to be sure ... small price to pay and it's a device you will use every year.

Even cheaper on ebay

 

[Beedogg]

So, for testing, what do you do? Take a match or something and take a smear of uncapped honey and put it on the refratometer? Where in the frame is the most telling bit to sample? The seem to be capping from centre-top downwards, so I'm assuming that somewhere in the bottom corners of the frame will give the worst-case water content reading. Is that so?