Heather 2021

[Worker bee]

Putting clearer boards in today as the Heather flow on Thursday/Friday is starting to slow up.
Removing late summer honey and extracting and jarring up spring and summer honey.
Going to look at a Heather press tonight.

They can still maybe bring some in mine have slowed right down but when we get a few hours sunny spells they bang it in

 

[Curly green finger's]

They can still maybe bring some in mine have slowed right down but when we get a few hours sunny spells they bang it in

The last 4 days haven't been great for the weather but this morning when I put the supers back to be cleaned up they were out in force.

Using this today.
Honey is like this.. Thoughts? bubbles and wax aplenty, need to rethink what I'm doing.

 

[Worker bee]

The last 4 days haven't been great for the weather but this morning when I put the supers back to be cleaned up they were out in force.
View attachment 28188
Using this today.
Honey is like this.. Thoughts? bubbles and wax aplenty, need to rethink what I'm doing. View attachment 28189

Are you using a bag to put the honey In before pressing? Maybe use two bags and a filter? Won't the bubbles and wax rise to the top if you let it stand in a settling tank for four days?

 

[Ian123]

The last 4 days haven't been great for the weather but this morning when I put the supers back to be cleaned up they were out in force.
View attachment 28188
Using this today.
Honey is like this.. Thoughts? bubbles and wax aplenty, need to rethink what I'm doing. View attachment 28189

If it’s heather bubbles are normal. By that I mean larger than normal honey bubbles/scum and you get them throughout the jar not just the surface. It’s a good sign it’s largely heather!

 

[elainemary]

The last 4 days haven't been great for the weather but this morning when I put the supers back to be cleaned up they were out in force.
View attachment 28188
Using this today.
Honey is like this.. Thoughts? bubbles and wax aplenty, need to rethink what I'm doing. View attachment 28189

Heather honey can froth easily especially when it’s squeezed hard. You need to let it settle for longer and skim off the froth. Bubbles are a natural feature of heather honey and won’t go away - honey judges look for this as evidence it’s heather, the bigger the bubbles the purer the heather

 

[elainemary]

They can still maybe bring some in mine have slowed right down but when we get a few hours sunny spells they bang it in

When are you thinking of bringing your bees back? Last 3 days of summer is next Mon- Wed!?

 

[Curly green finger's]

Are you using a bag to put the honey In before pressing? Maybe use two bags and a filter? Won't the bubbles and wax rise to the top if you let it stand in a settling tank for four days?

I am using muslin sheets

Heather honey can froth easily especially when it’s squeezed hard. You need to let it settle for longer and skim off the froth. Bubbles are a natural feature of heather honey and won’t go away - honey judges look for this as evidence it’s heather, the bigger the bubbles the purer the heather

Yeah I understand about the bubbles, I was more concerned about the bits of wax.
Not going to be show quality .
Interesting scrapping back to foundation yesterday, every frame so far has been like set jelly... Horrible stuff to work with...
Im using double sheets of muslin and then very fine sived into buckets, not as much per super but its a learning curve and yesterday I was so ecstatic and damn excited when I poored my first jar out.
As you all know this is my first proper Heather crop .
Brix 79% Water 19.5 %

 

[E&MBees]

Heather honey can froth easily especially when it’s squeezed hard. You need to let it settle for longer and skim off the froth. Bubbles are a natural feature of heather honey and won’t go away - honey judges look for this as evidence it’s heather, the bigger the bubbles the purer the heather

That looks lovely. Bet it tastes even better!

 

[Curly green finger's]

Q. Is it worth me reducing the water content it's 19.5% even the uncapped jelly.

 

[Frizzaldo]

I think heather generally has a higher water content:
https://www.honeytraveler.com/single-flower-honey/heather-honey/fifth paragraph here says 19-25% so you are at lower end

 

[elainemary]

Visited my colony on the moor yesterday, was a balmy 17 degrees and they were Flying V strongly. Heather still purple. 3 almost full supers and the top super was being capped. So I might get my first cut comb. Varroa drop is 2-3 mites a day.

Queen still laying well & not having a brood break. I decided to look in the brood nest as when I first took them, they built a couple of queen cells but after taking down and adding a super, they haven’t built any more fortunately. Queen still laying well and all stores except pollen being stored in the supers.

Weather going to be good, Indian summer Monday - Thursday so will put clearer boards on and varroa strips in on Thursday, then make the long 2 mile journey home!

Made a new friend of the farmer, who also has a passion - restoring old International British made tractors, he has quite a collection, currently renovating a 1952 model. Will be taking him a selection of different honey to try

Have enjoyed taking my bees to the heather and will do it again next year.

 

[Worker bee]

When are you thinking of bringing your bees back? Last 3 days of summer is next Mon- Wed!?

I'm brining mine to a winter apiary in a few weeks so I can get everything I can out of them.

 

[Into the lions den]

Its a decent heather year up here......initial assessment has...from 103 apiaries....13 poo3, 9 middling, 81 good of which about half are excellent.

To define this...poor is 15Kg or less, middling 22kg or less good looking at around 28kg ave. Just estimates so far. Some years I get that well wrong but mostly hit it fairly close. This is the average of every colony we put up...which is everything...including young splits and sometimes nucs (not this year)...so our average is generally considerably lower than stated by other people. Every floor moved to the heather is counted...producer or not...as they are all part of the inputs side of the calculation.

Heather was running early up to early July and then the hot dry weather stopped it dead...did not recover until after it got a good soaking.

In the east of our range it was all over and brown, except where there was tree cover, a week back.
The west of our range is now also close to finished. On open moor it is gone, lower areas with forest around still have a little. Bees becoming more interested in the tiny crevices between boxes on other hives now...so robbing will be an issue when stripping...and is a sign is really is all over for 2021.

The places that were driest for longest this year have the heather running latest.

Anyone following the VERY out of date info in the publication reproduced earlier in the thread risks missing out most years. In the majority of recent seasons the ling starts well earlier than 12 August and in some years it is long gone by then, 2018 for example when the flow started around 15th July and ended about 5th August. Many claimed it as a bad heather year...it was not....mostly it was the beekeepers who missed it. Hives up on time had an excellent flow.

Positives contributing to the heather this year are the good weather in the growing period...needed for the plant to produce the sugars...May IS important...but each week closer to flowering gets more important still. It needs a lot of moisture in the soil/peat to do best and we lose more crops to dry than to wet...and this year was threatening that way while the summer heatwave lasted as the ling was static, and some plants and areas have never flowered due to having been roasted. Had we had the rain it looked like a year for the ling to peak around the last week of July. Also the bees werte in good nick as there was no June gap..but that has a downside as unrested queens tail off a bit earlier and we have a lot of colonies mainly filling in down rather than up in the last two weeks of August.

A few apiaries have suffered a bit of paralysis virus.......and it has taken out a fair bit of the workforce in probably 7 or 8 apiaries...all rated above as poor. No colonies have actually died, but some are looking too small for proper wintering. (well covered by fresh nucs already set for winter by Jolanta and her team).

Eventually the rain came and best way to put it really is that 'we got away with it' Generally content. Although we do not manage for it we have had a decent blossom crop and the heather will be a bit above average...so will be a good year in the end.

 

[AndyTh]

Thanks for the heads-up Murray, it is always enjoyable and informative reading your comments on the heather seasons and comparing notes. Flowering seemed to start a little later this year and rain eventually came to rescue in the Blaenavon area too, but it will still be a below-average year. Probably will move bees home later this week at the end of the forecasted warm spell.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Flowering seemed to start a little later this year and rain eventually came to rescue in the Blaenavon area too, but it will still be a below-average year. Probably will move bees home later this week at the end of the forecasted warm spell.

Yes, the rain even managed to invigorate the heather around here, nothing though until well past the twelfth (seems to be the norm on the Black Mountain). But definitely stopped dead about a week ago.

 

[Worker bee]

Flow still on where mine are supers are filling again. Best flow this season can't comment on strength of heather flow though its my first time. Its beat my main flows in the bit of good weather we've had so that will do for me one hive will probably hit the 200lb mark. I wasn't expecting much because the heather is very patchy where mine are but it's better than I expected considering we've not had many sunny days. I hope its as good next year

 

[Curly green finger's]

Flow still on where mine are supers are filling again. Best flow this season can't comment on strength of heather flow though its my first time. Its beat my main flows in the bit of good weather we've had so that will do for me one hive will probably hit the 200lb mark. I wasn't expecting much because the heather is very patchy where mine are but it's better than I expected considering we've not had many sunny days. I hope its as good next year

200lb for one hive what set up is that colony. ??
I've got one that has a brood and two supers nowhere near 200lbs.

 

[mbc]

200lb for one hive what set up is that colony. ??
I've got one that has a brood and two supers nowhere near 200lbs.

Thanks for questioning it, I was just sobbing into my porridge regretting not taking any up.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Thanks for questioning it, I was just sobbing into my porridge regretting not taking any up.

I would like to see Prof?
Not much over 60lbs is our best so far.

It's a hassle really, like Murray I have a few with virus bigger colonys though?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I would like to see Prof?

Why do you need proof?