Heather dissapoints

[Murox]

love the 'hairy' bee on the blooms.

 

[Curly green finger's]

love the 'hairy' bee on the blooms.

Not sure what sort of bumble it is?
The wind down there was cutting this morning.

 

[Murox]

The wind up here has been steady 25mph NNW = bloody cold in the nether regions
Cant help you with bumbles, but its always nice to see them. There were even some out foraging this morning - around 12 degrees.

 

[Swarm]

It's a Carder.

 

[elainemary]

I live in the West Pennines, just a few hundred meters from the moor. We were badly affected by Heather beetle a couple of years ago, though this year the Heather has looked very good & lots of colour. In the hot humid week we had early August my main colony at home brought 2 supers of heather honey in. The other 2 colonies brought in a super mixture of heather and balsam. Unfortunately weather has been dire since and I checked the water content with the refractometer earlier this week. It’s taking a while for them to cap it but plan to share the crop (half for me half for them) this week. Heather honey is the best!

 

[Curly green finger's]

The wind up here has been steady 25mph NNW = bloody cold in the nether regions
Cant help you with bumbles, but its always nice to see them. There were even some out foraging this morning - around 12 degrees.
[/QUOTE

I live in the West Pennines, just a few hundred meters from the moor. We were badly affected by Heather beetle a couple of years ago, though this year the Heather has looked very good & lots of colour. In the hot humid week we had early August my main colony at home brought 2 supers of heather honey in. The other 2 colonies brought in a super mixture of heather and balsam. Unfortunately weather has been dire since and I checked the water content with the refractometer earlier this week. It’s taking a while for them to cap it but plan to share the crop (half for me half for them) this week. Heather honey is the best!

Snap I'm leaving Heather honey!

 

[Curly green finger's]

It's a Carder.

Thanks steve

 

[Murox]

It's a Carder.

Ok thanks for that

 

[Speybee]

Been a busy afternoon for me today.
A lovely dry calm 15C for looking at my first ever hives to the Heather which is still in bloom up here.
Last inspection I had made the massive boo boo of giving them 1:1 syrup to draw out the frames but overdid it and they started storing it in the honey super.
I moved the uncapped honey box to the other National so it was one and a half brood nest, QE, super honey box, super honey box, crown board, roof.
Was advised about robbing but I was already glorying on before I read the advice.
This hive does not appear to be robbed but to be honest I find it difficult to tell as the bees were all over the place and I did not bring the icing sugar sprinkler to dust and mark them.
I’ve let them be.
The other National had a honey box of new undrawn premier foundation, no syrup and I was surprised that they did not draw any of it out over the space of a week.
Should I give a really small amount of syrup to encourage them to draw out these frames?( the Heather is blooming like mad)
Or should I next week take the undrawn honey box off and leave this hive as just one and a half brood nest, CB and roof?

 

[ericbeaumont]

Check out this heather crop!

 

[Curly green finger's]

Check out this heather crop!

Ka ching!

 

[Amari]

Two days ago SteveG and I retrieved our two hives after five weeks on the heather at Dunwich/Westleton Heath - sandy heath on the Suffolk coast which never does well in drought conditions like this summer. The heather had become brown with scarcely any purple. In my hive there was no honey in the top super. The super below had six full and capped frames, two partially full (capped) and two empty. There was no uncapped honey.

To my dismay the honey released from the press today was as pale as OSR, very runny and water 22%. 12 lbs in all. Taste is bland.

My analysis: the heather has not yielded at all, despite being purple in July (mainly bell heather then). The honey is probably bramble collected in the first 2-3 weeks from hedges 1km distant. This flow then stopped, explaining the absence of liquid honey in the combs.

The only pleasure we've had is sitting on Dunwich beach at each visit, enjoying a fishn'chip lunch.

 

[ericbeaumont]

Out in West Surrey the bell heather produced nothing this year - too dry earlier - but the ling came good. Last year it was the other way round.

Pity I took my eye off the ball a few weeks earlier: one Ross Round box had in it more brood and less heather than I was expecting.

 

[Speybee]

Out in West Surrey the bell heather produced nothing this year - too dry earlier - but the ling came good. Last year it was the other way round.

Pity I took my eye off the ball a few weeks earlier: one Ross Round box had in it more brood and less heather than I was expecting.

View attachment 21923

Beautiful combs.
For the first time, I put 2 hives to the Heather here which is still blooming in the Autumn sunshine.
I put a honey box of shallows filled with undrawn, unwired premier thin foundation.
Assuming I got Heather honey, the idea was of cutting out the entire comb, laying it on a clean chopping board and using the comb cutter.
I am intrigued by these round frames, what is the advantage of using these compared to using thin premier wax shallows?

 

[E&MBees]

Out in West Surrey the bell heather produced nothing this year - too dry earlier - but the ling came good. Last year it was the other way round.

Pity I took my eye off the ball a few weeks earlier: one Ross Round box had in it more brood and less heather than I was expecting.

View attachment 21923

How does this sort of set up work? I’ve never seen ‘frames’ like those in the photo before.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Beautiful combs.
I am intrigued by these round frames, what is the advantage of using these compared to using thin premier wax shallows?

They’re called Ross Rounds. They are a type of section comb. You can get square ones too. I’ve never tried them but some say it’s difficult to get the bees to draw and fill them properly. If you have a market for them then why not. You have to charge for them though and hereabouts nobody wants simple cut comb.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Here

 

[ericbeaumont]

How does this sort of set up work? I’ve never seen ‘frames’ like those in the photo before.

Ross Rounds have been around since the '50s or '60s and would save Speybee the mess of chopping and cutting.

The cassette clips together lengthways and is one of nine in a box; in each hole sit two white plastic rings and a sheet of extra thin foundation is laid the length of the centre of the cassette; starter strips can be used instead.

A strong colony or swarm is needed to get bees to go into the cassettes; best to remove all other supers on the main flow and cram in the bees. Sometimes they're nearly all filled, sometimes not, depending on the flow. Partly drawn and filled cassettes can be frozen and given back to the bees the following season. I would like to get RRs with pure ivy, but the flow would have to be strong at a time when colonies are winding down.

The individual rounds are removed from the cassette and sealed with two lids; a label holds the lids together. Last year I sold them for £9 each, which isn't bad for 227g of honey; this year the price is going up; I describe them as an edible calendar and it doesn't matter if there are different colour or crystallised honeys in there; it's good with blue cheese, and in Jewish culture a slice is eaten with sharp apple.

Youtube videos here. Best book by far is Richard Taylor's The Comb Honey Book. I would have liked to have met him; read this story of his life; at the end of it you too will love Richard.

 

[Speybee]

They’re called Ross Rounds. They are a type of section comb. You can get square ones too. I’ve never tried them but some say it’s difficult to get the bees to draw and fill them properly. If you have a market for them then why not. You have to charge for them though and hereabouts nobody wants simple cut comb.

Here in Scotland particularly the North East we go mad for comb honey

 

[Speybee]

Ross Rounds have been around since the '50s or '60s and would save Speybee the mess of chopping and cutting.

The cassette clips together lengthways and is one of nine in a box; in each hole sit two white plastic rings and a sheet of extra thin foundation is laid the length of the centre of the cassette; starter strips can be used instead.

A strong colony or swarm is needed to get bees to go into the cassettes; best to remove all other supers on the main flow and cram in the bees. Sometimes they're nearly all filled, sometimes not, depending on the flow. Partly drawn and filled cassettes can be frozen and given back to the bees the following season. I would like to get RRs with pure ivy, but the flow would have to be strong at a time when colonies are winding down.

The individual rounds are removed from the cassette and sealed with two lids; a label holds the lids together. Last year I sold them for £9 each, which isn't bad for 227g of honey; this year the price is going up; I describe them as an edible calendar and it doesn't matter if there are different colour or crystallised honeys in there; it's good with blue cheese, and in Jewish culture a slice is eaten with sharp apple.

Youtube videos here. Best book by far is Richard Taylor's The Comb Honey Book. I would have liked to have met him; read this story of his life; at the end of it you too will love Richard.

Thanks for that very useful information much appreciated