Heather Honey

[Mike a]

For the first time I've decided to put hives out on the heather this year. Last Sunday I went to have a look at the site I'd chosen from a long list of possible sites offered to all HBA members.

Last year the kids had been out setting fires so a large patch is still recovering but after spending an hour out roaming around the set area looking for suitable places to hide the hives from being blatantly obvious by anyone walking past I found three good locations with good access.

Looking at the heather the tiny white flowers are just about starting to appear and on a less than 5% of the plants they are just starting to open so I'll put out one hive next week and weigh it before I walk away then check the weight the following week when I hope most of the ling will be in full flower when I will take the other seven hives down.

HM I do envy you living where you are.... !

 

[Mike a]

Hive Inspections on the Heather.

Mixed fortunes.

One of my full poly hives has swarmed not once but probably two or three times as there is only about 3 frames worth of bees remaining. However its not all bad news as the double nuc I took was boiling over with bees.

I transferred them into a new full hive. I decided to keep the two halves of the brood nest over to the left side of hive for the most part and inserted a drawn frame followed by a new frame then a frame full of pollen and nectar in the lower chamber then repeated the same above with the other frames from the double nuc. It should only take a week for the colony to draw out all the frames in the lower two chambers so I've given them another 11 deep frames above. (Not using a QE)

Two weeks ago

Today

 

[Norton]

Very nice.

 

[REDWOOD]

Flowers are looking good, over here they are just in the white bud form with one or 2 flowers just starting to open so hopefully the wont be long. hope you get a good flow on. I think your top picture is heath amongst the heather.

 

[RoofTops]

Mike a - cut a sheet of thick poly sheet, such as you can buy at garden centres by the metre from a roll, and put it under the roof. This will stop them building comb under the roof and make the latter much easier to remove.

 

[biglongdarren]

i placed one of my strongest hives up at the foot of the mountain last saturday,will get a peek tomorrow to see how they've been getting on.
Good luck,
Darren

 

[Mike a]

Mike a - cut a sheet of thick poly sheet, such as you can buy at garden centres by the metre from a roll, and put it under the roof. This will stop them building comb under the roof and make the latter much easier to remove.

Thanks John

I've used a sheet of polythene or the plastic sheet that now comes with them on my full size langs, but never got round to it with the nucs. Just need to make up some wooden ekes of the right size for all my poly's so I can treat them before Winter and some lang deep dummy boards.

You'll also notice some one piece frames and some wooden with plastic foundation, the bees don't mind which they have but I much prefer the wooden frames. When I get a chance I'll post some pictures of what a rat or mouse can do to the one piece frames over winter.

 

[Foxylad]

May i ask why are you taking nucs to the heather?

Did they swarm due to honey block?

 

[Mike a]

The nuc was on double brood deep langstroth so 12 frames in total. As you can see from the picture the lower chamber was packed full of bees as was the top half and they were building comb on the roof as they were getting low on free space. I carefully inspected each frame but no signs of queen cells or even play cups which was a little surprising to be honest.

The colony that swarmed was already in a full size langstroth double brood, as the weather was poor I didn't inspect it thoroughly enough before taking it to the heather and missed 4 queen cells which is unfortunate but like so many other bee keepers this year it caught me out.

Most of the heather honey they collect they will get to keep for themselves to over Winter on as around both of my apiaries there is tons of Ivy which isn't much good to the bees once it crystallizes solid in the frames during Winter.

 

[gavin]

Top picture: cross-leaved heath, Erica tetralix. Nothing for honeybees, they can't access the contents.

Lower picture, deeper purple flowers on left and at top: bell heather, Erica cinerea. Flowers July mostly, can give a deep coloured honey in some years.

Lower picture, lilac flowers just coming out, more open structure: heather or ling, Calluna vulgaris. Flowers mostly August but in general it has been getting earlier - though not this year here. The classic heather honey, amber, richly flavoured and jelly-like.

Nice site if you have all three and the last two in quantity.

G.