honey collection early spring? Advice sought.

[alice-edmund]

For various reasons relating to my work and building work at home I was unable to extract honey from my supers (and prepare hives for Winter) this September/October. I am expecting there will be plenty left in spring - any advice on when I should remove the remaining honey and prepare the hives for new brood? I don't want more than my current 3 hives and nuc.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Did you treat your hives for varroa at all? have you removed the queen excluders?

 

[Anduril]

First of all, what is your current hive set up and did you leave the queen excluders in place? Not knowing what the weather will be like in the next 4 months, I would remove the supers in May weather permitting and forage availability, taking too much off could lead to starvation. The queen could be laying in the frames, which will mean rearranging the frames and keeping the queen below the queen excluder. If you have left the queen excluders in place then you could have dead queens.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If you have left the queen excluders in place then you could have dead queens.

Or a dead colony - contrary to the maintained wisdom, the few instances I have heard reported, the bees did not abandon the queen, but stayed with her, and starved within inches of plentiful stores.

 

[alice-edmund]

Thanks folks, yes, QEs still in place, no varroa control done; last inspection in September suggested there was a fair amount to extract from the supers - but assuming they survive winter- is it worth trying to remove/harvest the supers in Feb/early march (weather permitting)? I can't remove the supers yet due to building works/no storage/nowhere to process anything

 

[madasafish]

Thanks folks, yes, QEs still in place, no varroa control done; last inspection in September suggested there was a fair amount to extract from the supers - but assuming they survive winter- is it worth trying to remove/harvest the supers in Feb/early march (weather permitting)? I can't remove the supers yet due to building works/no storage/nowhere to process anything

If we have cold weather in Feb.March you will have to store the supers somewhere warm for a couple of days before extraction or honey extraction with cold honey could be lengthy if not very difficult.

 

[Swarm]

Thanks folks, yes, QEs still in place, no varroa control done; last inspection in September suggested there was a fair amount to extract from the supers - but assuming they survive winter- is it worth trying to remove/harvest the supers in Feb/early march (weather permitting)? I can't remove the supers yet due to building works/no storage/nowhere to process anything

Never mind the honey, what about your bees? If you had no time to extract, you should have removed the excluders at least to allow them free access to their stores.

 

[BMH]

**REMOVE THE QUEEN EXCLUDER NOW**

Or else you will have plenty of honey and no colony!

May be too late...SNAP.

 

[drex]

While it is still relatively mild I would remove the excluders. Next treat for varroa. These two will increase the probability of survival of the colonies. I would then think about what to do with supers when spring comes. Some treatments render the honey unfit for human consumption. Leave them as they are and a good chance your colonies will not survive.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Never mind the honey, what about your bees? If you had no time to extract, you should have removed the excluders at least to allow them free access to their stores.

**REMOVE THE QUEEN EXCLUDER NOW**

Or else you will have plenty of honey and no colony!

May be too late...SNAP.

While it is still relatively mild I would remove the excluders. Next treat for varroa. .

although it may be too late for either,
Get in there and remove the queen excluders ASAP and whilst the supers are off, trickle Oxalic Acid. The winter bees ar probably already compromised, but you have to try and hope we don't get a drawn out, cold spring

 

[Anduril]

As above queen excluders need removing, oxalic acid trickling and don't remove any brood frames as this could lead to the accidental deaths of your queens, if they are not dead already.

 

[Wingy]

As others have said QX needs to come off, although it sounds like your more bothered about getting your honey. I don’t know how many full supers each hive has but this is what I would do NOW
1) check bees are still alive
2) remove QX
3) leave 1 super of stores for bees to access and put the CB no holes then a thick piece of plastic sheet to protect the other supers above.
4) stack any other supers above CB
5) another sealed CB or plastic sheet over top super
6) roof back on
7) vape OA treatment - I don’t like the trickle method but that would be an option as you sort them out
DO IT NOW weather forecast for cold from next week
8) other supers can be removed and extracted when ever

 

[Hivemaker.]

Never mind the honey, what about your bees? If you had no time to extract, you should have removed the excluders at least to allow them free access to their stores.

...or if no time to look after his livestock properly, give them to someone who does.

 

[fatshark]

Too late to treat for Varroa and have any hope of protecting your winter bees. It might mean your Spring bees aren't riddled with disease but having any of those is dependent on the colony surviving ... which might have required treating in late summer/early autumn. Catch22.

Don't bother treating with OA (I'm presuming from the Q that the OP has no equipment for vaporisation). I'd bet the colony has brood now. Trickling will be of little benefit and will damage open brood.

Get some Apivar strips into the colony as early as possible in the season. Remove them after the correct period.

Attend a 'start beekeeping' course.

Get a mentor.

However, I also agree with the point HM makes ... if all the above sounds too much like hard work how about one of these instead?

 

[SDM]

.

Don't bother treating with OA (I'm presuming from the Q that the OP has no equipment for vaporisation). I'd bet the colony has brood now. Trickling will be of little benefit and will damage open brood.

You're worried about damaging a tiny amount of open brood that is more than likely to die as sealed brood with the varroa levels he'll probably have. Instead you suggest allowing the problem to compound itself allowing mites to reproduce in what is possibly the only brood his winter bees will be capable of raising.
Sorry, but i cant follow that logic
Culling a few small patches of brood now will do little harm, the bees will recycle the raw materials and the immediate and more effective mite treatment because of that cull will pay the op back before spring is through.

 

[fatshark]

Trickling will leave capped mites untouched ... if there's significant amounts of sealed brood (and who knows?) then OA trickling will be of little benefit. I'm not worried about the unsealed brood, I simply commented that trickling will damage it. If there is unsealed brood, there's likely to be sealed brood which will have mites in it.

If you're going to treat, do it effectively.

Get the Apivar in PDQ, scratch and reposition after 5-6 weeks and remove them at 10 weeks.

 

[Eyeman]

Too late to treat for Varroa and have any hope of protecting your winter bees. It might mean your Spring bees aren't riddled with disease but having any of those is dependent on the colony surviving ... which might have required treating in late summer/early autumn. Catch22.

Don't bother treating with OA (I'm presuming from the Q that the OP has no equipment for vaporisation). I'd bet the colony has brood now. Trickling will be of little benefit and will damage open brood.

Get some Apivar strips into the colony as early as possible in the season. Remove them after the correct period.

Attend a 'start beekeeping' course.

Get a mentor.

However, I also agree with the point HM makes ... if all the above sounds too much like hard work how about one of these instead?

All beekeeping is local. Checked 2 of my colonies last week for suspected mouse and both were strong with no brood and fortunately no mouse.

 

[Eyeman]

...or if no time to look after his livestock properly, give them to someone who does.

Did you get out of the wrong side of bed after xmas?
Aren't we supposed to be supportive?

 

[mbc]

...or if no time to look after his livestock properly, give them to someone who does.

It's about respect, both the remaining colony and the stored honey represent the life's work of that superorganism for the season and deserve respect.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Aren't we supposed to be supportive?

Supportive of what I consider to be best for the bees, yes, definitely.