How to manage a Hive in a Oil Seed Rape Field

[Gilberdyke John]

Doesn't a caramel flavour mean you've overheated the honey?

Not in this case. I use a precision digital controller and never took the temperature above 40degC. Exactly the same treatment to all the batches I made last year.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

That sounds easy to make. I have got a small greenhouse heater tube already...the freezer should have good insulation. I don't have any wire mesh but I am sure the shelf from the freezer will be fine.
OH informs me that the base needs time to firm up......why 12 slabs need to firm themselves is beyond me! Perhaps he means the cement he used to stick them together. So I am amusing myself putting together frames for the nucs whilst waiting.

In my case I used a dead fridge, an STC1000 controller, 12" tubular 60watt heater and sat a floorboard platform on the bottom shelf so there is a couple of inches from tubular heater to shelf and a gap around the sides of the platform to create a path for the heat to spread around without excessive bottom heat to the bucket of honey. The temperature sensor is positioned about half way up the fridge cavity. When not in use for honey warming the heater provides frost protection elsewhere.