- Joined
- Jan 12, 2009
- Messages
- 2,130
- Reaction score
- 1,050
- Location
- Newburyish
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 6
Here it is:
80 odd acres of mustard, which the bees have been working for about 3 weeks. Supers starting to get full. No sign of the flow stopping, plenty of flower buds still unopened.
From what I understand, mustard needs to be treated like rape, and taken off pretty much as soon as the flow stops. Otherwise it will crystalise and be no use to man nor insect. This means I cannot feed until the end of the flow and we have extracted, as any feed will crystalise too.
The stores are in the range 17.5% - 19.2%, so could be extracted now, other than the on-going flow.
With the season progressing, this seems to be leading to a very tight window of opportunity for feeding.
One option might be to extract then relocate colonies. I would prefer not to do that. Does anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks,
Roche
80 odd acres of mustard, which the bees have been working for about 3 weeks. Supers starting to get full. No sign of the flow stopping, plenty of flower buds still unopened.
From what I understand, mustard needs to be treated like rape, and taken off pretty much as soon as the flow stops. Otherwise it will crystalise and be no use to man nor insect. This means I cannot feed until the end of the flow and we have extracted, as any feed will crystalise too.
The stores are in the range 17.5% - 19.2%, so could be extracted now, other than the on-going flow.
With the season progressing, this seems to be leading to a very tight window of opportunity for feeding.
One option might be to extract then relocate colonies. I would prefer not to do that. Does anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks,
Roche