New hive and OSR

[Jonnyl]

Your advice please beeks: A person I know wishes to have a couple of hives situated in her garden which is great, however she is in an area of OSR and I've never dealt with that before. I know that I shouldn't leave it in the supers long as it will hardened. Now, that's all very well for supers and I can go and extract that as per but what do I do about my 14x12 brood frames. Won't it also harden in them and eventually curtail room for the queen to lay? How to fix this? Moreover, should I wait until the OSR is harvested before extraction or do it on an on-going basis as and when? It needs to be bottled straight after extraction too right? Can it be used for mead? As ever sincere thanks for your help.

 

[drex]

If you wait until the OSR is harvested it will be much too late. I take mine off when the crop goes over ( finishes flowering). Some will take it off as each super is filled. However it needs to be extracted as soon as it is taken off, and I prefer to only do the one extraction at that time of year, but doing this I know a small proportion will have set in the comb. I get the bees to sort that out after extraction.

Will this be a newly set up hive? Provided you super in time and the space in the brood box is appropriate for the size of the colony ( by use of dummies) then you should not see a lot of OSR put in your brood box on a permanent basis.

I run mine into buckets from the extractor and let it set before turning into soft set. If run straight into jars it will probably set like concrete.
Keep a close eye on them. Down here in the south, mine invariably will try to swarm while on the ****

 

[Jonnyl]

If you wait until the OSR is harvested it will be much too late. I take mine off when the crop goes over ( finishes flowering). Some will take it off as each super is filled. However it needs to be extracted as soon as it is taken off, and I prefer to only do the one extraction at that time of year, but doing this I know a small proportion will have set in the comb. I get the bees to sort that out after extraction.

Will this be a newly set up hive? Provided you super in time and the space in the brood box is appropriate for the size of the colony ( by use of dummies) then you should not see a lot of OSR put in your brood box on a permanent basis.

I run mine into buckets from the extractor and let it set before turning into soft set. If run straight into jars it will probably set like concrete.
Keep a close eye on them. Down here in the south, mine invariably will try to swarm while on the ****

Hi Drex, yes, a new shiny hive with six frames of brood, dummied down to let them expand gradually which is why I expect them to store OSR in the brood frames (so not good). Should I consider leaving them at six frames in the brood and super on top to encourage the storage up above in the super?

 

[Madge]

... Should I consider leaving them at six frames in the brood and super on top to encourage the storage up above in the super?

You can start off like that, but increase the brood frames quickly, I think. You want to give them room for brood-reading, don't you? So, even if some of the brood frames are filled with honey - it doesn't really matter. They'll soon enough change a honey frame into a brood frame if they need the space. You can see a honey frame changing shape: the honey part will bulge out at the top, with brood part below nibbled down to suit brood-rearing.

 

[Swarm]

Hi Drex, yes, a new shiny hive with six frames of brood, dummied down to let them expand gradually which is why I expect them to store OSR in the brood frames (so not good). Should I consider leaving them at six frames in the brood and super on top to encourage the storage up above in the super?

As MC, Use the opportunity to expand the brood nest, concentrate on giving them deep frames rather than adding supers. Consider adding another brood box and get some good comb drawn.

 

[drex]

As above, my colonies expand rapidly on the OSR. Better to make sure you give them more space in advance of their needs, but not necessarily all in one go. Using a deep box with foundation, above the brood box, for them to use to store honey, as already suggested, is a good way of getting spare brood comb drawn. Depending on your queens, they might need to be on double brood at some point anyway. I run most of my Nationals as double brood, but I am down south from you

 

[Ian123]

As MC, Use the opportunity to expand the brood nest, concentrate on giving them deep frames rather than adding supers. Consider adding another brood box and get some good comb drawn.

Op says they are on 14x12..........good luck! You could use the osr for mead but why?

 

[Poly Hive]

This is why you should be using the flat of your hive tool to bruise the stores each visit to expand your brood nest. I never had issues with granulated honey in the brood combs due to exactly this style of working.

PH

 

[Murox]

Brood production gets going in earnest with the gathering of late winter/early spring pollen, before the start of a major flow - your brood box(s) could be very full already when the OSR starts (especially if you have fed them). You have new hives and lots of foundation to get drawn; if the OSR flow is 'mega' you could run into space issues and face swarming on the flow. During a strong flow they can bring nectar in faster than they can draw comb. They need enough drawn comb space to store all that thin watery nectar whilst they process it into honey.

When is your OSR is expected to flower ?

 

[Jonnyl]

Around May. Thanks for the advice beeks.

 

[Poly Hive]

Normally third week in April on the east coast north of the border. BUT. Colonies are really not strong enough at that time to take advantage. The days of sixty or a hundred pounds a hive are but fond memories.

 

[drex]

I agree with PH, in the days of my youth, OSR used to be in flower in late May and early JUne. Now in this area it is usually all over by about Mid May. Sometimes I have used pollen subs or supplement to try to boost them for an early crop, but it did not seem to make much difference. The OSR is usually just the other side of the hedge to my bees. I do not bother these days

 

[Murox]

Around May. Thanks for the advice beeks.

So to really take advantage of a major OSR flow your forager bees need to have been laid as an egg 40 days before the flow (thats takes account of all stages of her life up to she becomes a forager) April has 30 days so you can do the maths. Does your area have/ support sufficient forage to ensure a large workforce by May - is the climate locally good enough ? Have you noted PH and Drex comments, the flowering times are changing - different strains of OSR I believe.

 

[Poly Hive]

Not changing they have changed. I used the 3d week in April as my target timing for moving the hives to the OSR. They then sat on it for some 8 weeks, and after that off to the moors with them.

I was taking off a good ton of OSR from roughly +/- 60 stocks.

Now I have it within flying range but it is three weeks from seeing 10% to petal drop. The bees are on 5 or 6 frames of brood so there are not even supers on. *shrug*

As I am now primarily producing comb honey I am not bothered. I just feel a bit sad for many that crop has gone. I am talking Scotland here not the balmy South where there are I believe still takes to be had.

PH

 

[drex]

Yep. Despite not boosting my bees with sugar or pollen, I do get a decent crop from OSR. I do have early sources of pollen and I also boost production colonies using nucs as brood factories

 

[Jonnyl]

I have to concede that I'm not unhappy that OSR is declining as im too inexperienced to deal with it and im not into having lots of honey, not a driver for me. Comb honey however is something im very keen on producing. Can I ask you for any tips

 

[Poly Hive]

Nothing to it really. I use CC foundation in Manley frames which I find makes for nice thick pieces in the CC containers. Using decent presentation it sells very well.

PH

 

[Beefriendly]

I have to concede that I'm not unhappy that OSR is declining as im too inexperienced to deal with it and im not into having lots of honey, not a driver for me. Comb honey however is something im very keen on producing. Can I ask you for any tips

Don't make it from OSR honey......
I would suggest you need some idea of how fast your seasonal (Spring/early summer/late summer) honeys set and then decide which will stay liquid longest for your customers or you. Also good idea to store combs in your freezer so as to stop any granulation/setting.
I find spring honeys in my area (even without OSR) are among the quickest to set. With summer honeys being slower and heather and borage honey being the slowest of them all.
Dealing with OSR honey is quite easy, let it set in a bucket and then make some soft set honey with it. Several methods; all work; some better than others.
Use the search function should get you several threads.

 

[masterBK]

Quite alot of autumn sown OSR has failed due to waterlogging and farmers are going to reseed with spring sown crops of OSR, barley and beans. Spring slown OSR and field beans don't yield as much honey as the autumn sown crops.