OSR honey

[Levitt53]

I know this needs harvesting early but I only got my hive last week so nicked a cheeky frame this morning when I did my inspection. Have managed to melt a little bit out. I know your not supposed to heat it too much but I've resorted to sticking it in the warming oven of the aga to melt then I could let it cool and take the wax off the top. Stubborn stuff. I'm not too worried if we don't get any at the moment but can the bees deal with it if I just leave it for them or is it to crystallised for them to use now?

 

[YorkshireBees]

I'm a bit confused, are you saying it is crystallised already?

Yes timing is key in regards extracting OSR honey but you soon get the hang of it.

Any way of extraction except melting is preferable imho.

Finally to answer your question, bees just add way and re-dissolve crystallised honey. To deal with any amount a colony has to be a certain strength.

 

[Levitt53]

I'm a bit confused, are you saying it is crystallised already?

Yes timing is key in regards extracting OSR honey but you soon get the hang of it.

Any way of extraction except melting is preferable imho.

Finally to answer your question, bees just add way and re-dissolve crystallised honey. To deal with any amount a colony has to be a certain strength.

The frame I took was mainly crystallised. The melted lot is just gunk this morning so obviously that didn't work. I think I'll just leave this lot to the bees and get my head around it next year. Thanks.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Generally it crystallises early only when we have cold temps at night and the colony retreats out of the supers or the colony is not strong enough to maintain the hive temp.

Otherwise you are normally safe for a couple of weeks during the OSR flowering.

The reference to early extraction is, in my experience, not waiting till each super frame is capped with wax.

For example I have one colony with 4 supers on. The top 2 supers are 100% and 98% full with honey and both have bees starting to cap the frames. I will perform a quick shake test of these frames and then take those supers off for extraction. The 3rd super was 40-60% full hence I added a 4th super as they require a lot of space to process incoming nectar during a good flow.

There are also various methods of drying supers (reducing the water content in the honey) once you have taken them off so long as they are not yet capped.

I would add that I generally do at least 2 extractions during OSR as I don't want to wait till every supers is ready as that increases the chances of some being crystallised + then I have too many supers to fit into a weekend extraction run! (When I'm lucky!)

 

[Plenty of honey]

Generally it crystallises early only when we have cold temps at night and the colony retreats out of the supers or the colony is not strong enough to maintain the hive temp.

Otherwise you are normally safe for a couple of weeks during the OSR flowering.

The reference to early extraction is, in my experience, not waiting till each super frame is capped with wax.

For example I have one colony with 4 supers on. The top 2 supers are 100% and 98% full with honey and both have bees starting to cap the frames. I will perform a quick shake test of these frames and then take those supers off for extraction. The 3rd super was 40-60% full hence I added a 4th super as they require a lot of space to process incoming nectar during a good flow.

There are also various methods of drying supers (reducing the water content in the honey) once you have taken them off so long as they are not yet capped.

For me, i put a few supers on in the first warm spell over three weeks ago. Thats mostly crystallised now, but since then, last week and most of the week before we had a lovely warm spell. perfect conditions really. so most of that honey is still in fact Liquid.
If i waited for it to be capped it would be a complete disaster. My bees are feeding on frames of semi crystallised honey as we speak. I extracted last night and its ok.
may be 35 to 40% stayed in the frames. Spring is never easy. Its not just OSR that crystallises rapidly. Blackthorn is just as bad!!

 

[YorkshireBees]

For me, i put a few supers on in the first warm spell over three weeks ago. Thats mostly crystallised now, but since then, last week and most of the week before we had a lovely warm spell. perfect conditions really. so most of that honey is still in fact Liquid.
If i waited for it to be capped it would be a complete disaster. My bees are feeding on frames of semi crystallised honey as we speak. I extracted last night and its ok.
may be 35 to 40% stayed in the frames. Spring is never easy. Its not just OSR that crystallises rapidly. Blackthorn is just as bad!!

and Dandelion is the same! I find most Spring nectars crystallise easily.