Rape Crop Removal

[andy-glide]

Went last week to remove my rape crop but found the majority of the frames are still not ripe having done a shake test.
The query I now have is how long should I leave the honey for the bees to complete the ripening process?
Given the last few days have seen a down turn in the temperature not sure if this helps or hinders the ripening process.
Bottom line is that I don’t want the honey to crystallise in the comb so what frequency of checking is recommended before I remove all the frames. At the moment doing weekly inspections.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

I would get it off now, the last of ours will be off tomorrow as frames already have cells crystallising.
I left it a week too late last year and had to melt out 450 frames, I could have cried over the loss of drawn comb.
Test with a refractometer when its in a bucket as its a lot easier to deal with then.

 

[Cuckmere couple]

i took all ours off on saturday which was a week to ten days after the rape turned green, it all came off ok although was becoming gloopy

put wet supers back on which seem to be filling again fast...i guess less pressure to remove this quickly now as rape has been over for a period now

 

[andy-glide]

Thanks all, just looked at the honey I did remove and its still runny, so will get the rest of it off today as currently the sun is shinning here in Bedfordshire.
Not sure if there was actually much rape in this crop this year as could not see any in the fields surrounding my location but sure the bees will have found some that I did not spot.

 

[andy-glide]

Well removed the crop just in time today as two frames had started to crystallise.

 

[youngyoungs]

Oh no!

Well removed the crop just in time today as two frames had started to crystallise.

Guess what I am doing tomorrow......

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

And us, again.

Checked over the hives we stripped the weekend today, they have all filled another box & I had to put another box on each.

 

[Cuckmere couple]

and hopefully not rape this time

 

[Newbeeneil]

I'm taking off the crop next week as the field beside the hives is still yellow.

 

[ericbeaumont]

Test with a refractometer when its in a bucket as its a lot easier to deal with then.

Amari, if you have a bucket at 19 or 20, you could blend it with a bucket of 15 or 16 to lower the overall water content and avoid fermentation. Bucket readings taken long after extraction can mislead as the watery honey will rise to the top of the bucket. A reading as it comes out of the extractor may be more accurate.

Last spring I had OSR for the first time and it sat in buckets, forgotten. One had fermented but it's all sold now. Combs put back on were cleaned completely when I looked later; May gap helped.

 

[enrico]

I had a problem with that. The high water content floated and fermented. The low water icontent underneath was wasted because of the taint. I am not convinced that mixing vastly different water contents works! Well not all the time anyway
E

 

[Bear]

Mead!!! If unsure make mead. I never rate OSR crop that highly anyway. Great to build the colony up in but that’s about it for me.

 

[enrico]

I made mead out of most of it but it tastes disgusting. It is clear with a wonderful colour but yuc, tastes of medicine!
E

 

[Murox]

I made mead out of most of it but it tastes disgusting. It is clear with a wonderful colour but yuc, tastes of medicine!
E

How old is it ?

 

[enrico]

How old is it ?

6 months. I am back to the same story. This is the honey I took off the frames I overwintered wet. It smelt weird from day one, a metallic fermenting smell but the water reading was ok. Because it smelt and tasted weird I used most of it on mead which smells and tastes just like the honey did! I left three jars of honey in the jar. Last week I could smell them in the cupboard. I opened one. It was mainly rape so set solid but now on the top of one of the jars was a layer of what looked like water. I tested it and it was 24 % but the solid honey underneath was 17%.
I threw the lot away. I still have the mead though so if you pm me your address I will send you a 2oz jar of it (Murox ... Not everyone!!!!) So you can taste it and tell me what you think!!!
E

 

[Bear]

I made mead out of most of it but it tastes disgusting. It is clear with a wonderful colour but yuc, tastes of medicine!
E

Trust me I’ll have drank worse!!! Any idea why it tasted bad? I gave some honey to a homebrew man and he does know his stuff. He made some mead witch was nice but he kept asking for more honey and as I was selling at a good price I wasn’t giving any more away to him, then it was winter so no honey. He still asked and my plan was to give him some OSR honey just to keep him quiet. If it does come out rubbish because it’s OSR it’ll give me something to pester him about!!!!

 

[ericbeaumont]

He still asked and my plan was to give him some OSR honey just to keep him quiet. If it does come out rubbish because it’s OSR

At our Honey Show one year a dark mead won; we had a taste afterwards and it was like an oloroso sherry, like Christmas itself. Turned out Peter had used the honey from the cappings melter, well heated and darkened. Lovely, lovely mead.

 

[youngyoungs]

Big thankyou

Well removed the crop just in time today as two frames had started to crystallise.

Was up far too late spinning it all out last night, and yes, I was just in time, they were just starting to crystallise. Thanks for the heads up - this catches me every year!