Set honey in frames

[Popparand]

First time for me, but I guess not for other members. Extracted about 20 pounds of runny honey yesterday, but there's still another 7 or 8 pounds of crystallised honey left in the frames. I'm trying to melt it out but so far I've just produced a sludge of soft collapsed wax mixed up with melted and partially melted honey. I think temperature is critical and am aiming at around 36 centigrade. I wonder if it's worth carrying on or just feed the whole lot back to the bees!

 

[hemo]

Personally if it is fresh white comb I cut it out and use for my self as cut comb or use in jars as chunk honey. For older comb I feed it back, it will eventually get used.

 

[Murox]

Probably not worth worrying about. Eat it yourself or let the bees have it .

 

[beeno]

Nadir it. The bees will move it up into brood box and mix it in with other stores.

 

[Briar]

I believe you can save the comb by putting the frames in water for a while, so that the crystalised honey dissolves but the wax is left undamaged

 

[Madge]

Personally if it is fresh white comb I cut it out and use for my self as cut comb or use in jars as chunk honey. For older comb I feed it back, it will eventually get used.

Hemo, Popparand asked about frames of crystallised honey. Would you really use those for cut-comb? Isn’t it a bit unpleasantly gritty on your teeth?

 

[Rowena]

As an aside but in a similar vein. Yesterday I was preparing takeaway containers full of broken up wax and solid OSR, but discovered that there was also lots of pollen in there as well, now trying to decide wether to give it to them now/after treatments for the winter or use it in the spring to get them going earlier in the year, that’s assuming that the farmers near me will have OSR next year. We have it flowering here in Yorkshire sometimes in February and I obviously struggle to get the hives strong for that time. I have lots of it solid as unwell when I should have been extracting it.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

By that time the pollen will be of no interest to them

 

[Patrick1]

First time for me, but I guess not for other members. Extracted about 20 pounds of runny honey yesterday, but there's still another 7 or 8 pounds of crystallised honey left in the frames. I'm trying to melt it out but so far I've just produced a sludge of soft collapsed wax mixed up with melted and partially melted honey. I think temperature is critical and am aiming at around 36 centigrade. I wonder if it's worth carrying on or just feed the whole lot back to the bees!

I breakup the surface with a hive tool, spray it with water and put it above the crown board as a feed, make sure they have some room to store it in the brood frames, not too much space or you will end up with the same problem but in the brood box

 

[Levitt53]

I always just melt the lot down, strain the honey off when it's cold and keep it for us.

 

[beeno]

As an aside but in a similar vein. Yesterday I was preparing takeaway containers full of broken up wax and solid OSR, but discovered that there was also lots of pollen in there as well, now trying to decide wether to give it to them now/after treatments for the winter or use it in the spring to get them going earlier in the year, that’s assuming that the farmers near me will have OSR next year. We have it flowering here in Yorkshire sometimes in February and I obviously struggle to get the hives strong for that time. I have lots of it solid as unwell when I should have been extracting it.

Only you can decide that call.

 

[ericbeaumont]

Wait until a flow is on before using this method.

 

[Arfermo]

I breakup the surface with a hive tool, spray it with water and put it above the crown board as a feed, make sure they have some room to store it in the brood frames, not too much space or you will end up with the same problem but in the brood box

That is exactly what was advised to me by an old pal aged about 85 some 10 years ago with 4 apiaries and 50 odd hives who had been keeping bees from the age of 7. The bees will take down and store the diluted honey, after reprocessing it, and clean up the wax too. You may need to do it one frame at a time unless you temporarily put them all in a super. Easy, peazy!

 

[Patrick1]

That's not me in case anyone thought I was actually 95, I just feel like that some days after begging on the bees all day

 

[janetbee]

First time for me, but I guess not for other members. Extracted about 20 pounds of runny honey yesterday, but there's still another 7 or 8 pounds of crystallised honey left in the frames. I'm trying to melt it out but so far I've just produced a sludge of soft collapsed wax mixed up with melted and partially melted honey. I think temperature is critical and am aiming at around 36 centigrade. I wonder if it's worth carrying on or just feed the whole lot back to the bees!

I agree with Patric1. If any isn't uncapped then uncap the cells- hive tool is OK for this, spray with water to help dissolve the crystals and put the super above a crown board with a hole in it. The bees will make a lovely job of cleaning the comb out for you.
What you have already partly melted out you may need to heat a bit more to get the wax to melt and separate from the honey. Then use it yourself, it will be baker's honey (for cooking), unless you are very careful with the heating.
It can be given back to the bees- don't throw it away whatever you do!
Good luck

 

[TheBeehive]

First time for me, but I guess not for other members. Extracted about 20 pounds of runny honey yesterday, but there's still another 7 or 8 pounds of crystallised honey left in the frames. I'm trying to melt it out but so far I've just produced a sludge of soft collapsed wax mixed up with melted and partially melted honey. I think temperature is critical and am aiming at around 36 centigrade. I wonder if it's worth carrying on or just feed the whole lot back to the bees!

I have a radial extractor, when I uncap recently crystallised honey I then put it on A very slow spin. Do this for around 10 minutes and it all comes out

 

[plain_hunt]

Janetbee, don’t give your heated honey back to the bees, it’s not good for them. Spraying crystallised frames with water and giving the bees that is ok, but never heated honey. Use it for cooking or mead making.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Depends what you mean by 'heated'
Have you any links to studies etc?

 

[xray7]

A commercial Beekeeper I know cuts out the wax from the frame and uses an apimelter to separate honey and wax. Due to the cost it's not viable to do this on a smaller scale so we use a clean paint scraper and gently scrape the comb back to the foundation replace frames in super and given back to the bees who clean out the honey and rebuild the comb. There is a right and wrong time to do this. Now is not the right time as it may cause robbing , best time is at the end of a honey flow. Alternatively I placed a super of rock hard granulated honey under a brood chamber containing a newly captured swarm and they cleaned out the comb completely in only a few days.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

Api-melter or similar, melted out over four hundred last year, cried at every lost frame of drawn comb. On the flip side re-filled all the frames with thin foundation and now have lots of fully capped full frames to sell.