Trails and Tribulations of extracting. Advice please

[peacoops]

Oh, I now realise how lucky I was last autumn, with our first crop, to easily extract 20lb of delicious floral honey.

I took of 26lb of spring honey, rape/dandelion abundant here in the spring, not quite the taste I was expecting but a few of my friends preferred it to the autumn lot so wasn't too worried.... until I wanted to put the rest of it into jars from the settling tank.... I now call it the 'set as hard as concrete tank'. I gather I will need to heat it to do anything about it now - i just chisel a bit off if I want some for a recipe at the moment.

So unperturbed I have today got the two supers in for extraction, nice bit of weight to the frames, when I've come to uncap 40% of it is set in the frames.

Now I am not too worried about having a honey crop to eat, there is enough for that, but what I want to know is what to do with the frames that are full of set honey, do I put them back on the hives now, or store them and give them back during the winter.

My set up is 2 established hives with a super each of stores.
3 caught swarms in hives, BIAS and stores are ok, one still drawing comb in a super, the other two are filling supers.

Loads of pollen and nectar coming in. A few wasps about when i was getting the supers off this morning, but i spent 1/2 hour sat in the sun with my binoculars trained on them and although a wasp went along each hive entrance in turn it soon got seen off.

Sorry for the long post.

 

[enrico]

I can only tell you what I would do. Right now I would extract what I could, I would return the set honey to the bees over an empty super, both of which are on top of a crown board with a hole in it. Obviously on top of a hive! The bees will rob the honey back and put it back in the hive proper. For some reason the second time they move set honey it seems to stay more runny! If I get chance to extract more honey later then maybe it will come out this time! Otherwise I would leave it for them to use as necessary over winter and if there is any left in spring it will get added to the next extraction.
I would then note for next year that I must keep an eye on the stores and extract AS SOON AS THEY ARE RIPE. This will avoid a similar problem next year. I would also try and identify the source, maybe rape, dandelion or ivy, something similar that sets hard so I know when to consider extraction.
I wouldn't worry too much about the wasps but be vigilant.
Hope this helps
E

 

[peacoops]

Thanks Enrico

Is is correct that I can put the cappings above a crown board too, and they will take the honey back? If so, would it be beneficial for one of the swarm hives rather than the main hives?

 

[MartinL]

Thanks Enrico

Is is correct that I can put the cappings above a crown board too, and they will take the honey back?

If the ants don't get there first?

 

[Beefriendly]

Treat yourself to one of these and decrystallize your honey in the frames and sell the honey.
Basically it's a thermostatically controlled heater blowing hot air through supers/brood boxes etc. Also really useful for removing water from not quite ripe honey as well.
Not cheap but honey extracted should soon pay for it.

 

[enrico]

Treat yourself to one of these and decrystallize your honey in the frames and sell the honey.
Basically it's a thermostatically controlled heater blowing hot air through supers/brood boxes etc. Also really useful for removing water from not quite ripe honey as well.
Not cheap but honey extracted should soon pay for it.

Have you used one....does it work?

 

[Beefriendly]

Yes and yes.
IT's excellent. Can be used for all sorts of other things as well. It can double as a warming cabinet if you uses a few supers as insulation. Temperature control is a movable thermostat that can be placed anywhere you like...so you can put several supers on and control the temp at the bottom one. Heat distribution is via vents and fans and all is cleanable for the inevitable drips.
Expecting to give it some more serious use if the heather honey comes in under legal limits as it often does when the flow is this strong.

 

[Erichalfbee]

My smallest bedroom has bunk beds, the mattresses are on slats. At the moment the bottom one is off those slats. In its place us a stack of five supers. Underneath is a fan heater on low. Next to it is a dehumidifier. Works well. When it's finished the room reverts to the grandchildrens bedroom

 

[Beefriendly]

Can your smallest bedroom also de-crystallize honey in the comb, as this can, so it can be extracted?
Can it also melt a bucket of honey and maintain the correct temperature?

 

[peacoops]

Treat yourself to one of these and decrystallize your honey in the frames and sell the honey.
Basically it's a thermostatically controlled heater blowing hot air through supers/brood boxes etc. Also really useful for removing water from not quite ripe honey as well.
Not cheap but honey extracted should soon pay for it.

I don't expect it is in my budget, is there a link so I can see, do I need to be sitting down??

 

[Beefriendly]

I don't expect it is in my budget, is there a link so I can see, do I need to be sitting down??

£280 quid....worth thinking how much money you have in honey in your supers...say currently you have 2 supers with 25lbs of unextractable honey in each....now extract able because of purchasing this or a similar heater, this gives you 50lbs of sell-able honey you didn't have. Now say you sell that at £7/lb will give you £350 in sales, take off a £100 for cost of jars. market stall, petrol etc etc and it's cost you £30. If you have 3 supers, you have bought a decent bit of kit and are in profit. Or you can feed it all back to the bees.....
Total economic sense, spend your honey money on some decent kit. That's what I do.

 

[peacoops]

Thanks Beefriendly, that didn't make my eyes water too much.

Last years big purchase was the extractor, we get a lot of rape and dandelion and raspberries and ivy, if its a good bit of kit I may look into it. I haven't bought from Abelo before, so will now study the website.

So do you think it could realistically be used to warm up my bucket of concrete rape honey too, or is a warming cabinet going to be a better investment?

As some thieving scum stole £2000 of trailer and tools last week not sure anything is in the budget just at the moment.

 

[Beefriendly]

As some thieving scum stole £2000 of trailer and tools last week not sure anything is in the budget just at the moment.

Sorry to hear that, no fun getting robbed. Been there myself.

But, yes it will do the job, although a warming cabinet is more suitable. You need to make sure your buckets will fit into a build of a empty supers/brood box + roof etc. It's not quite what it was designed for, but it's an adaptable piece of kit. As is anything that heats and has thermostat anfd fans.

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Or you could do it on the cheap like most do and convert an old fridge to be a warmer... less than £50
I warmed 60lb of concrete in two days this week.... now in jars
Tube heater ... underfloor therm... off amazon

 

[Millet]

Thanks Beefriendly, that didn't make my eyes water too much.

Last years big purchase was the extractor, we get a lot of rape and dandelion and raspberries and ivy, if its a good bit of kit I may look into it. I haven't bought from Abelo before, so will now study the website.

So do you think it could realistically be used to warm up my bucket of concrete rape honey too, or is a warming cabinet going to be a better investment?

As some thieving scum stole £2000 of trailer and tools last week not sure anything is in the budget just at the moment.

It maybe could but why don't you just knock a honey warming box up with a light bulb or sling it in a bath of warm water if it is only one bucket.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Can your smallest bedroom also de-crystallize honey in the comb, as this can, so it can be extracted?
Can it also melt a bucket of honey and maintain the correct temperature?

No it can't. What do you call that box of yours?

 

[peacoops]

[QUOTE

Now I am not too worried about having a honey crop to eat, there is enough for that, but what I want to know is what to do with the frames that are full of set honey, do I put them back on the hives now, or store them and give them back during the winter.

My set up is 2 established hives with a super each of stores.
3 caught swarms in hives, BIAS and stores are ok, one still drawing comb in a super, the other two are filling supers.

Loads of pollen and nectar coming in. .[/QUOTE]

Sorry guys back to the original question, I wont be able to get the Super Heater at this time, OH is going to build a solar extractor so will add warming cabinet to his to-do list.

Enrico's suggestion makes sense, can I just clarify; starting at the bottom broodbox, QE, super, crown board with hole, empty super with no frames in?, super with the unextracted honey in,roof.

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Spray the set supers with water and put them above crownboard
Warming cabinet more important that solar extractor

 

[Beefriendly]

Or you could do it on the cheap like most do

I hate scruffy looking kit and spend my honey money on good quality equipment.
If most are doing everything on the cheap what do you spend your excess honey on? Or am I missing something.

 

[Beefriendly]

No it can't. What do you call that box of yours?

It's called a supers heater trolley. Very multi-functional piece of kit.