Two supers, one hive

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Joined
Sep 4, 2011
Messages
5,790
Reaction score
5,389
Location
Wiveliscombe
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
24
Ok, so there are a few bubbles in the one on the right, but it had only been in the jar a couple of minutes...

wg-honey-2024-01.jpg


The jar on the left is from the super immediately above the QX so perhaps more mid/late Spring and early Summer flowers. The jar on the right is from the super above it, perhaps more mid/late Summer flowers?

I'm pleased to have spotted this. Had I not had to extract one super early just to have some honey available for the local town show I'd probably just have extracted it all into the same bucket and never noticed.

James
 
Ok, so there are a few bubbles in the one on the right, but it had only been in the jar a couple of minutes...

wg-honey-2024-01.jpg


The jar on the left is from the super immediately above the QX so perhaps more mid/late Spring and early Summer flowers. The jar on the right is from the super above it, perhaps more mid/late Summer flowers?

I'm pleased to have spotted this. Had I not had to extract one super early just to have some honey available for the local town show I'd probably just have extracted it all into the same bucket and never noticed.

James
Had quite a bit of that this year. I can tell from the cappings and I did separate the honey too
 
Ok, so there are a few bubbles in the one on the right, but it had only been in the jar a couple of minutes...

wg-honey-2024-01.jpg


The jar on the left is from the super immediately above the QX so perhaps more mid/late Spring and early Summer flowers. The jar on the right is from the super above it, perhaps more mid/late Summer flowers?

I'm pleased to have spotted this. Had I not had to extract one super early just to have some honey available for the local town show I'd probably just have extracted it all into the same bucket and never noticed.

James
Yes ... but I found that the different colours of honey were often scattered across individual frames ... not that easy to separate out and with a 15 frame extractor ... I gave up trying and its all gone in together - a unique blend of honey from forage in my location.
 
Small batch extraction is the way to go, producing “artisan” honey that changes with batches, rather than producing an homogenised honey. You can really taste the difference between the honeys. I would guess the darker one is from earlier, up here it was sycamore, and the paler one lime or bramble, which was a huge run here this year, before the balsam came through. It is possible to identify the difference in taste.
 
Small batch extraction is the way to go, producing “artisan” honey that changes with batches, rather than producing an homogenised honey. You can really taste the difference between the honeys. I would guess the darker one is from earlier, up here it was sycamore, and the paler one lime or bramble, which was a huge run here this year, before the balsam came through. It is possible to identify the difference in taste.
I am around 15 miles away from yourself at a higher altitude in the Pennines, what sort of honey yield did you have this year ?
 
It has been a bumper year this year, so much so that I haven’t finished extracting yet, I still have around 10-15 full supers still on the hives, to take off, and we haven’t even got to the ivy yet. I’ve not been able to get thymol into any hives, and probably won’t both this year, leaving them more honey than ever to overwinter.
Considering I was feeding some hives in .june it has been somewhat crazy
 
It has been a bumper year this year, so much so that I haven’t finished extracting yet, I still have around 10-15 full supers still on the hives, to take off, and we haven’t even got to the ivy yet. I’ve not been able to get thymol into any hives, and probably won’t both this year, leaving them more honey than ever to overwinter.
Considering I was feeding some hives in .june it has been somewhat crazy
Are you treating for mites this year?
 
Small batch extraction is the way to go, producing “artisan” honey that changes with batches, rather than producing an homogenised honey. You can really taste the difference between the honeys. I would guess the darker one is from earlier, up here it was sycamore, and the paler one lime or bramble, which was a huge run here this year, before the balsam came through. It is possible to identify the difference in taste.
IMG_3458.jpeg
Couldn’t agree more - honey at the back is first extraction and out side left lime, right two are also lime middle jars are third extraction and oak honey dew honey all from the same hive as is the cut comb.
Two different lime extractions from the earlier limes and then the later trees small leaf.
 
It has been a bumper year this year, so much so that I haven’t finished extracting yet, I still have around 10-15 full supers still on the hives, to take off, and we haven’t even got to the ivy yet. I’ve not been able to get thymol into any hives, and probably won’t both this year, leaving them more honey than ever to overwinter.
Considering I was feeding some hives in .june it has been somewhat crazy
Thank you for your reply. Your circumstancves would be a better indicator as you are at the same lattitude with similar weather and comparable foraging to my girls. As for the feeding, same here with the bees working and healthy, but I did not get that bumper honey flow at the late stage. There are some reasons I am aware of that could have caused this but I am questioning myself. A well known Welsh bee farmer had very poor results in his more northerly colonies giving him the worst crop in years so I am not on my own. So a few questions If I may, what queens do you use, what size are the colonies in regards double or single BB and what foraging do you think produced the yields in the honey flow from June onwards. Thank you, James
 
Thank you for your reply. Your circumstancves would be a better indicator as you are at the same lattitude with similar weather and comparable foraging to my girls. As for the feeding, same here with the bees working and healthy, but I did not get that bumper honey flow at the late stage. There are some reasons I am aware of that could have caused this but I am questioning myself. A well known Welsh bee farmer had very poor results in his more northerly colonies giving him the worst crop in years so I am not on my own. So a few questions If I may, what queens do you use, what size are the colonies in regards double or single BB and what foraging do you think produced the yields in the honey flow from June onwards. Thank you, James
The queens are my own, I graft around 10 queens a year and replace as and when they need them, I have a mix of cedar nationals and poly 14x12’s. The trick is to have the bees in prime condition for when the forage is at its height, the problem is knowing when that will be next year!
 
Again thank you for taking the time to reply. I am less concerned having read your reply. My colony expansion produced this year have mainly come from a hive I christened " the lazy hive" it has turned out to be anything but. The lazy has been repeatedly weakened due to my going for growth with what i consider a super strain queen , the bees are mainly blacks and have been produced over many generations locally, essentially mongrels. Their temprement when treated with respect is excellent and they work at every opportunity even difficult weather but will not fly just for the sake of it. My busy hive lost a queen and I missed it, yes I know what you are going to say but it happened, there lies 2 reasons for a poor crop, the rest of my hives were obviously not strong enough when the moment came as I was folowing a failed season strategy.. This season has been unusual to say the least but your answers have given me confidence to plan for next year, thank you.
 

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