Two supers, one hive

[JamezF]

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...

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

 

[Wilco]

I tend to keep each shallow's honey in separate buckets. It's an absolute pain but means I get lots of different honeys and this is a good talking (and selling) point at markets.

 

[Erichalfbee]

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...

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

 

[pargyle]

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...

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.

 

[enrico]

Mine is identical to yours James, light honey first take and darker second take. I always keep my hives honey separate and often each box too

 

[polomadh]

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.

 

[Penninetrader]

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 ?

 

[polomadh]

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

 

[Nannysbees]

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?

 

[polomadh]

Are you treating for mites this year?

Yes. We have been using a variety of methods to monitor numbers, sugar roll, CO2 and IPA with the varroa check pots.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/16486214...Ip8ofjfSwO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

All have shown much higher levels that the varroa boards. All the hives have varroa, the ones that have produced less honey this year have had more varroa. Unsurprising perhaps, but notable

 

[Curly green finger's]

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.

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.

 

[Penninetrader]

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

 

[polomadh]

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!

 

[Penninetrader]

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.