Uncapped honey super frames

[Alex Brown]

Yesterday, I removed the honey supers from my two hives ready for extraction. Most of the frames are nicely capped and good to be extracted, however a few frames remain uncapped, or just capped on one side.

In an ideal world I'd have left them a week or two more so the bees could have ripened and capped everything, however I need to do an Apiguard treatment ASAP and so had to remove the supers to avoid the honey getting tainted from the thymol.

I'm just wondering to do with the uncapped frames. If the honey is too watery I don't want to extract it and end up with fermented honey.

If I put these frames back in the hive above the crown board with the wet, extracted honey frames for the bees to clean, will they remove the unripe honey, or will they just continue storing in there? Would I be better off freezing these frames and giving them back to the bees in the spring?

Any suggestions gratefully received.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

They may well be OK - try shaking them and look for droplets falling out or check with a refractometer (about £20).

If they are too watery then feed back as you suggest

 

[MandF]

I would suggest getting a refractometer - we had some half & half frames we extracted in June, I was happy to risk these being slightly unripe, as it was being mixed with capped honey and therefore at worst would dilute the honey but still be under 20%.

However, we borrowed the apiary refractometer out of interest, and the uncapped honey was actually lower water content than the capped honey.

We are about to have a final clearout of our supers in prep for apiguard, and I am intending to take off everything which isnt obviously nectar or where the majority of the frame doesnt drip when we shake it. I will then test the water content of all the dubious frames and if we have a frame which is too wet or borderline we'll put that back on the hive, maybe after apiguarding, above the crownboard

 

[oliver90owner]

If you are worried about the water content of part of the frame, you could extract it (to use immediately or feed back to the bees later) and then extract the capped honey as normal. Kept in the fridge (or freezer) it should be OK until after the apiguard treatment.

RAB

 

[Alex Brown]

Thanks for the useful replies folks!

I probably won't have time to get hold of a refractometer this time, but might look to buy one for next year. In the mean time I'll probably do as Oliver suggests and extract the frames I'm a bit dubious about separately, and maybe use this honey for cooking. I could go some nice honey flapjack.

 

[MrB]

we borrowed the apiary refractometer out of interest, and the uncapped honey was actually lower water content than the capped honey.

I have also had that situation, strange

 

[milkermel]

could someone who has a refractometer kindly post maybe a fleabay listing as an example. I had a look for one the other day, however there are quite a lot of differant options - or is it just the sugar ones that are suitable.

Cheers

 

[VEG]

Have a look at item 230661446060

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Honey-Brix-Refractometer-Tester-Bees-Beekeeping-58-90-/230661446060?pt=UK_BOI_FarmingEquipment_RL&hash=item35b47e59ac#ht_6901wt_907

I bought from that seller and had no probs works a treat

 

[Busybee123]

could someone who has a refractometer kindly post maybe a fleabay listing as an example. I had a look for one the other day, however there are quite a lot of differant options - or is it just the sugar ones that are suitable.

Cheers

If you search for "honey refractometer" you should get more meaningful results. I ordered one from HK, but it hasn't arrived yet...

 

[oliver90owner]

the uncapped honey was actually lower water content than the capped honey.

then

I have also had that situation, strange

Why strange? Seems perfectly normal to me.

There could, of course, be higher water content (ie nectar, or partially processed nectar) present but for cells just waiting to be filled and capped, I would expect the moisture to be quite low - well certainly low enough for it not to ferment in a warm hive.

RAB

 

[MandF]

I took off all the frames from one of our hives I thought we could extract, including some frames which only had a few capped cells on either side - just in case the water content was low enough. The ones in particular I was interested in were from a super of wets I put back on the hive about 5 or 6 weeks ago, and since then I know that hive has been busy on himalayan balsam, so I can be pretty sure that super's honey has a decent HB honey content..

Anyway, I deemed 8 of the 11 "HB" frames were good enough to test so took them off, unfortunately the 3 frames with only a few capped cells had a high water content throughout, all over 20%, some as high as 23%. So those 3 went back on, and I will have to extract just the 5 frames which were good in order to satisfy my curiosity for what HB honey looks & tastes like. I also got another 7 off that hive.

But anyhow, I think this would indicate that HB nectar has a relatively high water content? Logically that would make sense - as it is a water plant and it produces lots of nectar?

 

[oliver90owner]

But anyhow, I think this would indicate that HB nectar has a relatively high water content? Logically that would make sense - as it is a water plant and it produces lots of nectar?

I doubt there is any correlation whatsoever. Plants produce nectar, bees change it to honey.

Likely that 'wet' habitat plants produce more nectar and therefore possibly lower concentrations of sugars. Might be interesting to know the water content of the sealed honey. That would indicate the level the bees consider (know) is low enough to avoid fermentation.

RAB

 

[MandF]

But anyhow, I think this would indicate that HB nectar has a relatively high water content? Logically that would make sense - as it is a water plant and it produces lots of nectar?

I doubt there is any correlation whatsoever. Plants produce nectar, bees change it to honey.

Likely that 'wet' habitat plants produce more nectar and therefore possibly lower concentrations of sugars. Might be interesting to know the water content of the sealed honey. That would indicate the level the bees consider (know) is low enough to avoid fermentation.

RAB

I will test one of the capped "hb" frames before we extract.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

But anyhow, I think this would indicate that HB nectar has a relatively high water content? Logically that would make sense - as it is a water plant and it produces lots of nectar?

I doubt there is any correlation whatsoever. Plants produce nectar, bees change it to honey.

Likely that 'wet' habitat plants produce more nectar and therefore possibly lower concentrations of sugars. Might be interesting to know the water content of the sealed honey. That would indicate the level the bees consider (know) is low enough to avoid fermentation.

RAB

Have you not just contadicted yourself?

 

[oliver90owner]

Have you not just contadicted yourself?

No.
What exactly is it that would indicate the HB nectar has a high water content, in the first or second paragraph of the post?

I think you are confusing nectar and honey. Quite different. But I would be interested to read what you read into the post.