Uncapping Hoffman frame supers

[Hivemaker.]

Why no use?

Apart from my dislike of the way the bees glue them together, the automatic uncapping machine dislikes them as well.

 

[seaknight]

Almost all of my supers are on Manleys, I've got a few SN4's lurking around, which will be weeded out. Several hundred more frames from the January sales are in the basement (DN4 and Manley) ready to assemble - I took the advice from David Cramp's book and stuck to DN4's for brood box, Manley for supers, it makes uncapping easier I think, imho.

I was pleased to get a super full of honey last week from my most active hive, put a gallon of 1kg/1 litre strength syrup on after (not before) in addition to fondant.
We had 3 weeks of good weather in March. I uncapped the Manley frames in it with an electrically heated knife quite quickly and extracted it in my 9 frame radial extractor. I just used the point of the heated knife where the comb wasn't high enough.
Propolis is a pain, although looking in at an angle it's possible to see how well they've progressed with drawing the frames out, removing the first one is tricky, downhill from there.

 

[Jimmy]

Apart from my dislike of the way the bees glue them together, the automatic uncapping machine dislikes them as well.

Thanks.
With manual uncapping (i use a big cold knife) I find the regularity of Manleys speeds up the process compared to SN1 or Hoffman frames. Getting the 1st frame out of a super can be a pain though.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I was pleased to get a super full of honey last week from my most active hive,

So that would have been stores put there from last autumn.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I was pleased to get a super full of honey last week from my most active hive, put a gallon of 1kg/1 litre strength syrup on after (not before) in addition to fondant.

Blimey!
Only 30 miles south of me and you have a super full of honey.
I haven't even looked inside mine yet

Edit JBM....you beat me to it. I was going to add that it must be last years.

 

[seaknight]

No they were clean, white cappings fresh this year, not from last autumn - the honey was liquid in most of the frames (just a little bit in 2 frames had crystallised).
The bees had been busy clearing out an empty hive I had nearby with some drawn comb in, perhaps it was this together with any nearby nectar that became the honey?
That colony was small and didn't make it through winter, so I'm down to 3 hives instead of 4 temporarily, hope to split to get 6 hives going into next winter.

 

[seaknight]

Managed to find and mark one of the queens by myself for the first time the other week too, was pleased with that! We had warm weather one afternoon, so I made the most of it.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ah...so the winter stores from a dead out ?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

No they were clean, white cappings fresh this year, not from last autumn - the honey was liquid in most of the frames (just a little bit in 2 frames had crystallised).
The bees had been busy clearing out an empty hive I had nearby with some drawn comb in, perhaps it was this together with any nearby nectar that became the honey?
That colony was small and didn't make it through winter, so I'm down to 3 hives instead of 4 temporarily, hope to split to get 6 hives going into next winter.

I can assure you there's nothing at all down that way in the way of forage especially not enough to fill a super. so there must have been a lot of stores left in that deadout for them to rob.

 

[seaknight]

I can assure you there's nothing at all down that way in the way of forage especially not enough to fill a super. so there must have been a lot of stores left in that deadout for them to rob.

Ah okay, thanks, anyway it's honey and it tastes nice, that's the important thing!

 

[snelgrove]

Obviously the bees haven't read 'Beekeeping in Britain' things have moved on and personally I don't think Manleys are the best tool in the box

no but they read honey farming

 

[BeeJayBee]

and dislike Manleys ....

Why no use?

... my dislike of the way the bees glue them together...

When you've got a super full of frames that are glued together, and all those frames are Manley, you'll understand why I dislike them too.

They may be slightly easier to uncap, but the time spent separating them from each other makes that fairly trivial.

Once you get used to using a knife to uncap hoffman frames they're easy enough, and quick to do.

 

[Poly Hive]

There are two physical answers to the gluing together. The strain of bee also seems to have a bearing as mine are rarely stuck?

A smear of vasiline and having a hive tool to hand is the other answer.

It's really not that difficult.

PH

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

vaseline and honey - mmmmmm Hmmmmmmm. Smearing it over a thousand frames - forget it!!