Very thick honey - couldn't extract

[melias]

I just extracted the honey from my 4 hives.
The frames on 3 of the hives extracted fine.
However the 4th hive was different. I noticed it first when trying to remove the cappings with a heat gun - they didn't melt instantly like the others.

I then found that the honey was too viscous to extract in my radial extractor. I tried tangentially and that didn't work either.
I'm pretty certain it wasn't heather honey.

Have others found that some colonies seem to produce completely different honey from others?

 

[dpearce4]

could have been OSR that you missed in may/june?

 

[melias]

I don't think it was OSR. These supers all went in after the OSR stopped flowering and the honey wasn't crystallized at all.

 

[Fatbee]

Can't offer any suggestions I'm afraid on your situation but I've had frames with runny honey - probably blackberry and clover - stored on top of part filled OSR frames. So they put non crystallised on top of crystallised. Then when I put the OSR remaining frames back on they clean the OSR out.
So, unless your desperate for the honey I would put back on and use for winter stores

 

[bontbee]

Is it too early for heather in your area?

A couple of years ago, after I'd extracted, I had several frames with "ginger" coloured honey left in each. Then I realised it was heather, (our local park and the nearby "mountain" has small amounts of heather! ...so I scraped the combs back to the midrib and squeezed everything through a muslin. Got about 4lb in total and eked it out for about four years!!

 

[Tom Bick]

A beekeeping friend in West London and many miles from OSR has extracted a couple of supers with very thick honey this year so much so he reckoned he only got approx half the honey out of the combs. I have seen it in the jars and it is thick way thicker than normal it is very clear and slight tint of green similar to lime but could also be the glass effecting the colour. Another beekeeper at my association had three frames in an electric extractor with smoke coming from the motor but the thick honey was refusing to budge? I am yet to extract all my honey and it will be interesting to see if I get any of this thick honey.

 

[enrico]

It comes in all fluid states! Try and extract it straight out of the hive, try to do it as soon as the water levels are low enough, don't leave it in a cold room, if you can't warm it before extraction and it won't come out then feed it back to the bees. For some reason once they have moved it a second time it seems to be more runny! Even OSR.
I usually get parts of frames that just will not go once or twice during extraction. Just depends on the nectar source I think.
E

 

[Dishmop]

Last year I took a few frames out of a hive and then a few weeks later took the others out...

Completley differetn colour...The second lot crystalise bu tthe first lot didnt.

 

[enrico]

Sometimes when you add two different supers of honey to a settling tank but don't leave it long enough before you jar the honey can settle at different levels in the jar giving different colours and different textures as the setting rates are different! Looks good but the public don't like it!
E

 

[user 6228]

..

Have others found that some colonies seem to produce completely different honey from others?

They do ... and its been studied. Hives from the same apiary will forage on different plant types.
I'll have to dig out the paper to give you more details on it

Another bit of bee wierdness...

 

[Erichalfbee]

I've got patches of unextractable honey in some of my supers too.

 

[Goodwood]

Are you sure you have uncapped properly?
some wax cappings - if not white - will not budge with a heat gun. They simply melt and re-seal. Unless the cap pings are fresh and white - and then pop instantly - its best to uncap with fork or knife.

 

[Ely]

Sounds like heather. Not sure how early that can bloom though.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Sounds like heather. Not sure how early that can bloom though.

Ling in flower since the 20th of July here.

 

[bontbee]

since mid july here

 

[Finno]

Honeydew?

 

[itma]

... I noticed it first when trying to remove the cappings with a heat gun - they didn't melt instantly like the others.
…

ONLY use a heat gun on frames with pure white ("dry") cappings.
The method relies on the airgap behind the cappings. The air expands and blows off the capping before the honey feels the heat.

If the cappings are "wet" (icy looking rather than white) there isn't any airgap and the wax will only melt AFTER the honey has been heated above wax-melting temperature - which can give you "caramel" flavours rather than the natural ones. Not good.

 

[melias]

Good advice, thanks Itma.

 

[Lolly Bee]

I notice that this section is a few years old, but I'm experiencing exactly this problem this year. Heather is 2.5-3 miles from us. Would microwave work or am I best returning the frames to the hives for winter food, save my arms and the cost of feeding? Am in an arm exhausted heap on the sofa as I write this!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I notice that this section is a few years old, but I'm experiencing exactly this problem this year. Heather is 2.5-3 miles from us.

beesa will fly further to the heather if they are minded - last year I had ome apiary which produced a decent harvestable amount of heather honey, the nearest heather was four to five miles away

Would microwave work

no