What to do with late flow.

[dlawr42103]

My bees are still packing away stores and I am still adding supers which I never expected this late in the year.

They have been on a lot of HB and now also a lot of ivy.

I have already stripped out most of their honey leaving only one super on each. I now have hives that are back up to 4 & 5 supers from the 1 over the last 4 weeks. I went through these yesterday to see what I can extract and almost all fail the shake test, being very watery still.

Im concerned that storing this much nectar so late in the season might cause problems with fermenting stores? Any advice appreciated.

The colonies that are doing this are all bursting with bees and showing no slow down in brood yet.

 

[Ely]

The bees remove enough water content to prevent any fermentation from taking place. If you intend to extract the ivy then it needs doing as soon as it is ripe as it sets solid very fast. Don't wait for it to be capped. It is a good idea to remove any other honey before an ivy flow. Many beekeepers use leave the ivy for winter feed as it isn't the nicest tasting and tricky to work with. This is not a problem for the bees.

 

[sharonh]

I take last of the honey in Aug before ivy flow starts. What ever ivy forage they get is left to them to store for themselves for winter.

 

[Jed D]

We are in much the same postion, with a late run on Mustard closly followed by Ivy..
Some of our Hives have 3 supers on !!!!! ( some added only last week )

This does seem to be a bit of a juggling act. it's a case of " watch the weather , not the calander "

I'm planning to remove any capped or ripe supers ( -20% moisture ) this week. Any not capped / ripe will just go under the brood box. and stay there for the winter...

If Brother Pete ( Pete D ) reads this , yeah I know 6 of these supers are yours.....

 

[REDWOOD]

If the frames are full then there is little chance of them putting Ivy honey in them, you could remove a few for extraction and feed it back to them and hope they cap the supers you leave on, you could also remove capped frames of stores in the BB and replace with foundation and give them back later in the winter when needed.
If it comes to the stage when you do get most frames suitable for extraction the frames that are not could be placed in one super and put under BB until next spring

 

[Pete D]

We are in much the same postion, with a late run on Mustard closly followed by Ivy..
Some of our Hives have 3 supers on !!!!! ( some added only last week )

This does seem to be a bit of a juggling act. it's a case of " watch the weather , not the calander "

I'm planning to remove any capped or ripe supers ( -20% moisture ) this week. Any not capped / ripe will just go under the brood box. and stay there for the winter...

If Brother Pete ( Pete D ) reads this , yeah I know 6 of these supers are yours.....

Happy to take them back full to save you the hassle of extracting them

 

[Jed D]

Pete D ,
Three of your supers are off the Hives and spun out clean. ish.......


This Mustard stuff is amazing , took 4 supers off and spun 30lb !!!!!! the rest seems like soft set ( in the frames )
Better than that , the first bucket set over night..
It has been a steep learning curve , 10 supers so far , = 5 Buckets + lots of winter feed to go back on the same Bee's.
The weather looks to be turn chilly towards the end of the week , so all supers will be off by Wednesday...
Some going back underneath B/Boxes... ( But not yours )

P.S.
We also seemed to have some wonderful Ragwort Honey , nice and Golden 'but a touch smelly...

 

[Swarm]

If it set over night it sounds more like Ivy.

 

[Jed D]

I'm not sure what it is , the hives are 500 yards from a field of flowering mustard.
However there is also lots of ivy in the same area.
The honey which set over night , has very fine crystals and has stayed fairly soft so far.

 

[Ely]

Did it set white(ish)? That would be ivy.

 

[itma]

We are in much the same postion, with a late run on Mustard closly followed by Ivy..
Some of our Hives have 3 supers on !!!!! ( some added only last week )
…

Mustard.
I suppose that's "Normal for Norfolk" ?
Only Colemans to blame or thank.

 

[Dishmop]

Mustard.
I suppose that's "Normal for Norfolk" ?
Only Colemans to blame or thank.

Please.........Colman's

 

[Norfolktoad]

Mustard flow

I am back into beekeeping after some years. I have three hives a 2014 nuc, and 2 I bought in a couple of weeks ago. My nuc is covering 10 frame and I have taken one super of honey off, which crystalised over night. I have a 50 ac field of mustard/ radish within 100 yds of the hives and plenty of ivy within 200 yds. I put another super on of foundation and this was drawn out and filled in a week. I do not intend to take this super but leave it as winter feed. It has drone foundation should I put it below the brood chamber?

The other 2 hives are not working as well, I suspect they came from an area where a flow was not underway. Should I feed these with syrup at this late stage or let them collect from the mustard?
They both have several capped brood frames but no supers.
Mike

 

[Dishmop]

My nuc is covering 10 frame and I have taken one super of honey off,

do you mean a super box or just a super frame?

 

[Norfolktoad]

Took 10 frames off and got 18lb of honey. The honey set in the extractor so had to warm up the room to get it to flow through the filter. It is now fully set in the jars. I can see a problem with this mustard honey crystalising in the comb. Will the bees be able to use this honey? If not should I give them more syrup?

Mike