So, I tested honey and harvested :) Ball Ground, GA, USA

I have rwo flo frames on one of my hives. The first seems nearly full- don’t know if capped not. I was rhinking about leaving the full one as the bees have started moving up up intonthe second working on oatching comb but no honey stired there yet that I can see. There is still a crazy amount if activity in the first flo tho . Would harvesting one flo send the message to empty the second one to their brood boxes? It would seem the answer would be yes?

Goldenrod honey is delicious if you like a rich flavor. I liken it to butter bean honey but thicker and darker. Aster is delicious also. Buckwheat honey is an acquired taste and very very dark.

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It might, but in the words of Winnie the Pooh, you can never tell with bees! :smile:

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Thanks for all the information, Bobby (and others)! :slight_smile:

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Bobby,

Want to thank you very much for this post and others that you’ve done. Thursday night I harvested 5 out of the 6 frames only because it got too dark for me to harvest the 6th. I made it a lot more complicated than I should have, but we do live and learn. I do plan over the next couple of days put together a video of everything I did so everyone can laugh at how complicated I made it :slight_smile:

Besides the complication I made everything went exactly as the flow-team has shown and then some :slight_smile: it was extremely simple.

My guess is about 50% of my honey was capped, I did buy a refractometer to test the honey and it turns out that all of it is at 18% or less. I’m very pleased

I ended up needing to calibrate my refractometer, I’m amazed at everything that I’m learning as a relates to beekeeping and things I never thought were related to beekeeping.

I harvested just over 30 pounds of honey. I’ve left all the frames on with the anticipation of one more harvest at the end of the season, this is one of my mentors information. It may have what is known as snow on the Prairie, but there’s a market for that here as well it has a slight hot taste to it. And regardless, it will be saved to feedback to the girls as needed.

I too will be creating a new harvesting collection method. I did not have the robbing as you mentioned in a previous video as much as I had my personal stupidity issues with it.

Again thank you and thanks to the entire flow team for all their support. There is still a lot to learn and I’ve got a ton of questions that I’ve got to figure out how to ask over the next couple weeks via other things I’ve discovered in the process.

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Love the name ‘Sweet Larceny’ :slight_smile:

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Marty is a clever robber! :smile:

I wanted to try this model out too, so I ordered one. It arrived today, but there are some problems with my order. The model is correct (RHBN-90ATC) but there is no dioptric oil for calibration and no reference block in the package. I have sent a message to the shipper (Hong Kong based), copied to Amazon and I will report back here on whether the issue gets resolved. Otherwise, I am off to Mann Lake… :smile:

Cold pressed Olive Oil always measures 72 brix. You probably have some around the house. There’s your control, Dr. Dawn! :smile:

:heart_eyes: I am sure we do… I just have to make sure that Costco quality is good enough. Oh, and Trader Joe’s Garlic Olive Oil probably wouldn’t be a good choice??? :joy:

I thought all refractometers were already calibrated.
What I do is get a sample of olive oil and take a reading.
Keep that sample safe in a little bottle for future use.

I’d avoid the flavored stuff. The quality should be acceptable. Cured, capped honey ranges from 17-19% water content. Even if there’s some very slight variance between brands, calibrating the olive oil to 72 brix and then grading the honey to an 18% standard keeps you within the margin of error.

Since the refractometer is measuring how light waves bounce through a prism, and the shape of that prism changes ever so slightly based on temperature, it is good to check its calibration. If you always grade in your kitchen, at room temperature, it’ll stay calibrated. Checking in the field you may want to adjust. (Oh wait, I just remembered that you Brits aren’t as reliant on(/pampered by) A/C as us murricans and your kitchen may not always be 70°F. It’s good to keep that reference oil around. :wink:

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watching this video, he talkes about use and that olive oil should be 71-72 brick?? where did you find it should be 77 Bricks

I mis-remembered. Thanks for catching that. (Edited earlier posts since there’s no reason to preserve bad information)

“Calibrating a refractometer. Owing to the remarkably consistent properties of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, one drop of it on the slide will always read between 71 and 72 on the Brix scale. If you set the lock-nut to show any such oil at 71.5, you will have correctly calibrated the water content scale at the same time.”

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Thank you I was all over the Internet trying to find something other than the city because we know everything on the Internet is true:-)

One thing to remember when doing your test and I forgot to do everything needs to be at the same temperature Close 68° is ideal

Suggest everything be in the same room for at least an hour before measuring anything

Yup yup. I mentioned the temperature thing while responding to Dee.

Another interesting tidbit… @Dawn_SD, how can you be sure that Costco EVOO is good enough? It’s in the spec! “Virgin olive oil is specified by the UN FAO in CODEX STANDARD FOR OLIVE OILS AND OLIVE POMACE OILS CODEX STAN 33-1981 (Rev. 2-2003) to have a refractive index from 1.4677 to 1.4705 at 20°C which corresponds to 71°Bx to 72°Bx.”

So to be labelled (extra) Virgin, it must be in that refractive index. The more you know…

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ROFLOL!! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Another first time Flow™ hive honey harvest


 

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@DavidFloren You’re a great writer.

I was at my mentor’s house Sunday, helping him hot dip wax several boxes and parts. We got to do my new flow frame super and brood box and other parts. Will need to dip also the additional brood box coming in from Beethinking before I place it in the spring.

Additionally he had found a swarm for me and the girls were quite calm so we transferred them to a NUC and rubber band them to some empty foundation less frames I have.

**

Now to the root of the story :slight_smile:

**

A friend of his came over and brought a tub of honey for us to taste, it was honey from a hive where the bees gathered snow on the Prairie flowers. I can say that’s got to be the most unpleasant aftertaste I’ve ever had. It felt like the hairs on the back of my throat were singed off for about 3 hours after tasting the honey. It took about 10 minutes for me to start feeling it at 1st the honey had a similar sweet apple taste to it.

My mentor, actually started tearing up and coughing. He drank some milk eight some white bread, none of that helped. I can see why beekeepers do their best to harvest honey before the bees taint the rest of the hive with Snow on the Prairie.

http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=EUBI2