Canola honey issues

I have a single flow hive adjacent 100’s of acres of Canola which has commenced flowering. The bees have built numbers rapidly and have begun work in the flow super which I had installed a week ago. I am concerned about dealing with the honey in the flow frames as it apparently Candies extremely quickly and any remnant will candy and cause issues as well. The high protein content in the canola pollen (25 percent) causes rapid breeding and swarming. We get a number of swarms around our area through this time of year. Has anyone with flow hives dealt with honey that candies so quickly? I’m not so keen on having flow frames with candied honey.
Jeff F

I think @rodderick has hives near a canola field…?

Nah, not me. My hives are all on the bush fringes of the city. But once the canola crop is finished you should harvest capped or not, just in case.

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Or harvest as the frames become capped. You can assess as you do your inspections which will be more regular on the Canola?

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We deal with a lot of what we call OSR here.
You have to take the honey off as soon as it’s capped but often that is too late. The rule of thumb is honey is off as soon as the flowers start to fade. Most people with Flows here put regular supers on till the crop is done.
Leave it to set in your bucket, where it will set rock hard. Then melt and cream.

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@Dee I take it it poses no problem to the bees. Could you swap it into the brood box when the OSR source finishes.

I have a couple of hundred Turpentine trees which the bees love but the honey is a bit off tasting so I I don’t put the super on till it has stopped flowering. Good hive builder late Spring early Summer.

busso https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/busso
September 12

Dee:

honey off as soon as it’s capped but often that is too late

@Dee https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/dee I take it it poses no problem to
the bees. Could you swap it into the brood box when the OSR source finishes.

I have a couple of hundred Turpentine trees which the bees love but the
honey is a bit off tasting so I I don’t put the super on till it has
stopped flowering. Good hive builder late Spring early Summer.

Thanks Dee. The bee stings are doing really well on it. I’m thinking I
should have had some regular equipment as you mentioned as I’m concerned it
may candy in the flow frames. Flowering will go on for a few weeks so it’s
going to be interesting. I’ll just have to get it off regularly enough and
hope for the best I think.

busso https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/busso
September 12

Dee:

honey off as soon as it’s capped but often that is too late

@Dee https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/dee I take it it poses no problem
to the bees. Could you swap it into the brood box when the OSR source
finishes.

I have a couple of hundred Turpentine trees which the bees love but the
honey is a bit off tasting so I I don’t put the super on till it has
stopped flowering. Good hive builder late Spring early Summer.

Thanks Dee. The bees are doing really well on it. I’m thinking I should

have had some regular equipment as you mentioned as I’m concerned it may
candy in the flow frames. Flowering will go on for a few weeks so it’s
going to be interesting. I’ll just have to get it off regularly enough and
hope for the best I think.


In Reply To
Dee https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/dee
September 12
We deal with a lot of what we call OSR here. You have to take the honey
off as soon as it’s capped but often that is too late. The rule of thumb is
honey is off as soon as the flowers start to fade. Most people with Flows
here put regular supers on till the crop is done. Leave it to set in your
bu…

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Jeff Flint

If it’s not too late, take the Flow super off and put a box of regular frames with wax starter strips so you can harvest pure comb honey :slight_smile:

Honey comb crunch? Or honey comb rock??? :smile: :rofl::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I’m no mathematician but if it’s 7:52 AM out here it’s 4:52 out in Calif. :open_mouth:

GO BACK TO BED!

I am in Europe - it is lunchtime here :heart_eyes:

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Not sure. I might go with the cut comb idea or have your regular super the same size as the brood then you have food frames for periods of dearth

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Dee https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/dee
September 12

busso:

I take it it poses no problem to the bees. Could you swap it into the
brood box when the OSR source finishes.

Not sure. I might go with the cut comb idea or have your regular super the
same size as the brood then you have food frames for periods of dearth

Visit Topic https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/canola-honey-issues/12648/13 the
box of regular frames sounds good. Keep the frames of honey for winter
feeding, put the flow frames in once the canola has finished flowerIng.
It’d be a good time to establish a second hive!

In Reply To
busso https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/busso
September 12
@Dee https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/dee I take it it poses no problem to
the bees. Could you swap it into the brood box when the OSR source
finishes. I have a couple of hundred Turpentine trees which the bees love
but the honey is a bit off tasting so I I don’t put the super on till it
has stopped flowering. Good hive builder late …

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Argh… Turpentine… I have late November marked in my calender as “Extract before Turpentine Flowers” … Yuk Honey!

Never heard this before. We have a few turpentine in the National Park.
How bad is the taste then? Is it ok if it mixes with honey of other sources or is any amount of turpentine flowers yucky?
Wonder when they start to flower up in the Byron mountains?

It has a sweet but chemical aftertaste, I don’t like it and withdrew the whole batch of honey from sale at the markets. If there are other nectar sources around at the sametime you should be OK.

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Rule of thumb is a strong hive will fill a 10fr deep super in 10-12 days on Canola, which then gets pulled off and replaced. That’s usually an ok time to go without worrying about candying. Any longer and you will have problems. You should be able to tap the hive fairly frequently to avoid it. I only run conventional hives though so I am not sure how flow frames will hold up. If the aim is to build the colony, take the super off until the box is full of bees, then put it back on and consider running regular frames that you can later use as a backup food source for the bees in dry times.

Orangebees https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/orangebees
September 17

Rule of thumb is a strong hive will fill a 10fr deep super in 10-12 days
on Canola, which then gets pulled off and replaced. That’s usually an ok
time to go without worrying about candying. Any longer and you will have
problems. You should be able to tap the hive fairly frequently to avoid it.
I only run conventional hives though so I am not sure how flow frames will
hold up. If the aim is to build the colony, take the super off until the
box is full of bees, then put it back on and consider running regular
frames that you can later use as a backup food source for the bees in dry
times.

Visit Topic https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/canola-honey-issues/12648/18 thanks
Chris. I had the flow frames in a super on top but they seem reluctant to
fill them despite large numbers. I decided to put a super of standard
frames on (new ones with just foundation) instead to give them some work to
do. I found clusters of cells on the base each brood frame though. They
didn’t look like the regular singular queen cells as they were clustered
together and horizontal, reaching and attached between frames. I would
expect they will be looking to swarm. Perhaps I should swap a couple of the
new frames into the brood box?

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G’day Jeff, can’t hurt to give them more space. Sounds like your hive is doing well. Put a swarm trap up near the hive just in case