We have full frames this year, but only 1/3 of what we expected to come out.
Upon closer inspection, the honey is bulging out from the frame. (All frames are fully capped).
So my quesetion is, how do we get the honey out of the frames as it is not flowing down where it is supposed to? It is not crystalised and I have tried opening and closing the frames with the key several times.
Hi Teresa,
For product assistance you may find it helpful to contaqct info@honeyflow.com
The team will be glad to troubleshoot that with you.
Warm regards,
Free
Hi Teresa & welcome to the forum.
The 2 possibilities I can think of, apart from crystallization is:
#1, Jellybush/Leptospermum honey.
or #2, Brood had been raised in the Flow cells. The leftover cocoons will hinder the honey from flowing. The 1/3 that you did get could be from the honey arc above the brood. This scenario happened to a client of mine.
After we found brood in the Flow frames, the honey would no longer flow out of them, except for maybe a third as you describe.
Thanks Jeff.
No brood and definitely looks like lovely honey. There is an arc to the pattern of the honey that is remaining though. What has flowed as mostly been from the bottom.
I think the issue is that the honey is bulging outside of the frames so cannot flow down. I have pushed the cells back in now and will wait and see what happens - there is flow but it is very slow.
We have lots of tea trees and Moonahs around us so it could be Leptospermum honey, but I thought all that meant is that it was thick but would still flow?
It sounds like Tea tree honey which doesn’t really flow. It’s nickname is Jellybush because the honey sets like jelly in the frames. I get it early in the year up here in Buderim, in traditional frames. After regular honey has spun out, the Jellybush honey will remain in the cells, unless it is mixed with regular honey. When that happens, my regular honey finishes up with the beautiful taste & aroma of the almost pure Jellybush honey that I’m able to scrape out of the frames.
PS, this is an image to show what I find after extracting when Jellybush honey is around.
As you can see, a lot of cells are empty because regular honey spun out, leaving jellybush honey behind that wont spin out.
Thanks, I have reached out to them.
It is indeed delicious! We did not harvest at all until now, as we were worried about the bees not having enough - many other bee keepers down here in Melbourne had a poor season - and it is the honey at the top of the frames so that make sense about it being early honey.
How do you get it out of the flow frames?
