Hi there! My name is Vanessa and this is my second year beekeeping and my first harvest year. I love in Northern Virginia and its been amazing and the production is truly magnificent.
I have harvested from one of my flow hives twice already. I was out there just now preparing to take the honey super off so I can do my fall treatment for mites… and the super is full again! The cells are not capped but they are are filled with honey.
Temperatures just dropped from 87F/30.5C to 75F/23C. Temperature wise, we are staying in the range of 75F/23C to 80F/26C for the next 2 weeks according to the forecast so the flow should be good if I do pull honey and the temperature for treating varroa with Formic Pro (what I prefer to use) is also favorable.
I need some help on what to do! Im not sure if freezing the frames is the right answer or if waiting is correct… here are the options I am looking at-please help!
Should I
(1) pull the super and freeze the honey in the frames until the spring
(2) wait another few weeks for the honey to get capped, harvest and then treat in later Sept for mites
(3) harvest the uncapped honey and treat for the fall now
Anyone’s experience and guidance is greatly appreciated!
Happy Bee Keeping
Vanessa
Welcome to the forum, Vanessa and congratulations on a successfully making through your second year.
The tradesman and citizen scientist in me wants to measure things first. My first thought is to know the water content, so get yourself a refractometer and test the uncapped “honey”. Sometimes bees don’t cap ripe honey straight away.
The other measurement I would want is mite load. At this time of the season, drones will start to be evicted and mites will jump from them onto the workers, so you could see what looks like a sudden spike in mite load. Do a wash. Have you reached threshold? If not you still have some time, otherwise treatment is your priority.
Do the bees have a full super of their own for winter? If not, I’d put a half sized super with foundation above the excluder with a second one ready in case. then the inner cover with the hole open. Place an empty deep on the new super with the Flow super on top. This causes the bees to “rob” the Flow super and fill the new super. Once the Flow is cleaned out, remove it for winter. If necessary add the second half super.
Super removals for treatments refers to honey supers for human consumption. You can designate a super for “bees only” and it can stay on. I use a half sized super(Ideal in Australia) so there’s no mistaking the difference. FormicPro can taint the flavour, but the bees don’t care. This is what I do to ensure bees have food in a dearth or have somewhere to store nectar during a flow while treating
Your goal for winter is treated bees with stores to last until spring and Flow super off.
If the Flow super tests above 18.5%, you can freeze over winter and return when it’s warm enough after thawing, or you could harvest in the kitchen with a tray under to catch the leakage. Keep it in the fridge and eat it or return to the bees in spring.
Mike
1 Like