Oxalic Acid and Honey super

I am new to bee keeping. I have been using Oxalic Acid once a quarter in the hive and did not know that I was supposed to remove the honey super. (I got my OA from another bee keeper with no instructions or warning info). I am worried that now, as I get ready to harvest, I may have contaminated the honey. I am feeling like just leaving it alone and waiting until next year for better options. ?

I would say that depends on how much of a harvest you have, and how big your hive is and what type of bees. If you have 2 full supers and one brood box with Italian bees, I would probably leave it all for the bees. Italians eat a lot over winter. :blush:

On the other hand if you have 2 full brood boxes and 2 or 3 supers, I would consider harvesting the honey from 2 supers for my own personal use. Oxalic acid is a naturally occurring organic acid which is present in many foods in quite high concentrations, including rhubarb, spinach, beets and chocolate. It is only a serious problem if you are prone to forming oxalate kidney stones (some people are). I wouldn’t sell the honey, but I would be willing to risk it for my own use. If you don’t like the taste, you can always feed it back to the bees over winter.

If you have a Flow super, I would definitely harvest it, so that you can get the super off the hive for winter. Bees tend to propolize the plastic frames in cooler weather, and that can be a real pain when you come to the next harvest.

Do you still need information on using Oxalic Acid? A lot of us here use it in various forms, so I am sure we can help. :wink:

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Use it
Oxalic is a normal constituent of honey and there is more oxalic in a plate of rhubarb crumble than you’ll get in a whole super

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I feel a lot better now, thanks.

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Hiya. I vaped my colony last year - lost them over the winter - and used the honey they left behind. I froze the combs that had pollen and uncapped nectar & reused them in my new hives.

@Dee I’m craving a rhubarb crumble now! :yum:

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