Saving honey for bees

greenbtree · May 30, 2010, 02:26:43 AM

It seems quite common to extract the Spring honey and leave the later honey for the bees. We get a lot of Goldenrod around here and although I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, I like it. How could I save the earlier honey for the bees so I could take the Fall honey? Thought I saw something about freezing the frames?

JC

fermentedhiker · May 30, 2010, 08:44:59 AM

you can certainly freeze frames of honey and save them to give back to the bees. If you don't have enough room you can store them in a super in a sealed garbage bag after you leave them in the freezer for a couple of days to makes sure to kill any pests that maybe hiding in the frames.

montauk170 · May 30, 2010, 04:13:43 PM

Sorry, new-bee here. We can't just leave the frames filled with honey in the hive for their winter consumption?

Scadsobees · June 01, 2010, 12:09:57 AM

You probably can leave on frames of honey for them to use later. However, I like to overwinter in two deeps, this make that rather tricky, I just don't take honey off after mid august.

You could just take the goldenrod honey and the spring honey, and then feed back to them around 80 lbs of sugar.

greenbtree · June 01, 2010, 03:27:35 AM

O.K. newbee is missing something here. Why would leaving on the frames for later use make overwintering in two deeps tricky?

JC

Scadsobees · June 01, 2010, 09:06:25 AM

Just two deeps. So I try to get all the supers off by around then, then the bees will start packing the deeps full of honey. But then again I don't get much of a fall flow, not like some I read about.

You can leave the capped honey on the top, super on top of that.

JP · June 01, 2010, 10:32:08 AM

Quote from: greenbtree on May 30, 2010, 02:26:43 AM
It seems quite common to extract the Spring honey and leave the later honey for the bees. We get a lot of Goldenrod around here and although I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, I like it. How could I save the earlier honey for the bees so I could take the Fall honey? Thought I saw something about freezing the frames?

JC

Yes, you could take some spring honey and freeze it and give it back to them later.

...JP

gardeningfireman · June 01, 2010, 11:48:59 AM

Don't just give them sugar syrup and not leave them any honey. That's like feeding your kids nothing but poptarts! They need the nutrition from their honey. Syrup should be used as a supplement, not a mainstay!

greenbtree · June 01, 2010, 01:32:37 PM

O.K. I'm going to take off and save the frames full of honey from the split I did earlier. They are deep frames that the bees packed full while they were waiting for their new queen to develop. I can freeze them, seal them in a plastic bag and store them in a cool corner of the basement.

JC

Scadsobees · June 01, 2010, 02:20:27 PM

Quote from: greenbtree on June 01, 2010, 01:32:37 PM
O.K. I'm going to take off and save the frames full of honey from the split I did earlier. They are deep frames that the bees packed full while they were waiting for their new queen to develop. I can freeze them, seal them in a plastic bag and store them in a cool corner of the basement.

JC

I'm not sure that that is a good idea either, though...cool, dark, wet, sugary and no air flow is a recipe for mold and fermentation.

greenbtree · June 01, 2010, 11:24:36 PM

I would think that as long as the honey is capped it would be o.k. It is in a cured state and not open to the air it can't absorb more water from the air to start fermentation. My other option would be to move the frames to the 1,2,9,10 positions in the two deeps and keep an eye on the situation.

JC