OK folks would someone please set me straigh about the flow

[TREBOR]

I've been reading here for a while now and I'm starting to get
a little confussed
People in mass are now treating for mites and they're honey supers
are off ?
 wow I'm in the mountains of northern vermont and the golden rod
is just getting going.
  there is also still aster,alittle vetch, alittle clover , abit of milkweed
and afew others I dodn't know the names of that are still in bloom !
The guy I got my bees from sent me a letter saying its time for treatment
he's in nor centrel mass. I still have alot of uncapped honey.
In another post I was told it will all be capped, but the flow still goes.

Last time I had bees I was 12yrs old and lived on the west coast.

So really and for real when will it all be ready?

Do I what till all the flows are over before I harvest or is there some
magic sign that I should be looking for as an indicator?

I'm going for the blended type honey (wild flower)
We are still seeing days above 80 deg. and night above 45 deg.
  more then 75% of the time .
and the next ten days look the same(just checked the weather)

I'll be treating with formic acid and its still to hot for that here.
(after the honeys off of course)
 
 I'll also be feeding sugar for winter buildup!

I pulled ten frames for market the other day and boy was it tasty
but there is still lots uncapped !

WHAT DO i DO? :?  :?

thank you all !

[Finsky]

You live somewhere in north eastern corner of USA. I live in Finland. I think that your autumn comes  one month later than we have. Sometwhow like in England?

Last time when my bees can come out to fly is about first week of Ochtober.

We handle varroa after that when honey is away. I take my last honey in the first week of September and same day I put feeding box on the top of hive and sugar in. I give all sugar 40 lbs/hive during one week.

I take final honey away when brood are almost emerged. Most of old bees have also died.

We give formic acid (gas) and thymol oil (gas) when honey have taken away. It needs warm weather, about 20C. In my style, when I have honey away from hive, it is not warm enough to handle with gas.

I use only oxalic acid liguid and at summer drone brood cutting.

When bees are in winterball I give that oxalic acid. It takes 30 secons per hive. It is easy.  I have had 20 years varroa. It is not a problem. The time is about late of Ochtober. In some hives it may be brood yet. I wait that all are surely emerged.

[leominsterbeeman]

TREBOR -  I live in  Northern central Massachusetts,  I plan on leaving my Honey supers on for atleast another month Maybe even until October 1st.  I am greedy - I want the honey for me.     I would say the ideal time would still be sometime mid-september.

Why to pull supers later:
1. You get more honey (Goldenrod and Aster)


Why to pull supers earlier:
1. The bees will still collect honey and store it in their brood chamber
2.  they will have more honey for winter.
3.  Treatment for mites is more effective when temperatures  are
   consistently above 60 degrees F.

[leominsterbeeman]

For your uncapped honey -  If you let them work it more they will cap it.  temps in the 80s will help that cure.

Uncapped does not always equal uncurred or unripened honey.  

What I do with frames that are uncapped:

I shake them vigoressly with the uncapped cells facing down on the ground.  If  ANY honey comes out,  I will not extract that frame. You have to do this to both sides of the frame.  A quick shake and downward motion will show you if any come out.  you also have to listen and  see if any splatter on the ground.

[Michael Bush]

Back before I went to natural cell size and quit treating, I would treat after brood rearing stops.  This is really the best time for any treatment because none kill the varroa sealed in the cells and some treatments can do some harm to the open brood.

For me, here in Nebraska, that would be about October.  But unfortunately this cuts things close for many treatments.  The strips require putting them in and pulling them out some time later (according to the directions on the package).  The problem is when you put the strips in the hives in October it's often too cold to get them back out.  Formic (which I've never used) is a problem also because it is very sensitive to the weather.  The nice thing about Oxalic acid vapor (which I have used) is that you can use it no matter what the temperature outside is and with one treatment your are done.

[amymcg]

Trebor,

I pull early because I want time to treat before it gets cold. As you know, the weather in New England can be very unpredictable.

My goal this year is just to get al my frames drawn out, make sure my hive has enough stores and keep my fingers crossed that they make it through the winter.

If you want the extra honey, leave the supers on.  I plan on letting mine keep anything they get after this week.

[TREBOR]

thanks all!

[Finsky]

I repeat again. If you give oxalic adic liquid, it is not weather sensitive. You have 2-3 moths time to handle hives. We do it during November. At December we got snow onto ground.

When bees are in winter ball, give that liquid on bees. It take 20 seconds to do that. Weather may be +5C . Wapour system need about +20C weather.

[SherryL]

If you're treating with Apistan, the strips need to stay on for 2 full cycles - a minimum 42 days.  If you want to wrap your hives by a specific date - say November 1st (purely arbitrary) then count backwards.  Remove your honey by somewhere in the middle of Sept., put the strips on, remove them 42 days later and wrap the hives.  

The later you can leave your hives unwrapped the longer you can delay the treatment, the more honey you'll be able to take.  :)

[manowar422]

I live in Northern central Massachusetts, I plan on leaving my Honey supers on for atleast another month Maybe even until October 1st.

L/Beeman

I'm just curious, but isn't the weather in Massachusetts too cold and the honey too thick to be extracted in October.

Do I assume correctly that you must have a "honey room" availible to bring the temp. of the honey in the frames up to about 85F degrees before extraction?

Would damage to the comb occur in the extractor if the temp. of the honey is too low?

[amymcg]

The weather up here is just too unpredictable. One year I was wearing a t-shirt outside on New Year's Eve, The next year it was like -10 outside.

October can be squirrelly hard frosts at night and sometimes well into the 70's during the day.

[Joseph Clemens]

These past two winters we've had a day or two when the evening lows were around 15F, those are hard on the tropical bamboo species and some of the citrus, but the bees are active and even have brood most all year long. Going on 9 year now I've never treated my hives with anything except normal inspections and management.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

I have a pre-fab metal shed I am in the process of converting to my future honey-house, hope to have it completed by next season.

Since we use conventional air conditioning (helps keep the honey dry) and keep the house about 85F I am presently using our small dining room to process honey by crush and squeeze. I do have two small extractors, one stainless steel and one plastic but I find it tedious and annoying to process this way and with crush and squeeze I harvest wax too. I like harvesting wax much more than harvesting honey.

[leominsterbeeman]

Amy got it right abouthte Mass weather.  Early October as well as all of our weather is unpredictable,  I would say on average it would be in the 70's during the day.  

I extract in a warm basement and there is no problem with flow from the extractor.