Subject: question on honey harvest

From: [email-masked](Marty Kupris )
Date: 26 Jul 1996 19:54:35 GMT

Hi,

I'm new to this newsgoup, and fairly new to beekeeping (my second
year).

Honey production seems kinda late this year, possibly due to a late
freeze and wet spring (I'm in North Carolina).

I've gotten about 75 lbs of honey from 2 producing hives, and I think
there's about 100 lbs. left in these hives and 3 others that I have.
Normally, we would have removed the supers (I think) by July 1, but the
bees are still producing a little.

My question: should I remove all supers now? We usually get a fall crop
(bitter). If some of the comb is not capped, should I remove it anyway?
I was thinking about using the unripe honey in my homebrewing, where
it's diluted anyway.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated; I plan to work the hives
tomorrow.

[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Janet A. Katz)
Date: Sat, 27 Jul 1996 08:04:27 GMT

>Any advice would be greatly appreciated; I plan to work the hives

Marty:

I don't know how you're doing with Varroa down in North Carolina, but
I wouldn't leave the honey on until fall. The only beekeeper in my
area (NJ) that didn't lose any hives last winter got his honey off and
his Apistan strips on  by August 25th.

I don't know anything about homebrewing and unripe honey, but I'd be
interested in hearing what others have to say about extracting from
frames that have uncapped cells. If there are only a few, I've been
taking them off and extracting. If there are alot, I've been leaving
them on the hives. One thought I had was to consolidate them into one
super and put them on a strong hive to finish.