Category: Section Honey

A Respectable Honey Yield?

A Respectable Honey Yield?

The Hot Weather & Honey Production

2018 has given us an extraordinary summer in the UK. Since May there has hardly been any rain and temperatures have regularly been 25C plus.  Rain dilutes nectar and the UK is not as hot as other countries … so I assume this has been a good honey production year for all UK beekeepers.

My Numbers

It’s been my best season – doubled my previous personal best and this time with only two production hives.  I record My Yields here.

My two production colonies produced 13 frames of cut comb honey. Typically a super frame holds 3lb of honey and I would say I had overall 80% completion of the frames – hence I produced 31lb of honey which made 84 cartons of beautiful cut comb.

… 15.5lb per production hive … this is almost getting respectable.

How are you all doing?

In Pictures

Honey Super Frame 2018
Honey Super Frame 2018
Cutting Comb
Cutting Comb
Cutting Comb - 2
Cutting Comb – 2
Comb Cutter Full Of Honey
Comb Cutter Full Of Honey
Cut Comb In Container
Cut Comb In Container
Ikea Box Full Of Honey
Ikea Box Full Of Honey

Video

And Stores For The Bees

The hive bodies are also full of honey … and I doubt I will need to feed the bees this year.

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Cut Comb Honey Success?

Cut Comb Honey Success?

I decided to stop producing liquid honey a couple of years ago as I was not enjoying the extraction process. It was time-consuming, blooming messy and I had to recruit my parents to help (meaning as well as spending hours scraping honey off the extractor, lifting surprisingly heavy boxes and labelling far too many jars, I also had to be polite and make small talk throughout!).

Last year I was seduced by the idea of sections. Easy, efficient, and no need to exploit the kindness of others in order to harvest the honey.

I tried Ross Rounds but based on my experience and further research (thanks to BBKA forum) discovered that, due to our short beekeeping season in the UK, the bees do not have enough time and are not that keen on sections. Fussy blighters.

Eight Ross Rounds Sections (the 2016 haul)
Eight Ross Rounds Sections (the 2016 haul)

I then decided to pursue cut comb which is meant to be the easiest way to make comb honey in the UK. I was also rather keen on producing that gorgeous honeycomb that I love so much (and retails for so much more than a jar of honey if packaged in a quaint box with string round it).

And so my dreams began…

I was hoping for 200 cartons of cut comb with minimum effort. I caught all my swarms and combined them into stronger colonies. I made some artificial swarms in early May that were largely successful.  The hives all had at least 1 super all with thin foundation … 10 supers in total.

And today was the day of truth.

The Reckoning

Roger Cutting Comb
Roger Cutting Comb
Cut Combs
Cut Combs

27 cartons of cut comb honey (plus 4 dodgy cartons for my porridge).  The taste is the same as previous years: highly scented and aromatic with a floral flavour – thanks to all the flowers which surround the apiary, in the allotment, gardens, hedges, woods and fields.  I am delighted with my haul.

And all this from about 6 frames of honey.  Imagine if all 100 frames had delivered!  I will continue to pursue cut comb next year.

How has everyone else done this year?

Frame Of Honey Partially Cut
Frame Of Honey Partially Cut Comb

Video Of Me Cutting Honey Comb

What Is Success When It Comes To A Honey Crop?

Is it quality and taste? Is it quantity?

For me – a novice – as you can probably tell from the video above, I’m very happy and excited with my 27 cartons.  27 is enough to show it off, enjoy with friends and give away some as a gifts.  But I would have been over the moon if I had made 100 cartons.  100 cartons would mean a surplus.  I could set up a shop at the bottom of the garden for the day.  Perhaps next year …

First Indications

As I peered into the first super I was delighted to see the 4 frames below.

First Look Into A Super
First Look Into A Super

Frame Of Capped Honey – Beautiful

Whoop! Frame Of Honey
Whoop! Frame Of Honey
Roger With Frame Of Honey
Roger With Frame Of Honey

Cutting Comb

Roger Cutting Comb
Roger Cutting Comb
Frame Of Honey Partially Cut
Frame Of Honey Partially Cut
Cut Comb Cutter
Cut Comb Cutter

Cut Comb In Carton

Cut Comb In Carton
Cut Comb In Carton
Cut Combs
Cut Combs
Cut Combs
Cut Combs
Cut Comb Success
Cut Comb Honey – Success For Talking With Bees

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What I Learnt From Making Ross Rounds

What I Learnt From Making Ross Rounds

As I have mentioned in earlier posts (links at bottom of page), with 2 young children and a busy job, I need to make beekeeping as low intervention as possible. This led me to consider section honey as both a time saver and an opportunity to make something really beautiful that also keeps the natural goodness of local honey.  When I discovered Ross Rounds sections (easy assembly, reusable, bees like the round shape), that was it, decision made.

Opening The Ross Rounds Sections

The video below is a novice beekeeper, who has never made sections, and is not very practically-minded, with a wife who is a bit twitchy around bees. It’s definitely not professional, but it does show how easy it is to remove the Ross Rounds sections … watch out for the flying springs:

My First Ross Rounds Honey Sections 2016
My First Ross Rounds Honey Sections 2016
Cutting foundation from Ross Rounds sections
Cutting foundation from Ross Rounds sections
Removing wax from Ross Rounds section
Removing wax from Ross Rounds section

Packaging The Ross Rounds Sections

Another amateur video of me removing the Ross Rounds frome the racks and packaging them in their plastic containers.  It is all very quick and easy, with a beautiful result.

Ross Round Section - You Keep The Plastic Ring On Section
Ross Rounds Section – You Keep The Plastic Ring On Section
Fitting Two Halves Of Completed Ross Round Section
Fitting Two Halves Of Completed Ross Rounds Section
Very Very Delighted Beekeeper With Ross Rounds Section
Very Very Delighted Beekeeper With Ross Rounds Section
Eight Ross Rounds Sections (the 2016 haul)
Eight Ross Rounds Sections (the 2016 haul)
Ross Round Section In Sealed Bag Ready For Freezing
Ross Rounds Section In Sealed Bag Ready For Freezing

Extended/Uncut Video

If you want to watch a novice beekeeper trying to work out how to package Ross Rounds for the first time, here you go.  There are lots of long pauses as I observe and try to work out what to do.  It’s like watching my boy trying to work out how to assemble his toy plane … but in this case, it’s an adult (I trained as an engineer … seriously!)

Conclusion

I am delighted with the results:

  • Eight sections (each weighs about 200g net)
  • Attractively packaged
  • Easy to assemble at start of season and harvest at end of season
  • Minimal time required (approx. 1 hour to assemble 3 racks at start of season and 1 hour to harvest and store racks at end of season)
  • A happy beekeeper!

This is my first effort.  I don’t think it has been a great year for honey production, with warnings by the National Bee Unit to feed bees. I have since bought and read Richard Taylors “The Comb Honey Book” – so I know  a bit more.  Richard refers to making section honey as an art form … and I am starting to get that.

This book has led me to think that next season I am going to try two methods of making honey sections: (1) leave alone – I will use new anti-swarm method I have discussed, and leave the bees to fill the Ross Rounds; (2) possibly try some shook swarms into a super and then queen excluder and 3 Ross Rounds boxes.  I’ll write more in due course (subscribe to keep updated).

I will definitely purse Ross Rounds sections next year, and probably every year.  “I will get good at it!”

Read More

  • Honey Sections – I consider the advantages, disadvantages, options (square, wood, round, plastic) and make a decision to buy Ross Rounds
  • Ross Rounds Assembly – I put the section racks together and place on the hive
  • My Hive Records – worth a read, now up to an unplanned 7 colonies (including 2 nucs)
  • Feeding Bees – This is what a lot of people are doing right now
  • Varroa Management – This is what a lot of people are doing right now
  • Beekeeping Calendar – I keep updating this based on my reading and experiences
  • Anti-swarm method that I reference in my conclusion above