[Plannerwgp]

At the end of August, I will remove any remaining supers and then treat the2 lower brood boxes with Apivar, and I will feed at the same time. My question pertains to the supers I take off that are uncapped. There will be at least 10-15 and they will be partially filled and many with uncapped honey and I assume higher moisture content. I can process the capped honey. What do I do with so much uncapped honey and higher moisture content? I do not want to contaminate the supers by leaving them on while treating with Apivar.

 

[psm1212]

I think this answer will get a lot of criticism, and perhaps rightfully so, but I will tell you what I do. I take the remaining supers with frames of open nectar and set them on their sides about 75 to 100 yards from my hives and let them get robbed dry. I can then store the frames outside under my shed so long as no brood has been raised in the comb. SHB have nothing to eat and leave it alone. If no cocoons from brood rearing, wax moths are not interested in it either. The only problems I have are the squirrels chewing on the wooden frames.

You are always taking a risk open feeding with robbing, mite and disease transmission. So far, I have been lucky and this method has worked for me.

 

[jonsl]

You could harvest the uncapped frames also and spend some time drying the honey.

 

[Akademee]

You can make creamed honey or mead with over moist honey. Good creamed honey is typically refrigerated and is made by getting some good creamed honey from the store and mixing it in your honey!

 

[Jack Grimshaw]

Get a refractometer and test your uncapped honey,you may be surprised.If you use 18% as a cut off point,a little bit at 20% mixed with a lot at 17% would give an average below 18%.Depends on your late summer flow.
Another thought would be consolidate unripe honey on a few hives and use a formic treatment .
If you had a freezer,you could store the unripe honey and replace in the hives after treatment.
I over super in the spring and try to under super in the fall so that I don't have to deal with partial supers at the end of my fall flow.Any extra nectar goes down into the brood nest.
I also run all one size frame so I can switch out partial frames with an empty frame which may or may not get melted down and filled with foundation for the supers in the spring.

 

[Kabnetz]

About reducing moisture content: one year I accidentally harvested a handful of frames that were not even close to fully capped, maybe 60%? I ran them through the extractor first, without uncapping, to spin out the nectar...then I scraped down the machine with a rubber spatula and drained it.... and only THEN did I uncap and spin out the honey.

 

[ifixoldhouses]

spin it out BEFORE you scrape off the cappings, feed it to the bees, then uncap your frames and extract the rest of the honey.

 

[LarryBud]

:thumbsup: