Harvesting leftover honey in spring, any suggestions?

I left a full 20 bars of honey in a top bar hive. this spring nearly all of it is gone. They have tons of brood though.

My tip woudl be that if you want to get any of that honey that is left you do it soon.

I would not take any honey until more is coming in. The easiest way to determine if the honey is surplus is when they are storing it.

Honey should be harvfested in the Summer and Fall. You are too late, Leave it.

Crazy Roland

Ya, the bees'll take that honey and make more bees. This time of the year, that's the ticket to a strong hive for splitting.

By spring my fall honey is all crystallized and virtually impossible to harvest. I leave it for them to build up on in the spring.

ToneTone I had a lot of honey left this spring from a dead out and I took two frames and used the crush and strain method and all went well. Check to see if it is crystalized and if not you can enjoy some. Warm it up to 100 degrees if you can, you oven with the light on will get to about 100 given some time.

So to rather ask than reply, I have the small cell plastic frames that are loaded with spots of honey, not brood. I thought if putting a board over the top super and laid a frame over top and scratched it open (enclosed in an empty box), I could get my brood frame back sooner (assuming they move the honey below into the super. Thoughts?

I've got a hive that I over wintered that's two deeps. I checked it a month ago and had a few frames of honey from over winter so I took one and scraped it with a spoon and strained it and all went well I set frame back in hive for them to draw back out and they did. Waited couple weeks and harvested another frame to try and give them some room all has gone good but they still swarmed but been enjoying the honey and they made me a couple more hives. After I did this I just found out that hives that are building fast and strong need honey because they have a lot of mouths to feed. I guess mine still had surplus honey. I got away with it this time.

blueskydixon said:

I have the small cell plastic frames that are loaded with spots of honey, not brood.

Click to expand...

If the honey is crystallized and there is a flow they might not take it out. If you leave it there too long they may build comb in the empty box you use to protect it.
Can you put this frame into the brood chamber and pick out an empty frame somewhere else? Then you don't have something to baby sit.

>I thought if putting a board over the top super and laid a frame over top and scratched it open

They will move open honey faster than capped... You could just scratch it open and put it in the brood nest or next to the brood nest...