[DutchBee]

This is what I have going on. I intended on having 5 hives this year as I am a second year beek. I lost a package with a dead queen but caught two swarms so ended up with 6 hives.
I bought 10 med honey supers this year and foundation and already had a honey super and foundation so I have a total of 11 med honey supers. We are having a bumper crop this year that is the good part of the problem. The bad part is I put a fresh Med super on every hive Friday and the have already drawn them and are nearly complete filling them. Yeah I know good thing. And I have a extractor so we were just going to extract and put the supers back on.
Problem is that I just found out on this site about high moister content in the honey is not good. I did the poke test I read about and my honey seems very wet and I am afraid that if I extract it it will go bad. I tested the capped honey. I was under the impression from my studies that if it was capped i was good to go.
I am building a enclosed plastic tent with my very large dehumidifier to lower the moister. Problem is my hives are full to the brim with bees and if I take the supers to dry they will not fit in the hives.

I am out of equipment and can not buy more as I had not planned on needing this quantity.

Some questions?
Can I extract then remove moister?
Should I or where should I get a refractor meter?
Should I even buy one as finance resources are limited?
Should I seek to find a local beek with one to use or a local beek with some supers to through on?
Should I have planned on doing splits and had hardware for that reserved? On new packages?

Don't be afraid to tell me all the beginner mistakes I made. I thought I planned it out buy getting the extractor and additional supers. Honestly I thought it would be like last year and my first year packages would not give surplus let alone every package filling two to four supers. No kidding I have a April package with four Med supers full right now and our flow is still on.

Any advise would be appreciated.

 

[RayMarler]

Have you thought about selling a hive, minus the supers, would give you a little breathing room with equipment and get some cash in pocket too. Could then purchase another super or two or three to help with the lack of equipment issue. I myself would not purchase a refractometer, I would just make sure the honey was capped and extract it. You have high air humidity there I bet, which makes your honey wetter, even after it's capped.

 

[devdog108]

I'm with Ray....extract it and give it back to them wet...lettem work...

 

[DutchBee]

I can extract it and give them back the wet supers as that is what I planned. We have extremely high humidity going on and I am very sure the honey is too wet even though it is capped.

I am worried I will waste the extracted honey if it ferments.
Any thoughts on the removing moister from extracted honey?

 

[rrussell6870]

I agree with both other posts...time to get sticky! Take it off and let em do their thing... Dont worry about the bulk on the outside of the hives... they will be fine. You should make splits next spring and have plenty of deeps on hand to keep from running into trouble again. You may be able to find a local beek that can sell you some used equipment a little cheaper...the drawn wax will prove very useful. Also keep you winter length in mind...make sure that they have plenty of stores ready to get them through winter because it sounds like you have some strong layers and a strong hive that is feeding brood will starve much faster than a weak one. Good luck!

 

[rrussell6870]

your plastic tent in the sun with the huge dehumidifier should do the trick. We are in MS and usually run between 88 and 100% humidity and we usually dont have any trouble after an hour in the summer sun.

 

[the doc]

hey dutchbee im over by wayland, mi and i have two new packages working some serious honey flow right now. They have no real interest in sugar syrup and they are builing comb fast almost filling 3 mediums. Maybe even get some honey out of em.

What are they on right now? I see sumac in full bloom everywhere. ANy other ideas?

 

[beepriddy]

Hi Dutchbee!

I'm a second year beek myself - glad you are having a bumper crop! I'm with the others, I'd extract it if I had that much. Also in answer to your question:
Should I or where should I get a refractor meter? I found a pretty nice one on e-bay, I paid a little more for mine than some of the cheaper ones, but it had some things with it that I knew I needed to keep it calibrated and in good working order, not to mention a hard case. It would have made a nice anniversary, birthday or other gift for a beek and not too expensive either..... hope this gave you some ideas! Good Luck put a post out and let us know how the extraction goes if you do it.

 

[Bsweet]

could be wrong but if your bees capped it they must think its honey.My first honey this year was very thin and lite in color,it is still good for eatin and has not spoiled. Jim

 

[Roland]

The bees are smarter than us. They would not cap honey if it was not ready yet.

Roland

 

[DutchBee]

hey dutchbee im over by wayland, mi and i have two new packages working some serious honey flow right now. They have no real interest in sugar syrup and they are builing comb fast almost filling 3 mediums. Maybe even get some honey out of em.

What are they on right now? I see sumac in full bloom everywhere. ANy other ideas?

White Sweet Clover.:thumbsup: Have tons of it, and I do not think I have ever seen this much before. Combine that with the alfalfa and clover that is still blossoming again and again. The weather has just been awesome, rain than hot sun, then rain and hot sun. That is delaying the farmers from cutting hay so the alfalfa is blossoming before it gets cut.
The White Sweet Clover has to be a result of the weather and/ or the fact I burned the field last fall.
I am seeing Sumac on the roadsides and we had one heck of a year for milkweed as well. Sure wish I would have gotten that sunflower field planted this year. Will be concentrating on that next spring and a new alfalfa feed starting this fall.

My hives are in the middle of a forty acre field of Goldenrod that has not blossomed yet but have about 8 acres of the White Sweet Clover right on them. Almost scary walking out to the hives and hear the entire 8 acres of the sweet clover humming!
Now I wish I had twenty hives running.
I am going to go ahead and build the plastic room and put the dehumidifier in it and make sure the honey is dry enough though.

Good year to raise bees in the Great Lake State!

 

[valleyman]

Ditto Roland, If it's capped its good.