North London Honey harvest and late summer foraging

Another season of beekeeping is starting to wind down. Last night we were busy preparing cut comb and spinning out the last frames from our favourite hive – Hive 2. For some reason the bees in that hive make more honey than any of our others and they forage on different flowers, giving a more flavoursome honey. They are also sweet natured.

Preparing cut comb

Spinning honey

The bees have been busy in our garden – there aren’t so many nectar giving flowers at this time of the year, but they have managed to seek out these ones…

Honey bees on Echinacea
Echinacea

Honey bees on pumpkin flower
Pumpkin

5 thoughts on “North London Honey harvest and late summer foraging

  1. Jacky Gawne

    Do you leave any honey in the supers for winter feed or do you remove all the supers and feed with a sugar solution or fondant? I am finding the books confusing about feeding for winter I’m afraid. Each of my two hives has honey in the brood frames.

    Reply
    1. Helen Rogers Post author

      Hi Jacky, I’ve done both successfully! As usual there are so many different opinions about this… I use 14×12 frames, so I aim to have 4 frames of honey in the brood box for winter. I put some fondant on around Christmas and keep an eye on the consumption, adding more if needed.
      Last year I had a couple of supers that hadn’t been capped by September, so I left them on the hives. These hives didn’t need any fondant. Some people put the super under the brood for the winter, I might try that this year if I’m in the same position.
      I hope this is helpful

      Reply
      1. Jacky Gawne

        Yes it is, thank you. Are you concerned about low temperatures if the supers are on either below or above the brood box for winter or do you not feel this is a problem due to where your hives are situated?

        Reply
        1. Helen Rogers Post author

          I insulate my hives – some of them are poly hives anyway, in the rest I put a sheet of insulation in the roof. When I put fondant on I put insulation around it too.

          Reply

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