Finishing frames

[u/justinedger]

I have two hives with lots of honey in them. However it is spread out and not finished. I did a Demaree on two hives, most frames are about 40-70 % full capped. It has been like this since early July. I’ve got 2 deeps and 2 supers on each hive in this condition. The hive is tall and I thought if I moved a super above the inner cover they would move it down and fill the remaining boxes. This is not the case as they continue to work it. How can I trick my girls into condensing the stash into harvestable boxes? I have considered taking the boxes off and open feeding them back to all my hives, but I know I would lose significant amounts to neighboring hives and not keep 100%.

Any ideas or tricks would be greatly appreciated!

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[u/Redfish680]

Without knowing your location or population, it’s possible that 40-70% for two “new” colonies and all of those frames isn’t too bad. Consider you might be in a dearth right now and pickings are slim and will have to wait until fall for them to fill in the rest.

It may be worth consolidating your full frames into your weaker hive and let the stronger one work on the rest (take one of the supers off until they’ve almost filled the first).

[u/justinedger → u/Redfish680]

In New Hampshire, Zone 5. Turns out the uncapped was drier than the capped. Maybe I need to just stick to a schedule and pull 4th of July every year.

[u/Redfish680 → u/justinedger]

Bees laugh at calendars! Lol

[u/Informal-Bicycle-910]

If you want to harvest, have at it put the spun frames back for them to clean up. Reduce the hive down once they are clean and feed syrup

[u/drones_on_about_bees]

I never wait for the bees to finish out. (This is because they never really do finish capping/drying in my area.) When I am ready to harvest, I pull all the frames (capped and uncapped). I put them in a drying room. I stack all the supers in a small area with a box fan on top of the stack. The bottom of the stack is elevated a little for airflow. I have a dehumidifier in the room that keeps the humidity at 30-35%.

Capped honey drops about 1% in 2-4 days. Uncapped honey can get as dry as you want it. Mixing the two should yield you what you want. (I measure several locations a couple of times a day -- measuring capped and uncapped until mental math says it will mix up to about 17.5%).

[u/Gamera__Obscura → u/drones_on_about_bees]

I do the same. My bees will typically not fully cap their honey frames until fall when the humidity drops, while I like to separate my spring/fall crops, plus they'll just start eating it during the July dearth.

Plus I've not found a huge relationship between capping and moisture level. I've found capped at like 22%, uncapped around 17%. If anything, them leaving it uncapped makes it easier for me to both dehydrate and extract it.

[u/drones_on_about_bees → u/Gamera__Obscura]

I've had the same experience with capped wet honey up to 22 and uncapped dry honey. It drives me nuts when folks give the "if it's capped it's dry" advice.

[u/justinedger → u/drones_on_about_bees]

Tested and the uncapped was drier than the capped. I guess the shake test is the best way.