PRODUCING HEATHER HONEY - PART TWO
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Pure Ling Heather will not granulate for some considerable time, unlike other honey, but even as trace amount of other honey will ‘seed’ it which will make it granulate prematurely.
One major disadvantage Ling Heather does have higher water content than other honey – so is more liable to ferment. To reduce this risk, any stored honey must come from combs that were fully capped. If you do have some unsealed honey, make sure it is used rapidly and not stored, or make some mead.
When the bees are on the moor it is essential to have plenty of drawn out combs to maximise the heather crop. Do not expect a bumper crop each year, a typical 5 year cycle is:- reasonable crop/none at all/bumper crop/good/poor, but in which order is a bit of a lottery.
There is another advantage to getting wax drawn in the spring build up, in that the wax builders if occupied in their tasks can help to reduce the tendency to swarm early.
Let us assume the bees were taken to the moor early August and the weather has been kind and the heather is lasting well
There is always the temptation to add more supers if the weather is looking favourable, but caution is certainly required as this can be counterproductive.
As heather honey contains higher moisture content than flower honey it can ferment easier if stored in the unripe condition. Therefore it is far better to get 1 or 2 fully capped supers than 3 or 4 that are only partially capped.
To maximise the crop, move the sealed frames to the outside and locate unsealed to the middle. This action encourages the bees to continue working in a pyramid structure.
At this stage and if the weather remains fine, then a few sealed frames may be removed and more unsealed frames can be added in the centre, this action is better than adding an empty super.
Prolonged poor cold and/or wet weather can occur whilst on the moor and starvation can arise very quickly. If weather has been poor then check them for remaining food stores. The large hives are the most vulnerable due to the food demand, they can starve to death in a matter of a couple of days, feeding on the moor is not unheard of.
Assuming the weather has been kind and the nectar has yielded well, a good crop of surplus honey may be gathered. The the next stage it to get frames off for processing and to reduce weight and height of the hives for transporting back home ready to set up for winter.
Removing and transporting large hives full of honey is not easy, due to the weight. At this time of year and at the end of any honey flow, robbing can very easily be initiated so the best method is to use is clearer boards, I use glass quilts with one centre porter bee escape.
Brushing/shaking or blowing off bees to clear frames at this time of year should be avoided as this is likely to set off a robbing frenzy.
I never remove any honey from the bottom brood box, only taking honey from the supers.
Rapid clearing with clearer boards can be ensured if there is a clear space below and above the porter bee escape. In a National having 11 frames the porter escape is naturally in the centre and it is best to remove the centre frame, then clearing in 24 hours will be likely. Remember if there is any brood in the frames to be removed these will not be cleared as the nurse bees will never leave the brood.
It is also not a good idea to remove every super as expansion space is needed for the trip home.
To process the crop has a major assumption – i.e. that there has been some good weather and there is actually some heather honey to be removed!
Processing the heather honey has a number of options. Largely dependent on the scale of your operation and the number of combs to be processed.
The decision to process the surplus honey as comb or liquid honey is also a choice to be made. I am assuming a mixture of each is likely to be required.
By far the easiest and simplest is to cut out the comb into suitable sized pieces and place in proprietary ‘cut comb’ containers. These types of containers are very well priced and display comb honey very effectively. Thin super foundation, which is also unwired, is specifically produced for this purpose. If you have wire reinforced foundation then there must never be any wire found in the cut comb. I did once judge at a show where I found a 25mm long length of wire in a piece of cut comb and obviously disqualified the exhibit immediately. Avoid the inclusion of pollen cells in the cut comb as customers will see this as contaminated. For selling purposes it is more attractive to see a well cut piece of even coloured fully sealed comb. For ‘give-aways’ then the offcuts are suitable even if they are not fully capped.
Ling heather honey is a thick gel like consistency (called thixotropic) and does not run easily like other honey types. This can cause issues trying to fine filter and process.
For liquid honey production the more widely used or traditional method is to cut out the comb from the frame and press it out, usually through some form of strainer cloth ideally the nylon mesh type as this does not shed fibres and is easily laundered. The whole process of pressing heather honey is a very messy and time consuming process.
Traditional heather honey presses are difficult to locate, take up a reasonable storage space and are often quite heavy and expensive items, however many associations have loan ones available to members.
For small amounts, such as a single super or so, consider scraping the honey and comb back to the foundation, this has an advantage in that the foundation is preserved for the following season. The scrapings can go into a vacuum type filter unit, the vacuum soon pulls the honey through as long as a little-and-often amount is placed in the strainer.
I produce just about all my heather honey into jars. I am fortunate in have a heather honey “loosener” which was actually one of the first to be imported into the Country over 50 years ago. The unit enables honey to be spun from frames using a normal extractor, with frames orientated in the tangential manner.
The loosener is quite a simple concept, it has a series of small spring loaded 2mm diameter nylon, blunt ended needles, that when the operating, a handle is moved a number of times the needles agitate the honey in each cell a few times and make the honey temporarily liquid, which enables it to be spun out tangentially.
During storage the honey will revert back to its thixotropic state, with in a reasonable amount of time, but not as quickly as honey pressed out in the traditional manner.
As long as the frames are put in the extractor the correct way round, the honey is easily spun from the frames.
The direction of travel of the frames in a tangential extractor is important as the bottom bar needs to face the direction of travel. This is due to the cells having a slight angle towards the foundation, and then the honey is spun from the cells. (if cells were horizontal the nectar would run out of the frames when in the hive).
The loosener although initially quite expensive it is also a brilliant piece of equipment. The major benefit is the drawn out combs are preserved for the following season, and the major time and cost reduction from having to wax up new frames with foundation the following busy spring period. The additional spring and summer honey crop is also improved as the foundation is already drawn out ready for maximising nectar flows.
For exhibition purposes getting really good samples of heather is quite difficult often poor quality heather honey is presented simplifying the Judges task. Heather honey is thick (thixotropic) and difficult to fine filter, therefore it is difficult to remove wax pieces when preparing it for showing, the easiest method is pressing out the honey through fine filter cloth.
When returning hives from the moors it is often too late in the season to carry out a final brood disease inspection as there may be insufficient brood. Having a quarantine apiary is good idea as the returned hives can he located in isolation until brood rearing occurs again in spring and inspections can be resumed.
Leaving only heather on the hives as a sole winter food is never a good idea, there is a tendency (especially in lean years) to take out heather from the lower brood chamber, I don’t practice this as any in the brood box is for the bees own use. Brood frames may also have been close to varroa medication.
Too much heather honey in the winter diet can result in dysentery around Christmas time. Much better for the bees if a balance of food is available during the winter period. Hopefully a late Ivy nectar income has occurred and additional feeding with a thick syrup in the autumn and fondant from end September assists a more balance supply of food over the winter.
Mouse guards are fitted after the last chance of Ivy pollen gathering, I use ordinary galvanised mouse guards placed on the floor over the slot in our design of floor. Making sure no mice have already entered the hive – prior to fitting.
Some years ago I started to apply fondant feed from the end of September and have continued to do this since. I cannot understand the advice offered to heft hives and if light feed them, surely it is better to feed them prior to them going light, bees are better looking at food than for it.
I apply fondant early for good insurance. Fondant is warmed slightly, placed in old honey jars. The sealed jars are kept until they are required and simply placed over the glass quilt oval porter bee escape hole. A single piece of carpet with a 30mm diameter hole is placed over the glass quilt first as it then assists in sealing off the oval hole to that of a single jar top.
You often have to wonder why bother? - but the honey is such a highly prized product that the effort is worth it to see lots of thick, high aroma, wonderfully strong tasting honey in jars and buckets ready to go out for sale.
SUMMARY
Key aspects
- Move colonies onto moor beginning of August
- Breed for foraging bees to be available and ready for beginning of August
- From egg to foraging bee ~ 6 weeks
- Eggs need to be produced Early to mid June
- Queen excluders are not necessary
- Robbing on moors is very likely
- Drawn comb is vital
- Only store ‘ripe’ honey
- Quarantine hives on return
- Brood disease check in the spring
