“Getting Capped Honey” - by Malcolm Wilkie

Hi everyone, those of you who are getting honey are wondering when the bees are going to finally cap it so that you can do an extraction.

Well, here is a tip from Keith that Helen has used to get her honey successfully capped by the bees.

She took a wire frame Queen excluder and added three pieces of wood on three sides. She then placed it above the brood nest, creating an extra entrance below all the honey supers but above the brood nest (this obviously replaces the Queen excluder she already had in place). This new entrance faces exactly the same way as the entrance below. This enables a lot of air to flow into the colony which is what the bees require to cap the honey. It also means foragers can go directly to the honey supers to unload nectar. A win win situation.

Another thing that you should do if you want your honey capped, is to rearrange the super frames. Place any that are capped on the outside of the honey super and those that need capping near the centre. Remove a frame or even two from the super in question and create space between the frames. All of this will help with capping.

Sorry, yet another thing to do in your busy schedule as a beekeeper!

Malcolm Wilkie 13th July 2018