Episode 15: Hefting, entrance clearing and perfecting creamed honey.

[00:00:04] Welcome back to a Beekeepers Diary Podcast. Last check-in before Christmas, it's Sunday, last week before Christmas.

[00:00:16] Just come to check the bees, see that they've got enough food to get them through the week, possibly two weeks,

[00:00:23] and see if they're not, check they're securely strapped down because it's quite windy today and I think there's quite a lot of wind on the way.

[00:00:31] So hive one, still hefting nice and heavily, that means the hive feels heavy, plenty of stores in there.

[00:00:41] And in that hive when I lift the lid, well not lift the lid, I can lift the foam without breaking any of the seals on the hive

[00:00:47] and see through the see-through top of the hive. No condensation which is good, no drips are going to fall on the bees

[00:00:57] and make them cold and damp and miserable and probably kill them. So that's good.

[00:01:03] And the bees are clustered at the top, I can see that quite nicely, so that's quite good.

[00:01:12] So they're all okay. And hive two, still hefting heavily, can't really see any bees, they're all hiding down on the gaps between the frames.

[00:01:22] I can see a few in there. And I've checked the entrances on both hives, cleared them out, make sure there's no dead bees in the way.

[00:01:33] Put everything back together so they're all good, no complaints here.

[00:01:37] Beekeeping wise, I've been trying to get better at making creamed honey still.

[00:01:42] So I've got my oilseed rape buckets of honey from earlier in the year that have gone completely solid.

[00:01:50] So I'm just learning what temperature to warm that back up to, to make the crystals in the honey dissipate

[00:02:02] without going too high to ruin the honey. It's like a fine balance, you don't want to ruin the flavours

[00:02:07] and all the goodness in the honey, but I need to break those crystals down to make them a bit smaller.

[00:02:14] And then I add in my seed stock, you add in honey with the size of sugar crystals that you want to spread into your bucket of honey.

[00:02:26] And you need to warm that up very, very gently as well so you can actually mix it in.

[00:02:30] So I was up till 11 o'clock last night, sorting that out, getting the honey up to the right temperature,

[00:02:35] then cooling it down, mixing in the honey. And now I have to go through a few days of gently mixing the honey every few hours until it nicely sets.

[00:02:47] And it's got a nice smooth consistency and hasn't gone back to being crunchy and that granular mouth feel that isn't much fun.

[00:02:56] So I'm doing that at the moment. I found one spot in the house right inside the front door that is the right temperature range between 14 and 10 degrees in my little hallway.

[00:03:06] So I've been leaving a bucket of honey there to annoy my wife and I have to keep dragging it into the kitchen and use this honey creaming tool to sort of plunge.

[00:03:18] It's a good word, isn't it? Plunge. To plunge the honey, but without putting air into it.

[00:03:25] And then once I'm happy with how that's set, I really very gently warm that probably only to about 25 degrees, just enough to make it run through my jarring bucket to get it into the jars.

[00:03:37] And then we'll be good to go.

[00:03:41] Been trying to design some new labels for the creamed honey.

[00:03:46] So I did a little test run of that.

[00:03:48] And then I remembered you're not allowed to call it creamed honey because it hasn't got any cream in it.

[00:03:51] So I've got to, I might accidentally give away some of that honey with the wrong label on it or not to the satisfaction of trading standards.

[00:04:02] And then I shall get my next batch with a soft set written on there rather than creamed.

[00:04:08] I'll just use that for friends and family. I think I would try so I don't get myself in trouble.

[00:04:14] Other than that, not much going on.

[00:04:17] And then I'll just say hello to everyone that's listening around the world, if you're still listening.

[00:04:21] And wishing you all a Merry Christmas, if you celebrate it.

[00:04:25] If not, have a nice break.

[00:04:27] And if you're working, thank you.

[00:04:32] Catch you later.