Snapped this pic yesterday...

[robk23678]

They are capping honey? Busy little bees...

[Moots]

They are capping honey? Busy little bees...

rob,
Is that a question?  Other than maybe about a dozen cells in the upper right hand corner, I'm not seeing any capped honey.

[robk23678]

looks to me like the frame is loaded and they are starting on capping it? new to this, was looking for a bit of insight from more experienced beeks.

[iddee]

You are correct. They are starting to cap honey. Nice looking frame.

[Moots]

You are correct. They are starting to cap honey. Nice looking frame.

iddee,
Help educate a newbie if you don't mind.  What tells you that?

[iddee]

38 years of looking in little white boxes??

Most cells look nearly full.
The liquid is nearly clear.
The cells around the capped honey are partially capped. 
Others have a wax ring where they are beginning to cap.
The cappings are cotton white.

[AllenF]

Yes they are starting to cap.

[sc-bee]

Hey moots

Click on the pic and open it. After it opens click again to enlarge it one more time. This will help you zoom in and you can see the clear honey in the cells.

[capt44]

When the bees start capping off honey cells the honey is ripe meaning the moisture is 18.5 or lower.
When the cells are open with honey inside the moisture content is too high.
Ripe honey has a very, very long shelf life while honey that is not capped will tend to ferment.

[sc-bee]

When the bees start capping off honey cells the honey is ripe meaning the moisture is 18.5 or lower.
When the cells are open with honey inside the moisture content is too high.
Ripe honey has a very, very long shelf life while honey that is not capped will tend to ferment.

That is a good general rule of thumb but not always true. Sometimes when the flow is over they will refuse or be reluctant to cap partially filled cells. The honey will be cured but not capped. Thus you have heard of the shake test. But with that said it is best to go with capped honey or a refractometer(sp).

[Finski]

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To me it seemed half full nectar

.

[sc-bee]

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To me it seemed half full nectar

Agreed. When I posted earlier I started to put nectar/honey. When does it technically become honey. They gather the nectar, by the time it is placed in the cells is it nectar or uncured honey? Only semantics I guess unless you try an put the uncured honey in a jar and then I guess it will try and become mead :-D

[Finski]

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Honey has water about 17%.
Nectar has something 30% or what ever  10% or over.
honey dew may be so dry on leaves that bees cannot suckit in the middle of day.
I have seenin canola  nectar droplets which lenghten like a glue. It is too dry bees to suck them.

Sometimes it takes 2 weeks to dry up the nectar that  bees can cap it.

[Moots]

rob,
Didn't mean to hijack your thread with my question...and perhaps I asked it poorly. 

While I understand the process and realize what factors need to be present for bees to cap honey, proper moisture content, etc....I had never heard of being able to tell when that is about to take place.  I'd never heard of any clear indicators that a frame was about to be capped.  I thought it was a case of "it looks ready to cap" but then you just have to patiently wait, and it happens when it happens.

From what I've heard at my LBC's it seems like a lot of folks are having issues with a lot of partially capped frames.  Other than the obvious answer, that, that section of the frame isn't ready to be capped...any reason why this would be a regular occurrence in an area. 

[sc-bee]

Just a quick note on robs question- yes looks like you have a frame well on the way weather you call it nectar now as they are not quite finish drying  or honey  :th_thumbsupup:


Waiting to hear answers to moots question.

[robk23678]

It's been plenty warm here the past week, and lots of bees on the apron fanning away. Sun is up about 4:30am here, and goes down around 9pm, so there's lots of daylight for them to gather. Not to mention they have a giant (10' x 30') lilac "bush" about 10 feet in front of their hive, and the garden is less than 200 yards away.

[sc-bee]

It's been plenty warm here the past week, and lots of bees on the apron fanning away. Sun is up about 4:30am here, and goes down around 9pm, so there's lots of daylight for them to gather. Not to mention they have a giant (10' x 30') lilac "bush" about 10 feet in front of their hive, and the garden is less than 200 yards away.

Won't get much nectar from a garden but the garden will love the bees. In my experience bees will starve on cukes, squash, melons etc.

[Finski]

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Bees forage on average on the area, where radius is 2 km.

[robk23678]

I should have clarified, wife put all kinds of flowering plants around the edge of the garden, which is 27' x 45', next to an open field of flowers, around 4 acres or so. then the remaining area is mostly wooded, and corn fields.

[Finski]

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10 bees is enough to clean the garden. You need work to 30 000 bees.