Uncapped honey in brood chamber

[Cindi]

I was checking my colonies, (5 of them), getting them ready for winter.  I saw lots of honey that was not capped yet in one of the colonies.  Will the bees cap this honey before the cold weather hits, which is pretty quick, or does it matter that it is not capped.  Live in the Lower Mainland in British Columbia, about 45 km east of Vancouver

[Scadsobees]

Probably a lot of it is from filling in now empty broodspace with honey.  They probably aren't making much wax any more, so they probably won't cap it.  That don't really matter much, because this is what they will be and are consuming.

As long as they have enough honey in there, I wounldn't worry about it.

-rick

[Michael Bush]

Bees ALWAYS have some open honey/nectar/syrup in the brood nest.  365 days a year, 24 hours a day.  They may cap the honey everywhere else, but they never cap the honey where they are actually clustered.  Don't worry about it.

[Zoot]

What if the comb in the upper boxes is not capped? I have arranged both of my hives (8 frame mediums) for winter; one has 4 boxes the other has 3.  Both are certainly "honey bound". In the 4 box hive only the frames in the box directly above the cluster (#3) is capped, #4 is not though all of the comb is full. In my other hive no comb is capped.

[Brian D. Bray]

When the temperatures drop below a given point, as it often does this time of year, the bees will stop capping honey, even stop processing it--extended periods of rainy weather can produce the same result.  As a consequence the hive will have stores that may ferment or crystallize due to too high of a water content.  The bees will also have a tendency to use up uncapped stores at a faster rate than is normal so checking early in the spring for needed feeding is a must.  Other than that, no sweat.

[Finsky]

It depends what is much? How many frames and what percentace of surface?

Beeds tend to gather winterfood from cold corners in the center of hive after brood had emerged. It will leave open. Maybe it is too late feed any more in canada if food is uncapped in vast area on on sides.

You may take capped frames from another hives and give them into center uncapped frames.

[HelenJames]

I think this topic was already mentioned at this forum

[Kathyp]

hey cindi!!

just because it's not capped doesn't mean it's going to go bad on them.  i pulled my honey supers and some of the uncapped honey was so thick and cured that i couldn't bang it out of the cells. 

if you aren't taking it and you are feeding, they'll probably cap it.  if you are not feeding, they'll probably just eat it first.  :-)

[Cindi]

Wow, isn't it funny how old posts are resurrected, and upon reflection on them, the knowledge gained through a few years of listening and personal experience can make a difference on how things are viewed.  That was almost four years ago that I made this request for knowledge, and looky, looky, smiling, still getting beautiful and wonderful responses to it, go! go! go!  Keep those ol' posts coming back and back and back, we all learn so much by things in life, have those beautiful days, those days to love and live with our life of friends, Cindi

[buzzbee]

The poster that resurrected has two posts and resurrected the other with the same reply.Go figure.

[Cindi]

The poster that resurrected has two posts and resurrected the other with the same reply.Go figure.

Well, isn't that just the oddest thing, there are indeed strange things done, have that beautiful and awesome day, with health perfect.  Cindi