# summer honey vs fall honey



## MichelinMan (Feb 18, 2008)

Hi Looner

_"summer honey extracted combs should be placed back on the hive to allow bees to take this honey back into their deeps for winter"_

If you`re going to do this, then why extract them in the first place?
_
"We're also having a discussion about feeding back their honey in the spring, rather than sugar water"_

This is excellent advice if the colony if starving or in need of stores in early spring. They can eat the honey right away and survive. Sugar water on the other hand needs to be stored and ripened before it is suitable for food for the bees. This takes a lot of time. And time is one thing a starving colony does not have. For this reason you should feed honey in spring.... 

... or dry sugar apparently. I don`t know how that one works, because they would need water to dilute the sugar and if the weather is still too cold to fly I don`t know how they would get the water. I wish someone would explain that one to me.

Luc


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## Countryboy (Feb 15, 2009)

_there are those who say fall honey is not good for the bees _

Apparently fall honey is not bad for the bees either. They have been eating fall honey for umpteen thousand years now, and if fall honey wasn't good for the bees, you'd think the detrimental effects would have wiped out the bees eons ago.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

... or dry sugar apparently. I don`t know how that one works, because they would need water to dilute the sugar and if the weather is still too cold to fly I don`t know how they would get the water. I wish someone would explain that one to me.


The bees eat the honey and convert it to heat, in a cold hive, causes condensation, lots of water. The dry sugar on top absorbs the condensation and the bees then can use it. As they move up thru the winter, they can then have the sugar patty on top as emergency feed stores.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Loonerone said:


> - there are those who say fall honey is not good for the bees


I hear this all the time. Goldenrod is bad wintering food. Also that Goldenrod is a darl honey.

Well, here Goldenrod in ELA. Also, I winter quite successfully on Goldenrod. I remove the summer honey about the middle of August...the start of the Goldenrod flow. Any colonies that are already getting heavy, will get a super. Those colonies that are light don't. I allow them to store the Goldenrod in the broodnest. This so I don't have to feed syrup. These colonies winter as well as those that have stores the lighter summer honey in their broodnest.


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## sjbees (Jun 9, 2007)

There are two sources of dark honey: nectar and the beekeeper.

I have never met anyone whose bees suffered because they overwintered on dark honey that had been gathered from nectar. 

Honey which has been heated can caramelize e.g. drippings from the solar melter when rendering wax. Beeks who fed dark honey to bees in the fall have had problems. 

I had assumed the story started because experiences were different in an area where bees cannot take cleansing flights over winter (not a problem in this area). Given that the previous response is from Vermont, seems like dark honey from nectar works as well there as here.


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## Loonerone (May 4, 2009)

Thanks everyone - good insights, as usual. We are set to extract our first honey this weekend and plan to keep a few frames to have available for the bees in the spring if they need food. What I've learning, no food will help if the cluster will not break, and in Maine, that is a real issue in the coldest months. Hopefully the bees will have lots of stored honey to use over the winter. So far they are doing well.


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