Bob Billson wrote:
>
> I just finish taking off the last two of my supers for my first year. I
> noticed a couple frames were not completely capped. They are only the
> outermost frames. A couple are capped on one side but not the other. The
> bees started capping one side while other is still uncapped.
>
> I am doing cut comb honey this year (crushing the comb and straining).
> Torrow, I need to put Apistan on the colonies, so I can't give the frames
> back to the bee to finish off.
>
> What should I do with the partial capped frame? Should I feed that honey
> back to the bees?
Bees may leave the last honey produced uncapped even though its dry. I
guess its a waste of wax to bother covering something that will soon be
consumed. Anyway its the overall moisture you're concerned with. A rule
of thumb is to extract when 3/4 of the honey is capped. If you're crop
is small you may want to avoid extracting honey that shakes out of the
comb.