How to soften the crystallized honeycombs
Probably, every beekeeper after the exhibition of families has to find in honeycomb hives with crystallized honey.
The scheme of the bath.
Often, bees throw crystals at the bottom of the hive. To help them, I independently made a special bath. From above it is closed with a lid 1. The height of the body (4) is 400 mm, the inner width is 472.
The bottom 7 is made of metal sheet. The upper support bars 3 support the frame: 2. On the lower bars 6 there is a pallet 5 intended for collecting the draining honey from the frames. I heat the bath with electric hotplate 8 through the magnetic starter PME-P. The temperature is controlled by the thermal relay Tp-200 (the control range is from 25 to 200 њ C).
The relay 9 is adjusted by the adjusting screw 11. When the screw is turned clockwise, the heating temperature decreases, and the temperature decreases. The setting is as follows.
Preheating the water, together with the relay I put the mercury thermometer in there and watch its readings. When the water warms up to 35 њ C, the relay light should go out. If this does not happen, slowly turn the screw clockwise until the light turns off and watch when it lights up again. I adjust the relay to the desired temperature and insert it into the hole 12. The relay has a thread, but it can not be screwed, otherwise you can not remove the honey tray. The relay contacts 10 are connected in series with the coil of the magnetic starter, which serve as its switch.
After flying around as an incentive feeding, I give bees in honeycombs sugar syrup with milk (300 ml of milk per 1 kg of sugar). We work together. The helper removes a heavy frame from the nest, the frame with the syrup places the fourth from the wall of the hive. On the fourth day, the bees choose all the syrup from it. A frame with honey is placed in the bath. Two days later I start to warm it up.
Thickened honey dissolves over 24, and crystals – for 48 hours. Within frameworks with crystallized honey I cut off zabrus and, after pouring honeycomb with warm water, put them in a bath. Honeycombs with thickened honey do not open. On the fourth day, we distribute the preheated honeycombs, first unpacking the frames with thickened honey. The assistant takes out the empty frame and pushes the honeycomb with the brood, placing the heated honeycomb between them.
At the same time, he selects the next frame that needs to be warmed up.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)How to soften the crystallized honeycombs