The honey finish line

The honey season is on the home stretch. This is the time for beekeepers to pay attention to their supers. I always make sure there is an empty super on the hive. The bees will collect nectar as long as there is a place to put it. When I pull honey off the hive, if any colony has all the supers full I know I left some honey in the field. It is always best to pull off an empty super, then I know I was able to get all the honey the bees had the ability to collect. After the honey is pulled there will be some uncapped honey. But if the honey has been on the hive for a couple weeks the bees have usually ripened it. The only reason it isn't capped is because the cells were not full. As a precaution I always extract the frames of 50% or more uncapped honey separately and moisture check them to make sure the honey is 18.6% or below.