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I have developed a taste for ivy honey but, of course, it crystalizes and clogs the brood box over the winter. Usually I feed much syrup in September to fill the brood box before the ivy starts to flower (not always successful in our mild west of Ireland autumns, because the worker bees can stay active even in November). Any suggestions that would give me ivy honey without the brood box problem?
Alan.
I'm not too keen on it myself although I have harvested it in the past. I guess the answer is not to feed and then hope for a week of good weather in September when the ivy can really come in rapidly. Then remove the honey and feed. I suppose you could over-feed other colonies so there were spare frames of sealed stores in them that you could then give the ivy gathering colony once you had removed your small harvest late on? This saves dumping loads of syrup on the colony late in the year.