Ivy is opening early down here — leave it for the bees or race the crystallisation?
First ivy flowers are opening around Cork a week or so ahead of usual, and the bees found them before I did. Which means it's time for the annual ivy argument, so let's have it here instead of in my head.
For the newer folks: ivy is the last big flow of the year in Ireland and Britain, and the honey is so high in glucose it sets rock-hard in the comb within weeks. Bees winter on it fine — it's their natural late store and they'll use it, though they need water access to dissolve the granulated stuff. But if you want to HARVEST any, you're racing the set: extract within days of capping or it's not coming out of those combs without cutting them up.
Twelve years on, my answer is leave it — the bees pack it around the brood nest exactly where they want it, and I'd rather skip the drama. But I know good beekeepers who pull a super of it every year and swear by it. Where do you land?
#ivy#fall-flow#crystallisation#winter-stores
▲ 9 votes💬 4 replies
4 replies
DevonBees_Em · Sep 4, 2026
Devon: I'm a leave-it beekeeper for the brood boxes but I'll admit to pulling one super in a good ivy year. The trick is extracting warm and FAST — off the hive and spun the same day, then it sets in the bucket instead of the comb and gets sold as set honey. Miss the window once and you learn. The pollen matters as much as the nectar anyway, last protein of the year for the winter bees.
GalwayBees · Sep 4, 2026
Galway second-year — so if my brood boxes fill with ivy and it all sets solid, the bees can genuinely still use it? I'd read they struggle with granulated stores in the cold and I've been low-key worried they'll starve sitting on a box of concrete.
CorkBeeRon · Sep 4, 2026
GalwayBees — they manage it, colonies here have wintered on ivy since long before beekeepers had opinions about it. They need water to dissolve the crystals, which winter condensation mostly provides free of charge. You'll see chewed-out crystal dust on the floor in spring, that's normal wastage not starvation. Heft for weight like any other winter and you're grand.
PerthshireBees · Sep 5, 2026
Perthshire's ivy is thinner than yours but I'll add the third camp: I harvest nothing, but I do stick a wet super above the crownboard for a week after the flow so they move any unripe dregs down. Keeps the ivy consolidated in the brood chamber instead of half-filled boxes I have to store. CorkBeeRon's right that they winter on it fine up here too.