Goldenrod/aster honey crystallising in the frames — how fast must I extract, and can granulated frames be spun?
Second season in Ontario and my first time keeping a fall super on. Two hives, one medium each, and the goldenrod-aster mix came in like a freight train the last three weeks. Most frames are capped now. Problem: I uncapped a corner cell with my hive tool to check moisture and the honey inside was already grainy, almost like wet sand. The frames feel heavier and stiffer than my summer frames did.
I can't get the club extractor until the weekend after next, so about twelve days away. Will the whole super be set solid by then? Can a partly crystallised frame even be spun, or does the extractor just fling the liquid and leave the grainy part in the comb? And if they do set, what do I do with them — crush and strain, or give them back to the bees for winter? I'd hate to lose the only real surplus I've had.
Goldenrod and aster are the fastest-setting honeys most of us handle — in a cool super they can go grainy in a couple of weeks, so twelve days is pushing it. Two things help: bring the super into a warm room, 30-35°C, a day or two before you spin. Warm honey flows, cold fall honey barely moves. Then spin promptly. A partly set frame gives up the liquid and leaves the grain behind; a frame gone solid can't be spun at all. Those you crush and strain warm, or give back to the colonies — bees handle crystallised honey fine if they can get water. Keep comb under 40°C or the wax slumps.
VTBeeHannah · Sep 8, 2026
Vermont, same boat last year — I waited three weeks for an extractor and got maybe half the honey out, the rest stayed in the comb like sugar. Ended up putting the frames back on the hives in October and they cleaned them out over winter, so it wasn't wasted. Just not in jars. Also, that smell in the bee yard right now is not something dying, it's the goldenrod curing. Took me a week to learn that.
QuebecBees · Sep 9, 2026
Quebec perspective: I don't even try to jar fall honey any more. The goldenrod-aster super stays on as the winter feed, which saves me a lot of syrup, and the colonies come through on it well. If you do want the jars, GeorgiaWes is right about the warm room — I'd also warm the extractor itself; a cold stainless drum against cold honey is a slow afternoon.
BethsBees · Sep 9, 2026
Borrowed a friend's two-frame hand extractor instead of waiting and did it in the kitchen at 28°C after a night indoors — about 11 kg out, only two frames too far gone, and those went straight back on hive two. Thanks all, lesson learned about fall honey timing.