Cazza
Queen Bee
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2010
- Messages
- 2,528
- Reaction score
- 22
- Location
- Suffolk/Norfolk border
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 5 ish
Generally you can leave it until the flowers start to fade but in the meantime if you have enough capped frames to extract then do it.
I also check the state of OSR honey using the shake test before it is capped and sometimes extract before capping.
The shake test is good but using a refractometer to check water content is better, especially if you are not confident in your judgement. I like to play "guess the water content" and then use the gadget to check. It reminds me of checking the moisture content of wheat by biting it before we had a meter to test it with.
Cazza