Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: Honey Harvest Totals 2008  (Read 31195 times)

Offline Cindi

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 9825
  • Gender: Female
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #20 on: July 31, 2008, 02:28:56 pm »
Heather a little tip when quoting,  ;) :) :)

Type your stuff after the end quote symbol of another person's post, you know this symbol that you see:

Quote

Then your text won't show up in the blue box.  To see if you your text has appeared below the blue, push the preview button that is beside the post button and you will be able to see what your post looks like on the forum, a helpful little thing this preview button.  Beautiful and most wonderful day, Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline HEATHERNAY

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 30
  • Gender: Female
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #21 on: July 31, 2008, 02:33:23 pm »
yeah............was kinda wondering about that.....lol thx

Offline Cindi

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 9825
  • Gender: Female
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #22 on: July 31, 2008, 03:01:22 pm »
yeah............was kinda wondering about that.....lol thx

I kind of messed up with the "quote" thing on the last post.  This is what I was meaning, see my text below your text that has the [ / quote ]. (I had to put spaces in with the "quote" thing to show you so that it didn't quote my sentences here), hope this clarifies a little better than my last post, hee, hee.  Darn computer stuff anyways, hee, hee.  Have a most wonderful and awesome day, Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline HEATHERNAY

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 30
  • Gender: Female
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #23 on: July 31, 2008, 03:20:58 pm »
 :mrgreen:

Offline deejaycee

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 110
  • Gender: Female
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #24 on: July 31, 2008, 06:55:53 pm »
*LOL* Heather, I'd like to say we intended to just have two and 'caught the bug' so to speak... but actually we've intended right from the start to build a business.   We're aiming for between 100-300 hives, depending on how intensively we decide to manage them.   

I can't tell you how often though during last spring we debated whether we should just have a couple this year while we learn... or maybe 8 because that would be two pallets and kind of a nice number... but definitely not more than a dozen.... unless maybe we found a good deal and maybe we could handle a couple of dozen if the price was right.... and... or... orrrrr...

It's addictive.  Truly horribly addictive. 

This season (it's coming into spring here now in New Zealand), we're starting with 17 and we aim to add another 20 through splits for 37 total.  I can well imagine though that we'll end the season with between 50 and 60.  Just depends if we can afford to keep ahead of the equipment requirements.

Offline HEATHERNAY

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 30
  • Gender: Female
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #25 on: July 31, 2008, 08:23:46 pm »
OMG! You must have a lot of land? I live in the middle of a neighborhood and the houses arent in arms distance but Im thinking I could go as far as five...if I indeed get "THE BUG" and well, the last time I decided I needed to do something fun and for myself....I planted one rosebush...that ended up to be more than 20 along with everything else I planted!! I went crazy for sure!! so now that I have all these wonderful plants I decided I needed bees to share them with! What do you do with all that lushes gold? LOL
Heather

Offline deejaycee

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 110
  • Gender: Female
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #26 on: August 01, 2008, 12:40:00 am »
OMG! You must have a lot of land? I live in the middle of a neighborhood and the houses arent in arms distance but Im thinking I could go as far as five...if I indeed get "THE BUG" and well, the last time I decided I needed to do something fun and for myself....I planted one rosebush...that ended up to be more than 20 along with everything else I planted!! I went crazy for sure!! so now that I have all these wonderful plants I decided I needed bees to share them with! What do you do with all that lushes gold? LOL
Heather

*LOL*  Nope, no land to speak of.. we live on a 500 sq metre section in town... an 8th of an acre or thereabouts. :)

I work in town for a hort consultancy and my husband manages an organic blueberry block which is part of a larger organic cropping farm.   When we were thinking of something we could do together to eventually get out of the wage-slave life, we (heaven knows how) came up with beekeeping.  We have two hives at home, but the rest are out on the farm.  As we grow we'll be looking to start outyards on other farmers properties.

We sell the honey to a local large honey packer.  We take our boxes down to them and they do the extraction (for a fee of course) and buy all our honey from us.  A week later we go pick up our boxes of wet frames, and a month later the money's all in the bank. Lets us concentrate on being beekeepers rather than honey processors or salespeople.

Later on we'll look at perhaps some niche products, probably picking up on the organic focus, but for now we're focussed on learning to run the bees the best we can. 

As for how much honey we eat... uuhhh.. maybe half a cup between us all year, and that's just tasting bits off the hive occasionally.  Neither of us are big honey eaters.   :roll:

Offline Moonshae

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 988
  • Gender: Male
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #27 on: August 03, 2008, 10:19:38 pm »
2 hives, 80 lbs total. One was started this year and supplemented with swarms, so it did really well. There's still almost a full deep of honey in that one.

We'll see if there's a fall flow.
"The mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with beer." - Egyptian Proverb, 2200 BC

Offline KONASDAD

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 2011
  • Gender: Male
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #28 on: August 08, 2008, 12:40:29 pm »
Horrible year. I got 18 gallons from two hives last year, and 3 gallons from five hives this year. Lots of queenlessness this year and swarming from all of my purvis bees. total bust for honey, but did grow through swarms.i did get 5gallons from a recent cutout which i have been selling as "wild bee honey".
"The more complex the Mind, the Greater the need for the simplicity of Play".

Offline n9kww

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 26
  • Gender: Male
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #29 on: August 10, 2008, 11:23:33 am »
hive 1: 100 lbs
hive 2: 50 lbs
hive 3: 0
hive 4: 20lbs
hive5: 0
hive 6: 45lbs

rest unk at this time, season still young. I think i will wait until end of augest before i extract, the totals i have are by end weight of supers. acual toatal may vary by a lb or two

Offline MustbeeNuts

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 552
  • Gender: Male
    • Great White Betta
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #30 on: August 10, 2008, 12:09:39 pm »
I haven't extracted yet , 5 med supers from 2 hives, both started this spring, not to bad I guess. compared to some. Poor compared to others. Seemed like a good year tho. Just need to get that new extractor. lol always something needed.
Each new day brings decisions,  these are  new branches on the tree of life.

Offline TwT

  • Senior Forum
  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 3396
  • Ted
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #31 on: August 10, 2008, 09:07:21 pm »
lol always something needed.

seems to always be like that every year even after years of doing this ;)
THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 MONTHS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!

Never be afraid to try something new.
Amateurs built the ark,
Professionals built the Titanic

Offline sonnybee

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 15
  • Gender: Male
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #32 on: August 10, 2008, 10:23:53 pm »

hive 1-60#
hive 2-0
hive 3-0
hive 4-0
hive 5-0
not too good so far, it's been cool and wet during major flows

Offline DrKurtG

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 78
  • Gender: Male
    • My Bee Journal
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #33 on: August 11, 2008, 09:58:44 am »
One hive that is two years old - 8 gallons.
Two hives that are first year hives - 0

Hoping for one more honey flow here in southwestern Virginia!

A friend said to expect golden rod at the end of august. He also said that it doesn't taste very good!

Offline utahbeekeeper

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 137
  • Gender: Male
    • Millcreek Valley Farm
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #34 on: August 12, 2008, 12:31:37 pm »
Some of this is repeat from a post or 2 on main forum, but I thought I would total it all here.  It has been unreal!

3 hives, two overwintered and one a 4 lb package hived in April on drawn comb and some stores.  All 3 are strong and equal in activity.  On 5 July I extracted 18 gallons and reserved 4 frames of perfect capped comb for cut comb pack.

On 8 Aug I extracted 21 gallons and held back 9 frames of capped comb.  Thats 156 pounds per hive plus the 12 frames of comb.  Each hive now has 2 medium supers of drawn comb back on for the late summer.  Will pull it off late Sept.
Pleasant words are like an honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones.  Prov 16:24

Offline gottabee

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 122
  • Gender: Male
  • Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler.
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #35 on: August 12, 2008, 08:52:54 pm »
Summer drought in our area. It started off well but has been a very dry year.
Hive 1 - 20 lbs spring split
Hive 2 - 0 spring split
Hive 3 - 0 spring split
Hive 4 - 0 spring split
Hive 5 - 20 lbs
Hive 6 - 0
Hive 7 - 0
Hive 8 - 0
Hive 9 - 0
Hive 10 -0
Hive 11 - 60 lbs

Offline Misko

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 41
  • Gender: Male
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #36 on: August 13, 2008, 03:59:35 am »
I harvested 220lb from 5 hives the other 5 were empty :-x It was a bad year rain all the time.
Sory for my bad english.

Offline GaryMinckler

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 255
  • Gender: Male
    • Honeybees and Beekeeping
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #37 on: August 16, 2008, 06:10:30 pm »
22 pints (30 lbs).   8-)

Offline Greg Peck

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 388
  • Gender: Male
    • GregsBees.com
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #38 on: August 17, 2008, 02:36:59 am »
3 hives producing this year took 310 pounds of honey and 50 cut comb sections. Average 113 pounds each hive.
12 other hives from splits and swarms did not make extra honey this year.  I would not mind a 113 average next year with 15 hives.
"Your fire arms are useless against them" - Chris Farley in Tommy Boy
Semper Fi
www.gregsbees.com www.secondfast.com/gregsworkshop/ www.secondfast.com/bees

Offline TwT

  • Senior Forum
  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 3396
  • Ted
Re: Honey Harvest Totals 2008
« Reply #39 on: August 17, 2008, 11:53:39 pm »
3 hives producing this year took 310 pounds of honey and 50 cut comb sections. Average 113 pounds each hive.
12 other hives from splits and swarms did not make extra honey this year.  I would not mind a 113 average next year with 15 hives.

good year Greg, what was your biggest flow source?
THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 MONTHS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!

Never be afraid to try something new.
Amateurs built the ark,
Professionals built the Titanic