Honey harvest results for 2009

[BMAC]

As stated in other posting pretty dismal year for honey here.  Bad choice of locations along with bad year for honey.  I averaged 24lbs per colony. 

[sqkcrk]

Produced about 25 or 30 lbs per colony. About 1/3 of a "normal" crop.

[woodchopper]

We started the year with 11 hives and ended up with 8. We ended up with just under 500 lbs but because of the warm winter we're having the girls ended up eating their reserves up quicker than expected. I intended to feed the girls back some of their honey over the winter and because I didn't check soon enough we've already lost 2 of the eight hives. Pretty stupid of me to not check sooner but at least I learned something. Will check the hives in Maine next weekend and feed if necessary. Hope they are still alive to need feed.

[applebwoi]

Ended up with about 400 lbs.  The spring flow was cut very short by a freak snow storm in March that killed everything that was blooming.  I also think I hurt myself by having too many hives in my back yard and not enough forage for them to gather extra.  All hives made some honey, but none produced as well as past years when I had fewer hives.  I feed dry sugar during the winter and some of the hives are going through it quickly and others haven't touched it yet. 

[Greg Peck]

I ended up with a little over 600 pounds this year. For some reason it has been a slow year for selling the honey though. Still have a good bit left. Last year I was sold out by now.

[bassman1977]

I ended up with a little over 600 pounds this year. For some reason it has been a slow year for selling the honey though. Still have a good bit left. Last year I was sold out by now.

I had the same problem selling honey.  I attribute it to the economy.  Seems like the older crowd stayed loyal though.  I did have a guy buy about 3 gallons from me, which was nice.  I probably have 4 or 5 gallons left over.

[D Coates]

I had 3 more hives than I did from the previous year (from 6 to 9) but the rain and the cool weather got me just slightly more honey than I did last year.  I'd say I was about 1/2 to 2/3rds of what I expected and I fed heavily in the fall.  I count on them refilling their reserves during the limited fall flow for winter but there was no Fall flow here.  Only once have I had them pull honey off of the soybean field next to me during the summer and that just about doubled what I got from them that year.  Apparently that takes decent rainfall and HOT conditions.

[Grandma_DOG]

Texas went from severe drought to Extreme drought. No harvest from my hives.

But I did do a cutout of a massive feral hive that got me 92 pounds. A video of that is on youtube...
Massive Beehive in Closet - 1 of 2

And I got 14 pounds off another hive, that was so good I sold out at $15/lb

So does that count as a harvest?

[Carriage House Farm]

First post in a while.  I've been insanely busy with beekeeping and produce...well, and the holidays.

Up to thirty colonies this year even with the allergy I developed to bee venom.  Hoping to double again this year.

Total yield was right about 80 pounds per colony average.  I had several that produced zero, one of which has starved already this winter.  I had a couple that produced well over 300 each.

Overall the year was good.  No real heavy dearth and not a single day above 98.  We had a general bloom that lasted from May till September.  Our early season Black Locust/Spring Honey was weak because of a cool snap with rain.  But beiing able to harvest a darker thistle filled later season honey more than made up for it.

So, a little shy of 2400# this year.

[luvin honey]

Wow. I can only dream and drool! I probably took off about 20 lb in comb and honey. About 3 bars. I fantasize about the days I harvest 300 lb and also grow to 300 lb! I'll have to find a market, because honey doesn't last long when I'm around.