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Author Topic: Hit 300lbs more or less  (Read 6636 times)

Offline Zoot

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Hit 300lbs more or less
« on: August 23, 2007, 04:01:21 pm »
Brian, wherever you are, my first hive to convert to slatted racks and ssb's (last year) has just gone over 300lbs of honey for this year; about 250lbs harvested with a full medium left on the hive plus what's on the side of the brood frames. And there's still the prospect for a great fall flow here. The colony is massive and I probably should have split it earlier in August but I can do that in the spring.


Offline Understudy

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2007, 04:03:59 pm »
Congradulations,

Remember we get a 70% cut of the action.  :evil:

Sincerely,
Brendhan
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Offline mgmoore7

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2007, 04:35:48 pm »
What is a ssb?

Offline Zoot

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2007, 05:03:45 pm »
Well, an ssb is actually an sbb (screened bottom board) that has been typed by an idot who never learned to type properly.

Offline mgmoore7

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2007, 05:14:57 pm »
Cool

Understudy is too generous.  I want 90% cut of the action.  :)

Offline BeeHopper

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2007, 05:40:56 pm »
Brian, wherever you are, my first hive to convert to slatted racks and ssb's (last year) has just gone over 300lbs of honey for this year; about 250lbs harvested with a full medium left on the hive plus what's on the side of the brood frames. And there's still the prospect for a great fall flow here. The colony is massive and I probably should have split it earlier in August but I can do that in the spring.



Way to go , Zoot  :-D

Offline Cindi

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2007, 08:27:40 pm »
Zoot, yeah, good for you, sounds like something is going right over at your place, hurray!!!!  Best of this  beautiful day.  Cindi
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Offline Zoot

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2007, 10:42:06 pm »
Much appreciated all. As for the cut, I'm afraid it will have to come in the form of my good will and best wishes - the honey, alas,  is all spoken for. We donate a lot to 2 rescue missions that we support, give a lot away (neighbors, presents) and sell what's left - no shortage of buyers this year.

Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #8 on: August 24, 2007, 12:07:29 am »
I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.  My DuBray method of honey production works given enough forage, shich, sadly this year, I'm without.  I'm delighted to hear you've had such good results.
The proof's in the pudding, as they say.

I have had nice weather but a nectar dearth.  I haven't been able to get my hives past the 2nd medium and now the honey stores seem to be going in reverse.  So I, who hates to feed unless absolutely necessary, find myself feeding in August in an attempt to get the stores up for over wintering.  I have 4 hives and would like to go into Spring with at least 2 if not 4.  I'll have to see how it goes.
Life is a school.  What have you learned?   :brian:      The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Offline Zoot

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #9 on: August 24, 2007, 12:46:30 am »
We must have had some ideal confluence of circumstances here this season; perfect temps, just the right amount of dryness with minimal rainfall at just the right times. But we're all a bit perplexed over why the tulip poplars have not produced for several years now (or why the bees didn't forage it). It's been more than made up for though.

Best of luck to you Brian on getting your stores built up and thanks for tempting me over to the dark side.

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #10 on: August 24, 2007, 08:12:32 am »
If you pulled 250 pounds, then I'd say you hit 250 pounds.  I never count what I leave.

That's an awesome harvest.  You obviously did some things right and you got lucky.  Hope you can do that well every year.
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Offline UtahBees

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #11 on: August 24, 2007, 11:44:35 am »
OK - so I missed the whole "add slatted racks and screened bottom board" and get more honey discussion. I'll have to search for that conversation.

I did add a 1" hole to my medium brrod chambers and supers that I put on (per shizzell - http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php?topic=9453.msg61183#msg61183), as a ventilator/entrance/exit. This being my first year keeping bees in a April-hived package, I harvested 1 medium super with 10 frames of full honey. I'm not sure how much it weighed, but of a 5 gallon bucket, I had a little less than 3/4 full. I am very excited!

If you have a link to the discussion, I'd appreciate that.

Regards,

UtahBees

Offline randydrivesabus

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #12 on: August 24, 2007, 12:04:59 pm »
5 gal bucket=60 lbs.

300 lbs of honey off of one hive? that is quite amazing. i could have made a lot of customers happy at the farmers market with that. not to mention my bank account.

Offline teebo

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #13 on: August 24, 2007, 07:20:32 pm »
what type bees are they?

Offline Kathyp

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #14 on: August 24, 2007, 08:02:01 pm »
i'd be happy with 5 pounds of honey!  brian, was your year bad also?  cindi, how did you and Bee C do?
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Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #15 on: August 24, 2007, 11:20:19 pm »
I did abismal.  I bought 4 packages and they were building up OK but since I had promised my brother in Eastern Washington 2 hives I had to split the 2 stronger hives.  I put Russian survivor stock queens into 1 Nuc of Carnies and another nuc of Italians.  Since the splits things have gone backwards forage wise.  I do have 2 other beekeepers within a mile of me but the area has a lot of fauna.  I took 2 hives of carnies to my brother who lives North of Spokane.  The bees are working hard but just about all they're bringing back is pollen.  I looked at the ripening blackberries again yesterday--yield is about 1/4 of normal and what was there had little nectar.  That's been the story this year--lots of flowers but not much nectar.

I'm hoping for a good spring as there are over 400 fruit trees in a 1/2 mile radius of my home plus all the other stuff that is blooming at that time. 

This year I've watched the bees fly to newly opened flowers and bypass them due to nectar dearth.
Life is a school.  What have you learned?   :brian:      The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Offline Zoot

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #16 on: August 25, 2007, 12:00:18 am »
Brian,

Your experience jives with what I've heard from some other friends in the northwest. I have no doubt that you will rebound in the spring.

Offline Zoot

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #17 on: August 25, 2007, 12:21:37 am »
>If you pulled 250 pounds then I'd say you hit 250>

Getting technical are we MB? Actually, with the rain we've been having and a good late flow starting up I'm probably going to take off the full top super this weekend. My nucs from May have also produced abundantly so I'm looking forward to a nice extraction this weekend.

>What kind of bees are they?>

Italians from a 3lb package hived May 1st 2006. This queen has been fantastic.

Offline KONASDAD

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #18 on: August 25, 2007, 09:45:02 am »
I was very pleased/grateful to get 12 gallons from two hives  begun last year. I left loads of honey for the bees, and used drawn and capped frames to build three nucs from the two hives as well. I put about 15 lbs into each nuc, and left both original hives w/ complete winter stores. The nucs are now edxpanded to a deep and a medium all w/ stores and drawn out ready for winter and any fall flow. I expect the fall to be good as well, but early. I see goldenrod already blooming and wild white aster peeping out too.This rain should get us through early fall w/ good forage. I am almost all sold out of my honey as well.
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Offline Cindi

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #19 on: August 25, 2007, 10:05:12 am »
That 300 pounds of honey is going to make alot of people happy, yeah, yeah, yeah!!!!!

KathyP, I don't think that I will get any honey this year for ourselves.  THis is my year of building up.

I checked the colonies in depth a couple of days ago, they are storing honey in their brood chambers big time, but that is for them.  I have honey supers on all of them and they may still yet get something inside, we'll see.  We still have a massive flow going on, the annuals and perennials around my place are covered in bees all the time, we have yet to the end of September (or later) for the bees to still be gathering lots of nectar.  Around the 3rd week (or like last year middle) of October, then we experience frost kill.  It is kind of a bummer, because we can have frost kill, and then the rain comes and warms everything back up again.  So, it varies significantly from year to year.  But I know for surely, there is over a good month left where the bees can gather and process nectar.

About BEE C.  Don't know where he is at with honey gathering.  Saw him the other day and things are going great over at his place as far as building up, nuc creation and splits.  Yeah!!!!

Our summer has been crappy as far as weather goes.  So much rain, cloudy days, lots of sunny, warm, hot, beautiful days too.  But so intermittent.  Here the bees could not take full advantage of the blackberry flow in June because of the dark, wet month that it was.  I really think that set things back hard, the blueberry flow that was prior to blackberry was not very good either.  Last year we had almost 3 months without rain, maybe 4 or 5 days rain during those months.  THat was unusual and very strange.  THis year the exact opposite.  Go figure MOther Nature eh?  Have a wonderful day, beautiful life, and love this life.  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 Michael Bush

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #20 on: August 25, 2007, 03:02:56 pm »
>>If you pulled 250 pounds then I'd say you hit 250>

>Getting technical are we MB?

Just trying to clarify terminology so we are all on the same page.  I count what I harvest, not what they made.

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Offline Zoot

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #21 on: August 25, 2007, 03:49:30 pm »
Fair enough. My interest this year and in the upcoming seasons is to see how specific "non-traditional" beekeeping practices can enhance a colony's performance both in mite/disease resistance and in stores production. Honey harvvesting is simply a collateral benefit as far as I'm concerned but it is also an indicator of a hive's state. A queenright colony at it's peak should theoretically be producing it's maximum output of honey. Obviously, as an amatuer, I have few controls in place so will hope to observe results over numerous seasons.

Offline rdy-b

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #22 on: August 25, 2007, 10:53:16 pm »
 :)now you can buy your self that new radial extractor to help with that collateral benifit  thumbs up RDY-B  :lol:

Offline Zoot

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #23 on: August 26, 2007, 12:03:26 am »
Nah, more like buy a new shirt or 2. Seriously, EVERYTHING I own has holes in it. I suspect I've taken the slightly shabby gentleman/farmer/artist thing a bit too far judging by the attitude here at home lately if you get my drift. As for an extractor I indulged myself last year to an Italian 9 frame radial which was an extravagance at the time but has been nice to have this year.

I extracted my first starter strip frames today and they held up nicely.

Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #24 on: August 27, 2007, 12:03:01 am »
Zoot,

You realize of course that what you're reporting supports the positions of Michael Bush and I have been promoting.  Conclusions, I might add, that both of us derived independently as I had never heard of MB (or Lusby, for that matter) before I joined this forum and I'm sure he had never heard of me.

I have developed a method of beekeeping that tries to utilize the bees natural tendencies as much as possible and then enhance certain areas (like ventilation and space) to take advantage of those natural tendencies.  You have proved that it works for somebody beside myself.  I'm interested in your results for next year.
Life is a school.  What have you learned?   :brian:      The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Offline annette

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #25 on: August 27, 2007, 01:09:06 am »

This is good to hear as I have been transitioning to starter strips, and was truly wondering how they would hold up in an extractor. So tell me more - did the combs totally stay together???? Were you careful when you extracted these???Meaning did you slow down the speed???

thanks for the input
Annette

Offline Zoot

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Re: Hit 300lbs more or less
« Reply #26 on: August 27, 2007, 01:24:26 am »
Annette,

I just went at it as usual, cranked away as with any other frames. They do seem a bit more fragile than foundation but I had no problems. I made certain that each frame was secure in it's slot and they were fine. The advice here has been that they firm up steadily as the bees use them and this seems to have happened.


Brian,
Ditto on all of the above. Personally, I'm really not interested in being a "medicator". I'm not condemning it at all, it's simply that it's not how I want to keep bees. It's been interesting and satisfying to experiment and get positive initital results. I am deeply indebted to you and Michael and the other adventurers here and elsewhere in my periphery who haven't been afraid to try new methods.

 

anything