texas honey harvest

[filmmlif]

this is my first year to rob honey here in north texas....when do i know when it's time to rob the girls? when are they done collecting and when do you know?
is this a dumb question? if it is, thnx for your patience.

[Brian D. Bray]

The timing for harvesting honey can depend on several things.  Usually it is calculated as the end of the last good honey flow.
In my area that equates out to about Labor Day with a small flow after that which helps the hive top off its winter stores.
Some beekeepers harvest on an ongoing basis, removing and extracting the honey and then putting that super back on the hive when they harvest the next super.  I avoid this system because it has the tendency to leave to much nectar (read watery honey) in the frames which makes the honey ferment quickly.

[Ross]

North Texas is a very big area.  I'm just northeast of Dallas.  Here, this year, there was not alot to harvest.  I took what little I had about the  3rd week of June.  The bees had already started eating it because of the drought.  Really, anytime after it's 75% capped should be ok.  Sooner is usually better here because once the flow stops around the first of June, the bees start eating into it to continue brood raising.  Unless you are on Mesquite or cotton, we just don't get any flow after late May until golden rod in the fall.

[Finsky]

.when do i know when it's time to rob the girls? .

When they have enough capped honey and you need to give more free combs for new honey. It depends so much on pastures.