Harvesting honey?

[Zoot]

:?  Hello, my dad is letting me use this form too when I have questions
about bee keeping.

    We have two new hives that we started with package bees (Italians)
about two weeks ago.we are going to inspect the hives again wonse the
 rain stops but so far everthingseems fine.

My questoin is what time can we start harvesting honey or is it even
likely  that we will be able to harvest honey at all this year?

 Im am in third grade and im going to do bee keeping as a 4\H
project.

[Ocean]

My first year, i got 10 frames of honey, if you are constaltly feeding them and letting them build comb and raise brood fast, you probably will be able to get some honey later on the summer...

good luck with the project for school, and welcome to the board :)

[Michael Bush]

It's possible you'll get honey.  It's possible you won't.  Both would be within the range of normal for a package.

Some years I don't get any honey from an established hive.  Some years I get 200 pounds from each hive.

[Brian D. Bray]

My rule of thumb is never expect a honey harvest the first year.  Year 1 should be the focus of establishing the hive.
MB is right, honey harvest varies, sometimes without rhyme nor reason.  I've had established hives fail to produce any harvestable amount and yet have a prime swarm next to it produce a super full its first year.
How you sart is also a determiner, if you start the hive on drawn comb you're much more likely to get an excess year 1.

Tell your brother that an Old Cop says Hi.

[amymcg]

It depends on too many factors.  Get your two deeps drawn and then put on your supers and cross your fingers.

[TwT]

I agree with all the above, the important thing when starting a package is to get the hive established and if you get some honey good but I wouldn't expect a lot if any....

[Finsky]

My rule of thumb is never expect a honey harvest the first year.  

That is fatal rule even if it is true.

If I have 3 lbs bees (swarm, or package) is difficult even to me get honey firts year.

When  I put 6 lbs package into Langstroth box it is able to raise honey hive and even get another nuc later. 6 lbs occupies whole box but 3 lbs only half. It takes  2 month to get hive in yield condition.

Important thing is that beginners are mad to fill combs with sugar. So new hive has any more room to raise brood.   If you feed all summer, it is not honey.

I am able to raise 2 frame nuc to get 200 lbs honey first year but it needs one box full of bees from stronger hive. And one box is not enough.  
I need another box that  6 weeks before mainflow I have 2 box full of brood. And I need electrict heating too into hive bottom. It fastens build up a lot.

Nucs are better than packages. They are 3 weeks ahead of mere bees.

One full comb of emerging bees produces 3 frames bees. It needs 4 weeks time because older bees die at same time.

Main difficulty for beginners is that they have no experinec how hive developes. Even if beginner gets total hive, he may loose  yield when hive swarms. It is more than easy.

My thumb rule is: don't feed after beginning if bees get nectar from nature.
.

[Summerbee]

I have one hive and zip honey so far.  Has not rained here for months, no honeyflow.  They have about 4 -5 frames of honey left over from last year.  I learned not to bank on the honey :D   Maybe later in the summer when the hurricanes come :shock:  if the hive doesn't get blown to Kansas.

Good luck, you can get other stuff from the hive even if you don't get much honey, and the bees are cool to work with either way.

[Apis629]

Summerbee,
In this last week the palmetto flow has just started down here, and, since March, I have two supers full of honey plus, the one "safety super" I leave on the hive, just incase something happens.  Mangrove is also just around the corner.  I'm not sure about the "no rain in months" in the past two weeks we've had 2 rainey days, and although that's not alot by usuall standards, everything seems to perk-up.  It's gonna be a busy month.

One more thing, oddly enough, most of the beekeepers just 20 miles north of me are complaining that they're getting maybe 1/2 super per hive.  They think I'm "full of it" when I exclaim that my bees are collecting honey "like there's no tommarow"!

[Brian D. Bray]

>One more thing, oddly enough, most of the beekeepers just 20 miles north of me are complaining that they're getting maybe 1/2 super per hive. They think I'm "full of it"

Aint Geography wonderful?  Up here in the Pacific Northwest the rapid variation in geography can mean major changes in nectar availability even as little as 5 miles apart.  Here the San Juan Islands every Island is different having different honey flows etc.

[Summerbee]

Apis629, you lucky dog.  I have 1/4 of a medium super right now.  Do you live by a nature preserve or something?