Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: S.M.N.Bee on August 18, 2012, 07:15:34 pm
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About when is the usual cut of date for harvesting honey in the north and giving the bees enough time to pack the hive full to overwinter
John
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They should have been full before you put on supers.
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About when is the usual cut of date for harvesting honey in the north and giving the bees enough time to pack the hive full to overwinter
John
Is their a fall flow ???
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
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Jim
The goldenrod is starting here and we will have some other sources for another month.
I will be pulling all my full supers tomorrow to extract but as I am still fairly new at bee keeping [3rd year] I was wondering what time line other keepers fallowed in the fall.
John
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I will probably wait till the flow is over then feed heavy till freeze up.
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Jim
The goldenrod is starting here and we will have some other sources for another month.
I will be pulling all my full supers tomorrow to extract but as I am still fairly new at bee keeping [3rd year] I was wondering what time line other keepers fallowed in the fall.
John
I can tell you my timeline I pull all the supers 1 or 2 week of July give all the fall honey to the bees.At has work out will for me the past 50+ years. On at average year at is about 60% spring honey and 40% fall honey and some times in a dry year no honey in the fall.
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
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Thanks Jim - That's good advise. I extracted mine today. They still have about half a super of partially capped honey [on each hive] that I will place over the inner cover or under the brood nest so they can rob it back. Otherwise I will check on there stores about the middle of September and feed until it gets to cold.
John
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For overwinter bees in the part of MA. where I live you need about 12 to 14 frames of honey (60 lbs of honey) bees and the hive will wt. about 120 lbs or so on a 2 deep boxes (This is 10 frame equipment). A full deep frame as about 5 lbs.of honey
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
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Thanks Jim - That's good advise. I extracted mine today. They still have about half a super of partially capped honey [on each hive] that I will place over the inner cover
This has not work good for me
or under the brood nest so they can rob it back.
This has work good for me if I do at NOW (I got about 5 to 6 weeks to first frost)
Otherwise I will check on there stores about the middle of September and feed until it gets to cold.
John
Ditto
Hint: Bees need draw comb Bees will not draw comb in the cold
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
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Save for three, all my 24 hives are from swarms, cut outs and splits. This drought up here was a disaster. Any plans I had to pull honey from these hives are gone. The frames of honey from the rich colonies went to help out the poor ones. Just took enough for myself to put on my cereal and flavor my tea. That's it. At this point, I'm hoping that the early goldenrod and aster flow will provide them enough to get through the winter. I only feed in emergency situations and this fall just might be one of those.
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Not to worry Jim. The two hives I harvested honey from have two fully drawn deeps each. I also have a split I started in spring. They lost a queen mid summer and raised a new one. They still have five frames to build comb on. I am feeding but the nights are starting to get cold and bees aren't as willing to build comb.
John
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In Michigan I put when the golden rod gets going which is now. This leaves about 1.5 months of golden rod and aster for them.
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I usually wait for October or November... depending on when it first gets cold enough that the bees are down out of the supers.
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Will they drop down out of the supers enough to get them off?