Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: TwT on July 11, 2009, 06:48:12 pm
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well with all the rain I didn't get about 1/4 of what I thought I would, I left every hive with some honey because I never take frames with brood but I only got this year was 23 gallons, bad honey year!!!! now I am raising queens and feeding.... How did all of yaw do????
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Since we only pull honey for friends and family, it's hard to tell if the honey flow is more or less than normal. We have had so much rain, I was concerned the bees would not produce enough honey for themselves. We checked the hives a few weeks ago, and were surprised to see quite a bit of honey stored. I did pull about 10 frames for honey.
Whenever the sun shines - the girls are busy bringing in the pollen. I'll check later this week. We did add a honey shallow to one hive (we have 6 hives).
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Because of the rain, the bees were only able to get out to get nectar for themselves. The dandelions came out early spring, but the foraging got rained on. Clover took a while to come out compared to previous years. It finally came out once the rain stopped. It's been out for at least a month or so and no end in site. Once dry supers are about full and will be harvested soon.
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I am Blessed, I pulled about 15 to 16 gals off two hives and plan on getting more in the fall. :-D
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I guess that I am confused here. Are you folks saying that it is the end of the season for you? I probably won't even think about pulling off supers till late august or sept. I am still putting them on. I would assume that your season would be similar if not longer being as most of you live in milder lower climates than me?
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Since most of my apiary is now mobile (on trailers), I can follow the flow.... canola, clover, black berries, privet, squash, watermelons, and now sunflowers and cotton. Have harvested about 20 gallons so far and about that much yet to be pulled.
Steve
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Ain't done yet. Still more to pull and then there is the fall flow.
...JP
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So far 15 gallons and they are working on 9 more supers yet and they dont seem to be slowing down I checked them yesterday and they seem to be working harder now than when the sweet clover was booming there is some sweet clover still blooming but almost gone. Can't figure out what they are working but it looks like they can't get it in the hives fast enough. It's funny to watch them tumbling over each other while trying to get in and out of the hive.
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I guess that I am confused here. Are you folks saying that it is the end of the season for you? I probably won't even think about pulling off supers till late august or sept. I am still putting them on. I would assume that your season would be similar if not longer being as most of you live in milder lower climates than me?
Not at all. I try to time when I pull my supers depending on the dominant flow. Clover is on now so I will pull in a few days since the clover is drying up. Various wild flowers will be out soon after and once that's done, I will pull again. Same goes for dandelion in the spring and goldenrod in the fall. If the flows are not good...I will just keep the supers piling up until the supers are full. So far I haven't had any issues with a flow not filling my supers completely. Either it filled them completely or it hasn't filled them at all (in the case of this spring's dandelion). I put 4 medium supers (9 frames spaced out) on each hive I plan on getting honey from.
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I snuck a comb honey super off. Other than that, still waiting for my hives to get themselves taken care of. We still have the major soybean flow to come, so I am hoping to at least get enough honey to supply our family needs. :-D
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doesn't look to good so far. in the height of the blackberry flow and they don't even have enough put away for the winter. massive amounts of brood! i'll be lucky to pull 20 pounds off a couple of hives.
looked like a promising year and i have no clue what happened.
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I just pulled 10 supers and only got 25 gallons of honey. We have had alot of rain and cool summer so far.
Hopefully we will fair better in the second nectar flow.
I will pull them again in end of August.
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I got about 1/4 of what I usually harvest. My flow is over, but I may get a few more gallons if it rains for clover & soybeans produce and I feed sugar water to replace what I take. Too many rainy days this spring. Also, far fewer swarms than usual.
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Had a record spring with a nice batch of avacado honey, but so far the summer crop is slow. Which is unusual given that my populations and over all health is good.
Cheers,
Patrick
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About 23 gallons so far. My spring harvest was really reduced due to a late freeze at the end of March. I'll collect once more at the end of August.
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Two hives trying to starve and the others are doing good. Friend of mine is busy extracting now.
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Pulled 30 gallons from 8 mediums (more like 7 mediums since the end frames were usually empty) and 1 deep. Flow is still on so there will be more where that came from plus goldenrod in a couple months.
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I hope for 60 lb avg per hive.I got 70 this year. drought has started now. hoping for rain by 1st week of August.
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None, yet! First year beek from packages. I've decided to concentrate on comb production and feed, feed ,feed so they don't burn the winter stores. Maybe fall will be kinder, but right now they're a comb manufacturing plant for next year's supers.
BB
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no idea yet but it looks like a fiarly low year, maybe 9 supers, haven't started to pull yet, I wait till the end of the year, and keep piling them on till then, we still ahve a small flow going on and goldenrod is soon to start. plus waiting on an out yard to start to produce soy beans yet. also kinda dry here.
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I got 12 gallons from two hives. My other two were new this year and they have no surplus. I'm finished with harvesting this year because I'm doing splits this afternoon. All in all, for my second year, I'm very pleased.
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S.E. Wisconsin- Starting to clean up in preparation of extracting in a few weeks. I only extract once as after September I am busy with apples through October. I know my harvest will be very light because the girls just have not been filling many supers. Most of my hives have 1 medium on and hoping thgose will be capped completely. Been very dry here as well as a cool spring. Lots of swarms this year though!!
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Had a record spring with a nice batch of avacado honey, but so far the summer crop is slow. Which is unusual given that my populations and over all health is good.
Cheers,
Patrick
I love avacados!!! How does the honey taste. I might need to visit you and and trade some Colorado honey for some avcado honey. lol
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Im done. Im already feeding 2:1. Got 5 gallons off two hives. Still have a little sourwood to extract but might give it back to a nuc. Hadnt decided yet. CU Dave
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Update, pulled a couple boxes, so far 75lbs, same as last year but I have several boxes to go yet. Looks like it could be quite a year for me, second year beek.
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Update, pulled a couple boxes, so far 75lbs, same as last year but I have several boxes to go yet. Looks like it could be quite a year for me, second year beek.
Is that all off of one hive?
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harvested 1,200 lbs in Mid-July and harvested 2,000 lbs on Saturday. 3,200lbs for the season. The rest the bees can keep.
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Update, pulled a couple boxes, so far 75lbs, same as last year but I have several boxes to go yet. Looks like it could be quite a year for me, second year beek.
Is that all off of one hive?
Yes that was only one hive. I have a few more to pull. I won't know but I figure a good bit. Hard to estimate the other hives. but most have at least a couple supers per that I will take. They are med supers, supposed to weigh 50lbs per but they seem to throw around 30 something lbs of honey. or a bit more, depends on the bees , how many frames, 10 framers you loose a little I think becuase one side is always heavier than the other. so its all approx. I use 10 frames but thinking about going to 9 next year.
.
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28 pounds of off of 2 hives.
At one point it looked like this would be a good year but it has been a very dry summer and even the blackberry's shut down nectar production.
SH
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I've extracted 2 deeps and a medium 3 weeks ago... but only because I was out of boxes and the bees needed room to store more honey. I took a box each off 3 of my hives and they all still have at least one almost full box+ on them. I've got 12 gallons so far and am guessing I'll have about another 20-25!! Great year. Funny thing is that the hive that is far outperforming them all, is my only package started this year! They are honey making fools!
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27 kg (59.5 lbs) on my two hives. One of them is a split from the other. We had a couple of very good weeks, but after that we got 6 weeks of terrible weather. Most rainy summer in many years here in southern Norway. So I'm very satisfied all things considered. This is my second year, and I got 13 kg last year :-)
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weather in july was not so good but august is much better, we got 102 kg (225 lbs) off 4 hives.
A.
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I got nothing, a nuc I bought in late may. should have fed. Thats alright. I have been feeding and have gona thru 30lbs of suger. :jawdrop:
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I just pulled 12 quarts form one super and put a big chunk of honey comb in each jar. (10 empty frames ) from a new package in the spring this year.
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I have one hive, started in June 08. So far, I have never taken any honey from them, and may not take any this year...if I do, it will probably be about 12 pounds that I would harvest in October as I crowd the hive back into 3 mediums for the winter... :mrgreen:
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I harvested from A. Cerana bees last Friday – obtaining 9 liters from 8 hives – this was the annual harvest from one location. I never take as much as half of what could otherwise be harvested. Some take it all and let the hive fail, knowing that volunteer swarms will arrive come spring.
At another location, I took 2 liters from one cerana log hive. (I believe that the most I have ever taken from one hive is 3 liters.)
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This is my second year keeping bees. I have three hives and I've harvested about 70 lbs into jars so far this year. Probably looking at another 20-50 pounds before they close up for the winter.
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I ended up with 74 lbs clover honey
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First year, two hives, late packages, lots of rain.
I'm leaving it all for the bees and looking to next year.
It would be kind of cool to just pull on or two frames for fun but trying to resist the urge. I also don't really know how to extract honey from just a couple of frames without going through the whole production especially with no equipment. My bee club has an extractor but don't think it is worth renting it for just a couple of frames.
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First year, two hives, late packages, lots of rain.
I'm leaving it all for the bees and looking to next year.
It would be kind of cool to just pull on or two frames for fun but trying to resist the urge. I also don't really know how to extract honey from just a couple of frames without going through the whole production especially with no equipment. My bee club has an extractor but don't think it is worth renting it for just a couple of frames.
Crush and Strain! It won't hurt to pull a frame or two! Just scrape off all the honey and strain it through a filter on a 5 gallon bucket! Viola! Not worth using an extractor. You'd leave more in the extractor to wash out that you'd get in a jar!
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How are the PA beeks doing this fall? I checked my outyard last night. They are starting to fill the supers with Goldenrod. Not as much as I thought there would be but we have about 3 more weeks before I have to pull. Farmer's Almanac is expecting an Oct 9 frost this year. :-x
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My boxes are finally filling. Most are real heavy,but a few are light.Things look much bettter now than two weeks ago! :)
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I have 4 hives that I harvested off of this year. 2 were splits I did in June. I ended up with 230# and should harvest 3 more mediums at the end of the month. All in all it was a very good year- I just hope they can make it through another Wisconsin winter. This is my 6th year with bees and my second complete year using no chemicals.
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From 3 colonies, two were first year packages, I received 228 lbs. after having a good friend do the extracting for me. Best year ever for me. :)
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single hive - ended up with 7 medium frames - about 25 pounds total. the bulk was done as cut comb - the final 5 pounds was strained with cheese cloth. it's better than the zero i thought i was gonna get with all the wet weather we had ad some problems with ants and other critters. hoping to add another hive next season and hopefully i be about to get three times as much as i got this year.
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A decent year in NW Iowa 1540 pounds off of 16 hives 96 pound average. I am very happy
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One hive, started this year. Took 30 lbs. I'm a little light for the winter, but I'll feed to make up.
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a decent year in NW Iowa 1540 pounds off of 16 hives 96 pound average. I am very happy
Congratulations, that was a good harvest....
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I extracted 1800 lbs from 8 hives in central Alberta.
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Good grief, Syphon!! May I move my hives up to your area? :D
I had 2 packages in topbars this year. I pulled off about a square foot of comb honey and then crushed and strained between 2-3 quarts in addition. I'm guessing about 10 lb total. Not a lot, but it was the best honey I have ever eaten!
jdesq--Congrats on going chemical free! Being in WI, too, I would love to see how things go for you, as that is how I'm beeking also.
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syphon1,
how many years did it take for you to extract 1800 lb. of honey from 8 colonys? Or is that a typographical error?
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gaucho10,
no its not an typo. this kind of average is not too uncommon to achieve in Alberta. My mentor did even better this year. he extracted over 300 lbs per hive from 120 hives.
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I thought that I did really well on my first year as a beekeeper 30 yrs. ago when I got 200 lb. of honey out of one hive. And that was in the City! That was only a one time thing and it never happened again. You are lucky that you can get that much honey per hive. Congratulations to you and the girls.
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Hello Everyone,
I've pulled off about 140 lbs from 4 hives, well I lost one some where in the middle due to swarming and subsequent robbing and then wax moth infestation.
and then there were 3........
I had a little heart attack :( so the bees were on their own for awhile. (back in action now)
They have about 80 lbs each for winter and i have 12 frames full in the freezer for reserves.
Not a banner year, but plenty for me as I just like to give it to family and friends. (for now)
Hope your bees are well,
Paul
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ALLRIGHT!!!!!! I just got my first harvest!! I started with swarms and cutouts so I didnt think I would get anything the first year but one of my hives went Buster on me and filled up a med. super. I did the crush and strain and am still waiting on the results but here is what I got so far. They will make for GREAT christmas gifts.
http://img34.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=p1080762k.jpg
Im soooo excited I LOVE my hobby!!
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Collected 450 lbs from 5 hives back in August.
Gaucho, those way northern bees have 20 hours of daylight to forage, and endless acres of canola (is that the same as rape?) flowers to forage on. I've read of 500,600, even 800 lbs harvest from single (probably double-queen) hives up there.
120lbs per hive for me here is a great hive.
Rick
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Wow!!!!! This is all news to me!!!!! I allways thought that the southern bees had better honey flows compared to the northern bees because of an earlier and possibly longer warm weather.
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Wow. You guys are s-o-o-o fortunate. I would be excited to get 100 lbs per colony. The most I have gotten ever is about 60 lbs per colony. I am thinking I have the area too saturated. Next year I plan to plant clover and maybe start a second bee yard.
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First year results here...
This is from a new colony started from a package the first week in June.
I didn't weigh and haven't extracted yet. I pulled off 25 frames of capped honey about 3 weeks ago to reduce the colony back to 2 deeps for the winter. Stuck the frames in the freezer for now.
Hard frost last night so that ends the golden rod. The girls were still bringing in pollen yesterday.
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Well we started with 2 swarms in May and didnt expect anything this year however the Lord blessed us with 7+ frames in a medium on the second swarm and it pulled in 2-1/2 gallons 8-)
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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.
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Produced about 25 or 30 lbs per colony. About 1/3 of a "normal" crop.
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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. :oops:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbbYnfnPiX0#)
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?
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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.
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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.