I have been having a great year for honey. I wintered 6 colonies. One died out, one alomost died out but has amazingly came back form the brink of death. I bought six nucs, made many splits, sold eight nucs, and now have a grand total of 22 colonies. Pretty good I think for a armature. I was not really expecting much honey this year, I just wanted to go into winter with my goal of twenty colonies. So on to my best honey maker.
I moved a five frame nuc to a new yard I acquired this year. I moved the nuc there in early June. I put it in a deep box, then added a medium then another, then I added a deep below the medium. I pulled two mediums full on honey two weekends ago and added another deep so there was room for all the bees. I put the mediums back on a couple days latter. I inspected this colony two days ago. They have one medium pretty full of honey already, and two deeps 80 percent capped honey. I went all the way down into bottom deep and was a bit scared I was queen less cause you could see that where all the brood was hatching they were backfilling with honey. I did not see any brood till I got to the center three frames. The queen is apparently slowing down cause its august.
So I have Three deeps and two medium boxes on this colony. I got 22 Quarts off of it already(two mediums I pulled), and two deeps full that I can take now and a medium about half full or better and thats not counting outside frames in bottom brood box if I wanted to get real greedy. So Im going to guess I have about 120 pounds in the two deeps. That would be roughly 200 pounds of honey from a colony that was a five frame nuc two months ago. This is no fish story. We have had lots of rain, nice warm weather, and these girls started on white clover and then have had alfalfa for over one month without end. I almost cant believe it myself.
Whats your bees gone bonkers story?
The most I ever got was about 200 pounds from every hive. They all did about the same. I've never seen it again...
Its been a learning year for me. I only have 3 hives. 1 strong, 1 building up and 1 just started (see earlier post). The weather here in eastern Ky has either been torrential rain (flood levels highest ever recorded in some areas) or dry as a bone. So, it has either rained so hard it has beaten the necter off the blossoms or been so dry the blossoms withered. My strong hive has filled 2 deeps but looks like Daddy's gonna be mixin lotsa syrup this fall. :(
I have a couple hives that should give me pretty close to 200lbs. and the rest around the 60 mark. The big ones are on clover and hayfields. beans early in the spring.
Quote from: Michael Bush on August 07, 2010, 09:19:04 AM
The most I ever got was about 200 pounds from every hive. They all did about the same. I've never seen it again...
WOW!!!! In southern Oklahoma the most I've ever heard of was 100lbs. I made 25 pound from one hive and was pleased. You guys are living in honey country!
last year i got 15gallons from 1 of 4 hives i had. theother 3 i got about 10 gallons from each. ...schawee
This is my fourth season and by far my best year. I haven't collected yet, but these two hives should give a bit. I have had to brace them in case of high winds. The hive on the right was my problem laying worker hive of last year.
Jay
(http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p107/skflyfish/th_img_2053.jpg) (http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p107/skflyfish/?action=view¤t=img_2053.jpg)
schawee, what kinda bees do you have that kicked out that muchhoney
Quote from: slacker361 on August 08, 2010, 10:51:25 PM
schawee, what kinda bees do you have that kicked out that muchhoney
slacker, I am a novice, but I think it has more to do with available nectar than type of bee.
its not the type bee bruce has, but that cajun attitude he has that if they dont feed him ; well you know that a cajun will eat anything as long as he got onions, peppers, celery and garlic.
Quote from: Livefreeordie on August 08, 2010, 11:24:28 PM
slacker, I am a novice, but I think it has more to do with available nectar than type of bee.
That is the main fact. - and the lenght of foraging period in top yields
If you want top crops choose from pastures. It is not easy.
my neighbor has an apple orchard, is apple blossom honey any good?
Breed of bee's, type of forage available, proximity of forage, genetics, age of queen regarding hive number of worker bees during a flow all come into play.
For instance, I had a hive that was a nuc this past August produce 3 supers of honey, an Italian/carnolian queen. An Italian queened hive that had swarmed last April (therefore a new queen) about 6' from it only came up with one super. Here in Fl. I averaged about 25lb's per hive this spring out of about 20 hives.
SLACKER BUD'S RIGHT.EVERYDAY I GO AND CUT MY ONIONS,CELERY,GARLIC AND PEPPERS RIGHT NEXT TO MY HIVES AND I LET THEM KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THEM IF THEY DON'T MAKE ME THE HONEY I NEED. :evil:LIKE FINSKI AND LIVEFREE SAID LOCATION,LOCATION,LOCATION.THIS LOCATION IS IN MY BACKYARD AND LOOKS LIKE I WILL GET THE SAME OR BETTER THIS YEAR WITH THIS HIVE.I HAVE 15 HIVES IN MY YARD ,MOST ARE CUTOUTS AND SWARMS I GOT THIS YEAR AND ALL ARE DOING GREAT.I WILL BE MOVING 10 TO MY MAIN YARD AT THE FARM IN THE COMING WEEK OR 2.I LIKE TO BUILD UP THE CUTOUTS AND NUCS BEFORE I MOVE THEMTO THE FARM.IF IT WASN'T FOR THE NABORS I WOULD HAVE ALL MY HIVES HERE.MY NABORS DO LIKE THE BEES HERE FOR THEIR GARDENS,BUT I DON'T WANT TO OVER DO IT. BY THE WAY THE BEES THAT DID THE 15 GAL.IS A CUTOUT I DID 3YEARS AGO. ...SCHAWEE
>You guys are living in honey country!
If I was living in honey country I'd see that more often than once ever 36 years...
Quote from: Michael Bush on August 10, 2010, 05:17:33 AM
>You guys are living in honey country!
If I was living in honey country I'd see that more often than once ever 36 years...
But you did not see that which escaped!
WOW
.
I only harvested from 1 hive. Despite it being split once and sending out 3 swarms, I pulled about 25 pounds.
I just have one hive. The most I ever got in one year was 5 shallow suppers, each had to have the comb drawn first , then filled with honey. I don't know how much that would be by weight.
Quote from: ldaxon on August 10, 2010, 10:41:54 PM
I just have one hive. The most I ever got in one year was 5 shallow suppers, each had to have the comb drawn first , then filled with honey. I don't know how much that would be by weight.
P.S. I didn't do any feeding.
it says on a website that i just visited that a shallow super weighs around 40 lbs
I have 22 hives this year. The best hives are two deeps and 8 medium supers high right now. I am going to extract in 2 weeks.
Quote from: leechmann on August 10, 2010, 11:44:14 PM
I have 22 hives this year. The best hives are two deeps and 8 medium supers high right now. I am going to extract in 2 weeks.
have any pictures? Thats got to be a site.
>it says on a website that i just visited that a shallow super weighs around 40 lbs
But that is the box, the frames and the honey...
I was told by a commercial beek that a shallow on average hold about 25lbs, a medium about 40 lbs. I got 22 quarts from two mediums. I guessed about 66 lbs at 3 lbs a quart. They could have been drawn out more so im sure on second extraction I would get closer to 80 lbs.
Last year I got 137 lbs from my one hive, this I'm at 123 pounds and still have one more extraction to go. I had 6 mediums on it, but am down to 4 now. My guess is that I'll get another 60 pounds off of it so I should be around 180 +/-.
I've made a couple of sister queens from that one!
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I have a hive on the balance. The weight rise was this kind
http://www.mtt.fi/bees/anjalankoski10.htm (http://www.mtt.fi/bees/anjalankoski10.htm)
Weight rise in one month about 130 kg.
Best days 8 kg/day.
Thera are a big diversity between hives and places.
The curve inform about the quality of pastures, not about bees.
Quote from: msully on August 11, 2010, 04:32:00 PM
Last year I got 137 lbs from my one hive, this I'm at 123 pounds and still have one more extraction to go. I had 6 mediums on it, but am down to 4 now. My guess is that I'll get another 60 pounds off of it so I should be around 180 +/-.
I've made a couple of sister queens from that one!
that is freaking impressive, can we test your girls for steroids?
Quote from: bee-nuts on August 11, 2010, 02:54:44 AM
Quote from: leechmann on August 10, 2010, 11:44:14 PM
I have 22 hives this year. The best hives are two deeps and 8 medium supers high right now. I am going to extract in 2 weeks.
have any pictures? Thats got to be a site.
(http://)(http://a.imageshack.us/img530/2842/bees2010001.jpg) (http://img530.imageshack.us/i/bees2010001.jpg/)
Here you are Bee-nuts, these are my best hives. I have some not so good ones too.
Where's your ladder?
And I was just wondering leechmann, do you have SHB there yet?
I haven't had a problem with them, SHB, but they are a problem for some around here. I inspect the hives from the tailgate of my pickup.
Quote from: leechmann on August 11, 2010, 09:11:37 PM
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Splended! You seems to be a good beekeeper. I hope that pastures are good too.
You seems to have 2 brood boxes and then excluder.
Where you get queens or rear you self?
You body must be in a good shape too when you lift those full honey boxes down and upp. And to check queen cells ...
What kind of winter you have there?(http://pix.epodunk.com/locatorMaps/mn/MN_21355.gif)
Quote from: Finski on August 12, 2010, 01:20:23 AM
Quote from: leechmann on August 11, 2010, 09:11:37 PM
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Splended! You seems to be a good beekeeper. I hope that pastures are good too.
You seems to have 2 brood boxes and then excluder.
Where you get queens or rear you self?
You body must be in a good shape too when you lift those full honey boxes down and upp. And to check queen cells ...
What kind of winter you have there?
Finski, we have very harsh winters here. We have snow on the ground from November to April. The temp reaches 30 below for a couple of weeks at a time. I had 7 hives last year, and they all died I the spring, in March. I purchased all new nucs this spring, and I caught 8 swarms this year.
I have to back my pickup up to these hives so I can inspect them. As far as queens cell inspections go, I quit doing them quite a while ago.
Quote from: leechmann on August 12, 2010, 12:27:37 PM
...
I had 7 hives last year, and they all died I the spring, in March.
Do you know why? Why after wintering?
Poly brood boxes are very good in wintering and in spring build up
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Nice pic leechman! I sure could use those supers.
How many do you think are full of honey on an average in those pics?
Bee nuts, I only add the supers one at a time and I wait until the bees have filled at least half of the super below, and have started to cap some of the frames. I'm hoping they are all full, except the top super, and I looked at that yesterday when I took the pictures, and the bees are really getting after that one too.
These bees are on an alfalfa, hay fields that run for several hundred acres. It also has a little spring fed creek just behind the hives. It's the best bee yard I have, of the 5 locations. I'm going to put more hives here next year, I built the stands for them as you can see the empty one in front of the hives. Just hope the bears don't find the honey before I get it.
Last year my Carnies gave me 125 lbs, this year I got 85 lbs so far.
My first year of havesting I got over #200 from one and over #180 from the other. I thought this is what I should expect. :roll: The main surprise was the soy bean flow that first year. I put my extracted supers on there to get cleaned up for storage and they filled them to the top. I haven't gotten a drip of soybean to speak of since. Now I'm averaging 60 to 90 pounds a hive.
I am optimistic about the soybeans this year though. My OB hive is suddenly drawing comb and putting up honey. The nucs I've checked are doing the same and there's strong activity at the landing boards of my double deeps. It's so hot here though I can't help but wonder if they are merely getting water though. I don't want to disturb them at this point but I'll crack one open for a senak peak this weekend.
"Bee nuts, I only add the supers one at a time and I wait until the bees have filled at least half of the super below"
Leechmann
Looks like you could have up to 300 lbs of honey in some of those than. I belive it too cause Ive been pulling in th alfalfa as well and can hardly believe how fast they can draw and fill a deep. I had two run ins with bears this year. You really dont want to find out the hard way. I would hurry up and take what you have before you have a nightmare on your hands.
Bee nuts, I think thats good advise. I'll be getting after it on my next days off. I can't wait to try my new maxant radial extractor.
How many hives are you running Bee nuts? Do you winter your hives in Wisconsin? What percentage of your hives make it through the winter?
Right now I have 22 colonies counting my nucs. I have one queenless and another one that almost died out and IM not sure if it will build up enough before winter but it just superceded so maybe it will turn around so I hoping to go into the winter with 20 anyway.
This is only my second summer. Me and a buddy kind of had a partnership on a couple hive before that but that was more or less of a hands off thing.
I wintered in Wisconsin, six colonies and all six came out alive. Two were clinging to life, one of which I was responsible for there demise cause I left a crack open on box and next day they were robbed to death. The other week one I though was a goner but I wanted to watch it and learn from it. It was down to maybe 100-150 bees. Somehow it came back and is now 4 frames strong and as stated above just superseded and has a really nice looking queen so I hope it will come around. Three colonies came out very very strong and I split the living day lights out of em this summer and still am getting honey from them.
I really would not play craps with the bears. They will find your bees and now they want to get nice and fat for winter so im sure they are really in the mood to eat your bees. They likely would just tip them over, ignore the honey, eat all the brood and once thats gone eat your honey. Point being the bears are not going to be efficient and eat one at a time. You will show up and have nothing but a disaster on your hands.