Hey fellas, Riddle me this if you can.
I have 4 medium supers of drawn wax comb.
Last year was my first year to produce honey.I had 2 hives. My bees drew new comb on and completely filled 2 medium supers per hive with honey. All this with a queen excluders on.
I had my honey extracted so this year of course the frames are drawn and there is no queen excluder in place.
My question is if the nectar harvest is the same how many supers of already drawn comb can my bees fill?
This year I have 4 medium supers of drawn comb available for my remaining hive due to the other hive dying out that would of gotten the other 2 supers.
Once agin all things be equal to last year how many of these fully drawn supers can my remaining hive fill?
I know this is probably as clear as mud but look forward to yal's estimates. Thank's, Brad
Imposible to quess what happens to an individual hive. It may be 30 kg or 130 kg.
Bees need much boxes even if they have yet honey. The colony grows.
It depends then on pastures, what they get from flowers and how far they carry it.
If a swarm or two escapes, it may mean that you get no surplus honey.
If pasture are good, even 3 frame nuc get one full frame honey in a week.
But if weathers are dry, and pastures are not dry tolerant, 7 box hive get nothing.
I have had supers stacked up so high I had to put them on with a ladder in a bumper crop year. I have had them never get above four or five boxes in a poor year.
Fellas, I appreciate yals responses however, remember this is all based on last years production and assuming all things are same as far as available nectar etc. and not swarming.
This is not a fail/pass test. Just trying to figure if a hive was able to draw and fill 2 medium supers with a queen excluder in 1 season given the same set of circumstances how many might the hive make without the queen excluder and already drawn comb. Thank's, Brad
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Try to find out what are your yield plants, and where they grow.
I guess what I am trying to say is estimated percentage wise, how much honey is lost trying to build comb and lack of production by using queen excluders.
Where the nectar comes from or how much of it there is , is of no concern while assuming all is the same as last year. Thank's, Brad
Quote from: RangerBrad on April 17, 2011, 04:56:47 PM
I guess what I am trying to say is estimated percentage wise, how much honey is lost trying to build comb
And that sound you heard "PoP!" was the sound of you opening the proverbial can of worms. Do a search here on 'how much to draw wax" (or something close to that) and you will see that that subject is almost as highly debated as small cell.
Quote from: RangerBrad on April 17, 2011, 04:56:47 PM
I guess what I am trying to say is estimated percentage wise, how much honey is lost trying to build comb and lack of production by using queen excluders.
If you have 2 supers of drawn comb for each hive figure they will fill both those and up to 3 more. Reason, the higher the population of the hive the further the foragers will roam, the more nectar is brought back to the hive, and the probability of foraging new crops overlooked last year is increased.
QuoteWhere the nectar comes from or how much of it there is , is of no concern while assuming all is the same as last year. Thank's, Brad
Things are never the same as last year. One point that is often overlooked or mentioned is that the more hives in a bee yard or even the more bees within a hive has a bearing on what plants are harvested. The more bees/hives within a given area will force bees to harvest from plants overlooked the previous season and increase the forage area over that of the previous season.
Since both forage area and forage crops are increased, with more bees to build new combs a hive that drew out 2 supers one year will fill them, then duplicate or exceed what was drawn out the previous year.
If I had hives that had drawn out 2 supers last year, I would purchase 4 supers per hive this year. Why for supers when 3 might do? Splits and Swarms, and all of the above.