Honey harvest 2015

[buzzbee]

I had a great year with two new colonies from packages in the spring. I don't know if it was from changing to carnolans  or just an awesome nectar year, but did they ever expand and make honey. My overwintered Italians were lackluster compared to the new packages.

[sc-bee]

My yield this year was 0... zero.... goose egg... ziltch.... notta.... nothing. Does that cover it???

[buzzbee]

My yield this year was 0... zero.... goose egg... ziltch.... notta.... nothing. Does that cover it???

Well,almost!

[chux]

My yield this year was 0... zero.... goose egg... ziltch.... notta.... nothing. Does that cover it???

Any idea why??

[sc-bee]

I have a very short season and the rain washed it all away. That along with a suspected pesticide kill.

[gailmo]

This was my sixth year keeping bees -- and the first time I had NO HONEY!  NADA -- NOTHING.  They were doing great in late April and through May.  Then the rains and cool weather hit.  Those girls stayed home and ate everything they stored in the previous six weeks.  The hives were so low on stores that in mid-July I started feeding.  Fed them for about two weeks and then stopped because things seemed better.  But I fed them pretty heavily in September just to get the honey stores up to where I thought they would be able to get through the winter.  I am sad that we didn't get much honey but am hopeful they will do better next year.  One thing about beekeeping -- it is never dull.  You think you have things figured out and the next thing you know --WHAM -- something new happens that has you trying to figure things out.  Love it!!!

[chux]

I have been putting off extraction for a variety of reasons. I get two extractions each year. One in late June, when I remove the spring honey. The other in September, when I remove most of the summer honey. We have been getting a good flow of golden rod and aster around here for the last few years, since I started keeping bees. I let the girls keep that, along with some supplemental feeding. I will be leaving more honey on from the summer flow this year, but I should still get around 70 pounds per hive from the hives I harvest from, for the year.

For those who don't have a long season, are you in the city or country? Is it primarily weather that got you this year? That's what it sounds like. All this rain really slows things down.

[buzzbee]

We had rain frequently until about the 4th of July. I am not sure if rains were just timed favorably, or what . A different starin of bees or better nectar flow this year I do not know for sure. Lets hope it repeats again next year.

[Nyleve]

My fifth year keeping bees. This year I was surprised to find the honey super full at the end of July so I extracted that and was expecting another harvest in September. Unfortunately,  against my own gut feelings, I listened to advice from a local idiot beekeeper who said I MUST put a second honey super on the hive because they will soon run out of room and swarm. So I did. And in mid-September, when I expected to be pulling a second full super off, I discovered that the bees had spread their work out among the two supers and basically only partially filled everything. I ended up taking the least full frames out and putting them where the local buzzers would clean them out. I'm guessing the other super, which I left on, is a little more full but not full enough to extract. Will save it for feeding through the winter.

The moral of the story is don't listen to anyone you think might be an idiot.

Well at least I did get some honey and that will have to do for the season.

[cao]

Year three here.  My honey harvest was half(8 gallons) of what I got last year(15 gallons).  But my goal was to make bees.  I started with four hives that overwintered.  I'm going into winter with 12 hives and 5 double nucs.  I think I'm gonna need to spend some more time building boxes this winter.  I did notice this year that after July there wasn't anything(pollen and nectar) coming in until goldenrod started blooming.