No Honey

dannteresa · October 04, 2011, 07:40:20 PM

Hi folks, I have bee keeping two years now. Last year being my first year I got lucky with having three hives and getting about 65 lbs. of delicious honey. So this year i thought i would take a big jump and went to 9 hives. All double deep . I have only been able to get 15lbs of capped honey total all year? man i dont know what has happened, I live in east tennessee in greene county, but for some reason I havent been able to see much honey production, I have like two honey supers on three hives, one on four hives and none on two. But still all year long there hasnt been any honey accumulation to speak of? What has happenend and i the only one and how has honey production been this year in general? I need help. BAD!!!!!

Hemlock · October 04, 2011, 08:34:35 PM

Yeah some years are like that. Our main flow of poplar this year was bad. The trees bloomed separately instead of all at once. the bees where then not sufficiently induced into the poplars. So most people around here did only fair to midland.

All you can do now is make sure they have enough to get by on through the winter.

Some other years you might get over 100 lbs per hive so hold on....and get more hives. :-D

AllenF · October 04, 2011, 09:42:16 PM

How did you go from 3 to 9 hives, splits? New foundation or drawn comb in the new double deeps? Meds? There are just so many questions.

FRAMEshift · October 04, 2011, 09:56:00 PM

Last year (in Piedmont NC.... not that far from you) was relatively cool with adequate rain. This year was very hot and dry. I think that alone accounts for the difference in honey production.

Kathyp · October 04, 2011, 10:37:14 PM

same for me this year. did think it would be better, but only got a couple of gallons.

schawee · October 04, 2011, 10:57:50 PM

same here ,had to feed 30 hives to make it through the summer.the hives that did make honey i shared it with the other hives.we were in a bad drought.i will harvest honey from the fall flow,thanks to the goldenrod. ,,.....schawee

Scadsobees · October 04, 2011, 11:33:16 PM

It's amazing what a difference the weather makes. Great year last year (~45 gals). Only 2.5 hives made it through this last winter, out of 10 hives, and thought this year would be a bust.

After raining a LOT in June, and then a really HOT July with plenty of moisture, I still got around 35 gallons! (not trying to rub it in or anything... ;) )

Did you start the new hives from packages? Or did you buy existing hives?

jmblakeney · October 04, 2011, 11:35:30 PM

Quote from: dannteresa on October 04, 2011, 07:40:20 PM
I have only been able to get 15lbs of capped honey total all year? man i dont know what has happened, I live in east tennessee in greene county, but for some reason I havent been able to see much honey production

Quote from: dannteresa on October 04, 2011, 07:40:20 PM
But still all year long there hasnt been any honey accumulation to speak of?

I am in the same boat as you. I live just a couple counties from you. I started one hive from a bee tree in April, and another from a package in May. The bee tree hive has just 3 frames of stored honey in the super. The package hive has no stored honey. I am looking at feeding (I guess) after the goldenrod flow if stores do not improve.

Best of luck,
James

buzzbee · October 05, 2011, 07:07:56 AM

How much forage is out there? A given area can only support so many colonies.If the pastures are limited,adding more bees could diminish the return.
Or as others have said,it could just be a bad year.

VolunteerK9 · October 05, 2011, 12:39:43 PM

Quote from: jmblakeney on October 04, 2011, 11:35:30 PM
Quote from: dannteresa on October 04, 2011, 07:40:20 PM
I have only been able to get 15lbs of capped honey total all year? man i dont know what has happened, I live in east tennessee in greene county, but for some reason I havent been able to see much honey production
Quote from: dannteresa on October 04, 2011, 07:40:20 PM
But still all year long there hasnt been any honey accumulation to speak of?

I am in the same boat as you. I live just a couple counties from you.

Best of luck,
James

LoL. What county is that? If your 2 counties over from Hopelessly Lost, is that Almost Lost or Sort of Lost? Sorry, man, I just had to :)

CapnChkn · October 05, 2011, 03:04:36 PM

Yep. This year the flow kind of stopped in late June. I started a new split in early June and was thinking I would have mountains of bees by the middle of August. They simply stopped production until I put some pollen and syrup on them.

I watched and saw NO pollen going in after 10 AM, a small amount before that, and they got a reprieve in Sept. when the temperatures dropped and we got the storm through here. I have bees orienting in clouds now, all the new bees getting in my way. I put them on Solid bottom boards and they look to have all the frames filled with bees. (Yay!)

jmblakeney · October 05, 2011, 06:57:28 PM

Quote from: VolunteerK9 on October 05, 2011, 12:39:43 PM
LoL. What county is that? If your 2 counties over from Hopelessly Lost, is that Almost Lost or Sort of Lost? Sorry, man, I just had to :)

K9,
I know she doesn't have it in her profile, but she did say she lived in Greene Co. TN.

I know your just trying have fun with it tho. :)

annette · October 05, 2011, 07:52:36 PM

After 2 years of no honey i finally hit the jackpot.

We had lots of rain up until June and it seemed the bees would not be able to catch up before the hot dry weather set in, but we were blessed with a cooler than usual summer and the bees did great.

Got about 70 lbs from my few hives which is great for around here. A beekeeper about 11 miles up the road from me, may get about 40 lbs of honey from his one and only first year hive.

Each year it is different.

T Beek · October 07, 2011, 04:50:25 PM

That says it all annette; " Each year is different." I fear this year I'll have to feed like mad (and to the point of bankruptcy) to accomodate lack of any available forage with above average temps causing consumption of winter stores.

My hives get lighter w/ every check despite daily feeding for nearly three weeks.

thomas

organicfarmer · October 07, 2011, 05:42:35 PM

My hives get lighter w/ every check despite daily feeding for nearly three weeks.

You may want to check for robbing. close the entrance a bit.

T Beek · October 08, 2011, 06:43:27 AM

That's what some might think but there's no robbing going on w/ my hives, just warm temps with nothing in nature to consume.

My bees should be in cluster right now not flying around seeking forage that's not there.

thomas

VolunteerK9 · October 08, 2011, 12:57:37 PM

Quote from: jmblakeney on October 05, 2011, 06:57:28 PM
Quote from: VolunteerK9 on October 05, 2011, 12:39:43 PM
LoL. What county is that? If your 2 counties over from Hopelessly Lost, is that Almost Lost or Sort of Lost? Sorry, man, I just had to :)

I know your just trying have fun with it tho. :)

Yup, thats me.

dannteresa · December 23, 2011, 01:52:21 PM

Well guys and gals, it was great to read your responses. It seems that at least Im not the only one in this leaking boat. I really thought it was mainly me doing something terribly wrong. But to answer a couple of questions you asked, I had three hives last year, I bought three new packages and one nuc this year and had thee of my hives swarm, so i am up to ten hives suddenly. It is now December and still I did not get but the original 16 lbs of honey. All is quiet now everyone tucked in for the winter. I know one thing though, I have to try something different to help prevent swarms, they are a killer. Thanks for your replys, oh yeah, all my hives are two deeps. Except the one TBH.

bud1 · December 23, 2011, 04:29:27 PM

as our resident comercial bee keeper is always telling me it is all location location location

backyard warrior · December 23, 2011, 05:15:53 PM

Well here in pa we had lots of spring rain and the bees couldnt get out. So far this fall it has been warm and my bees were flying yesterday which is good and bad. When the bees can get out and deficate its a good thing when it stays warm and they eat up there stores its a bad thing right ?? Make a long story short today i went to one of my hives that i hadnt taken off the hive top feeder. When i took off the cover the bees where down inside the feeder trying to locate sugar water. I opened up the hive and u wouldnt believe the heat that came out of the hive. Non the less they were low on food so i took of the hive top cover and put on the inner cover and installed cake fondant right on top of the inner cover hole yup the stuff you put on top of cakes and i put a super on top then put some insulation inside to keep the top of the hive warm. I hate to say this but i think that hive wasnt too far off from starving itself out it was very light on stores so hopefully i saved them
Chris