Heather.

[snelgrove]

First time taking the bees to the heather. Was looking very promising a fortnight ago, removed the supers today and theyve eaten most of it! Still some heather in flower but obviously something has not gone right!

Not only would your supers be full so would your brood chambers. Fail to see how they could eat it. Would guess they either have been robbed out or they haven't collected a full super.
Heather on north pennines still in flower another week and supers will be removed.

 

[maddydog]

Not only would your supers be full so would your brood chambers. Fail to see how they could eat it. Would guess they either have been robbed out or they haven't collected a full super.
Heather on north pennines still in flower another week and supers will be removed.

Fail to see as much as you like but supers (2 per hive) were 60% full 2 weeks ago were 10% full when I collected them today. All five colonies are strong, no typical signs of robbing and no wasps. Maybe it was the hikers....

 

[protheroe]

Once a flow finishes later in season my bees often take uncapped stores back down into brood box especially when on double brood.are you using double or 14x12.

 

[maddydog]

Once a flow finishes later in season my bees often take uncapped stores back down into brood box especially when on double brood.are you using double or 14x12.

14*12. Brood boxes didn't feel very heavy either. Weather has been decent for the last two weeks so can only assume the fickle heather didn't flow or where I've got them is otherwise unsuitable

 

[preyingmantos]

Bought bees back the other day from the heather. Its been quite a good heather year judging from their weight. What was interesting is I put a fresh super at the end of august and they didn't use it at all suggesting the flow stopped before the end of the month.

average 15-20lbs off 62 colonies would be my guess. Not a great site in north derbyshire so i'm quite pleased.

Much much better than last year.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Much much better than last year.

Been a really excellent season for heather, been removing heather supers and moving bees all of last week and part of the week before, will be removing the last 160 full supers tomorrow.

This time last season the heather flow was just starting about now, but that was some kind of very rare freak season, thank goodness.

 

[mbc]

Been a really excellent season for heather,

Yup, just getting them back now and I won't know just how well I've done until it's extracted and safely in buckets but it's certainly my best year on the heather so far☺
Strange year, late but good spring, a summer of promised high pressure always sliding away on the weather chart before arriving, resulting in a dismal haul from the summer, and a bumper tail on the heather. It is what it is .