Honey harvests last few years

[irishguy]

With all the talk about the doom and gloom about the bee population dying and honey harvests down year by year id be interested to see how much yous produced in the last year or maybe the last 5 years per hive and what part of the country or even what part of europe your in.

Ive read that in bee keeping you get a real good season, an average season with every 3 or 4 bad seasons. Wanting to see how much this stands up with your honey harvests in the last few years.

 

[Easy Beesy]

The best way to make a small fortune in beekeeping is to start with a large fortune.

 

[Chris B]

Ive read that in bee keeping you get a real good season, an average season with every 3 or 4 bad seasons.

I don't think there's any place in the world where most seasons are below average. Maybe Ireland is different?

For me in an average year an average hive produces at least 80lb.
Best hive in an average year 200lb
Best hive in a good year 300lb+

Part of the variance is due to some apiaries being much better than others, even when only a few miles apart.

 

[peteinwilts]

There are many other variables...

My bees are rural, with meadow, pasture, nature reserves and big woods nearby.

One hive, in pretty similar condition sizewise to its neighbour took 160lb, the other had to be fed to prevent starving. The bigger producer, aggresive, darker, first out in the morning, last out at night and flys in the rain, whilst the neighbour was still indoors shivering.
The grumpy bees did not care about the poor weather.

A couple of years ago, the weather was good in august and september and the poor strain of this year nailed the clover bringing over 30lb a week. Last couple of cool summers have prevented the clover from producing.

Last year, some of my hives went to rape. They collected nothing, and if anything, went backwards. The hives that stayed at home took up to 60lb each that spring. There are woods and similar forage near the rape.
The main difference was there is a stream that runs through the farm, and none near the rape. We had a drought, so only the trees and plants near the stream gave nectar.

Averages, even just a couple of miles apart can swing wildly depending on stream, weather conditions, bee strain and available forage.

 

[For want of a better word]

The bigger producer, aggresive, darker, first out in the morning, last out at night and flys in the rain, whilst the neighbour was still indoors shivering.
The grumpy bees did not care about the poor weather.


Did they have a discoidal shift a bit towards the negative ?.... sounds similar to some of my pets, but they are not aggressive at all !

BUT they were my best honey producers by a long way this last season.

Best advice is to invest in bees suited to YOUR local conditions !

 

[QueenMaster]

I don't have good or bad years, I have good and bad hives.
This year:
- 50% are doing about 500lb.
- 50% are doing about 100lb.

Moreover 50% of swarms of the year (produced in mid-june) have done 100lb.

Note that my colleagues are not as lucky. (20lb on average).

This year was supposed to be terrible!
My apiary is sedentary. Some of my hives are 2m high!

 

[richardbees]

This has been an abnormal year but I've finished with 60lbs per hive - far, far higher than the BBKA stats which makes wonder about how their figure was arrived at.

I started the year with 2 hives on National BBs....they both needed supering by end of March because of a sunny Spring. then the rain/cloud started. Then I had to artificial swarm. Then I had to feed. Then they again swarmed (which I retrieved and re-hived). Then I united 2. Then the weather changed to a summery August.

I finished with over 120 lbs of honey, 4 very healthy colonies and a well stocked Nuc...

 

[mbc]

I don't think there's any place in the world where most seasons are below average. .

Any chance of qualifying " average" in this sentance ?

 

[keith pierce]

Hi Irish guy. You live in a rural, windswept part of Ireland, (MAYO)where your spring is late and you don’t have too many days without rain of what we would call summer, before the season is all over. If you are lucky then your yield will be about 30lb per hive. Now if you were living down in the sunny south east like wexford, then that would be a different matter.

 

[Mellifera397]

I think we're talking about the mean here.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I think we're talking about the mean here.

The mean what? Weather?

 

[BeeJayBee]

Some of the people in my BKA had only about 20lbs per colony, some almost nothing. None, as far as I know, had a 'bumper' or 'normal' harvest.

 

[mbc]

I think we're talking about the mean here.

Its a bit of a riddle.
"I don't think there's any place in the world where most seasons are below average."
But I work out that if somewhere has a load of middling crops but then the odd bumper crop then most seasons will be below average.

 

[Into the lions den]

Its a bit of a riddle.
"I don't think there's any place in the world where most seasons are below average."
But I work out that if somewhere has a load of middling crops but then the odd bumper crop then most seasons will be below average.

I know what you are getting at, but the facts over the last 50 years of averages is that 3 crops out of 5 are 'middling', that being in ther 20% up or down range from average, one is bumper at more than 20% above average, and one will be more than 20% below average and thus a bad one.

Last 6 years.............relating to average over the last 40 years..before that is excluded as flora was different and crops were higher.............

2007 120%
2008 165%
2009 74%
2010 70%
2011 38%
2012 32%

Not good at all.

Some areas in the UK did spectacularly better than that in certain of those year due to being in 'golden spots' for the eather conditions.

 

[PBee]

Its a bit of a riddle.
"I don't think there's any place in the world where most seasons are below average."
But I work out that if somewhere has a load of middling crops but then the odd bumper crop then most seasons will be below average.

Mathematical impossibility I think.

The Average

His peasant parents killed themselves with toil
To let their darling leave a stingy soil
For any of those smart professions which
Encourage shallow breathing, and grow rich.

The pressure of their fond ambition made
Their shy and country-loving child afraid
No sensible career was good enough,
Only a hero could deserve such love.

So here he was without maps or supplies,
A hundred miles from any decent town;
The desert glared into his blood-shot eyes;

The silence roared displeasure: looking down,
He saw the shadow of an Average Man
Attempting the exceptional, and ran.

W.H. Auden

 

[QueenMaster]

Let's try to be impossible:

three seasons averages :
400
100
80

whole average is 193 (580/3)

You see most seasons are below average !
You have one very good season, and 2 very poor.

 

[PBee]

Let's try to be impossible:

three seasons averages :
400
100
80

whole average is 193 (580/3)

You see most seasons are below average !
You have one very good season, and 2 very poor.

Everything's possible in the realms of impossibility.

 

[Chris B]

I don't think there's any place in the world where most seasons are below average.

Okay it was a bit of a loose statement.

What I mean is more like this: I think wherever bees are, annual honey yields mostly fall in a middling range, with a few extremely good or extremely bad years.
This contrasts with the pattern suggested by irishguy.

 

[blackcavebees]

Where you are will impact on the amount of honey your girls can produce, your weather conditions in Mayo for example will reduce the number of flying days available (rain).

Also, I tend to think of total product from hive rather than just honey. Let me explain what I mean ... If I have an established box of bees with say three supers all filled with drawn frames in the store and my only goal is to produce honey from that box and rotate out say three brood frames, then lbs of honey produced is a good way to measure productivity in a year. However, if you have for example an over wintered nuc going into a full size box in spring, and in that season you start with only foundation in supers, and maybe later in year you take a small split to prevent swarming, then you have to look at total product from that hive and not just compare honey output. Hope this is clear. Box 1: total output lbs honey + reclaimed wax. Box 2: total output lbs honey + drawn combs + increase + reclaimed wax.

You may only start at a hobbyist scale, like many of us here on forum, but treat "like" a business. If my hobby was model trains, I would still like to know EXACTLY how much my hobby was costing me net. (or option 2 is forget all the many expenses and tell everyone you made 500 euro from selling your honey )

 

[Drew]

Average!! You have all heard of lies damn lies.....

I am willing to bet that over 99% of beekeepers have more than the national average of arms! (and as a separate bet more than the global average)