How much honey per hive 2014?

[Heather]

And I have seen a colony starve to death with solid stores, so not complete myth, and they didn't get separated. I could only presume they couldn't use it.
It was brick hard.

 

[Ely]

Sorry to hear that.

 

[Skyhook]

And I have seen a colony starve to death with solid stores, so not complete myth, and they didn't get separated. I could only presume they couldn't use it.
It was brick hard.

Not sure of the exact circumstances of what you've seen; but I suspect that an awful lot of what has been reported as deaths due to ivy gone hard, are in fact isolation starvation. The colony doesn't have to get split, just be unable to get to the stores- and if it's too cold to leave the cluster and make it back, that could mean separation by a few millimetres. The answer to that is insulation- particularly top insulation.

 

[REDWOOD]

I can't remember who said it but it was a commercial beekeeper who said that bees don't over winter well on heather honey , this could be the same reason. I put the ivy frames on the outside walls of the hive and I usually find them still there in the spring and will work them back in and they will eventually use them or sometimes for expansion remove them from the hive.

 

[masterBK]

Been going to the heather for over 40 yrs and never had a problem with my bees wintering on ling honey.Not heard of any others in my area having a probelm either. Maybe the bees up here in the north are adapted to it.

 

[Finman]

.
Bees can die over food frames if they have tracheal mite.
.

 

[Moggett]

I can't remember who said it but it was a commercial beekeeper who said that bees don't over winter well on heather honey.....

Manley (book - Honey Farming) says that the bees don't winter well on heather honey in harsh winters, but in mild winters 'they could wish for nothing better'. He also says it cannot be surpassed as Spring feed for rapid build-up.

 

[Jimmy]

I haven't finished extracting but I'm unlikely to exceed 60lb for each hive that I had on 30 September 2013, so compared to some here my yield is disappointing. Approximately half of this came from the spring crop.
But I have achieved what I set out to do this year which was to increase from 4 to 10 hives.