Large Scale Honey production.. Viable ?

[maddydog]

Thanks to all contributers on this thread in particular itld.
6 min inspections I can get my head around except around swarming time where finding the q and performing an AS really takes time (for me anyway). What I'd really worry about is my back! I'm a fit 45yo who doesn't carry any excess weight and the thought of inspecting 100+ hives a day and therefore humping potentially 500+ full supers - a number head high or above- fills me with trepidation!

 

[BeeJayBee]

... I have been laid up for a couple of days after turning my ankle over on a stone hidden in the grass, and ending up thigh deep down a rabbit hole, while shifting the hives of an indisposed friend who needed his bees taken to the heather.

Ouch! You were lucky it wasn't worse.

 

[Into the lions den]

Thanks to all contributers on this thread in particular itld.
6 min inspections I can get my head around except around swarming time where finding the q and performing an AS really takes time (for me anyway). What I'd really worry about is my back! I'm a fit 45yo who doesn't carry any excess weight and the thought of inspecting 100+ hives a day and therefore humping potentially 500+ full supers - a number head high or above- fills me with trepidation!

LOL....the idea that our hives could possibly be sitting with 5 full supers each during the active examination time.......or at ANY time fwiw..............is the dreams one has when indulging in hallucinogenic substance. Or reading forums where high peeing competitions are commonplace. Reality just aint like that.....lucky if you are moving ONE full super aside.

We manage for heather. Blossom honey is an incidental product in that plan, and we do not get a whole lot of it. No full examinations after early July so heather time is an add boxes and take honey time.

 

[Into the lions den]

What does a 6-minute inspection consist of? May I guess? Hefting the supers, splitting the brood boxes to look for QCs (which also confirms stores present), going through the top box for evidence of Q+, appraisal of strength of colony, and twice-annual disease check (all bees off frames etc) spread across the average.

ADD Since Langs, maybe not all on doubles, in which case rather than splitting and lifting a few frames, a quick rifle through frames looking for QCs and Q+ not every visit but according to judgment.

It is impossible to 'get it' without coming out with us. I have explained this many times but in many cases it just does not get through without seeing it in the field.

NONE of our hives run on doubles or even one and a half in the active management season (April to late June). However from late June we take away the excluders and let the queen run. It largely kills off the swarming for the year so full examinations beyond that point are not economic to do and gets us loads of field bees for heather time.

The kind of examination you suggest would have a budget of about 3 mins......and is not adequate, yet also of no use as we do not run that way. No text book systems here, they just bog you down in unnecessary work.

We find out everything we need to know in the time available, make the decisions, and carry out the actions.

6 mins average is NOT just for the examination, it is for all actions. The system is geared to it. My personal average per colony is about 3 mins, up to 5 or 6 if there is a lot of splitting. Like I say, you have to see it to understand that we really do cover all RELEVANT bases.

The nest is checked EVERY visit, and yes, we do the full disease checks, and my staff are very good at it, and one of them has even earned the nickname 'eagle eyes' from local inspectors, as she spots EVERYTHING.

It can be hard to visualise, but remember we are not operating like a one person system. We turn up as a team, and the gopher is very important to maintaining pace at critical times, as the skilled person can devote ALL their time to the bees, not running back and forward to the truck and raking about looking for stuff.

We have c 800 Smiths (our old core unit and an easy hive to work with, amazingly almost 40% faster than the Nationals we punted a few years ago due to inefficiency. We know it sounds odd as they are both BS hives but over several seasons running hundreds of hives of both it proved true)

450 Wooden Langstroths (our least productive hives but fast to work)

1500 Poly Langstroths. One size box on this, every box and comb interchangeable.

From time to time people come out with us and they are always surprised at how quickly yet accurately we work. It is amazing how fast a good learner can develop the trained eye that picks things out. You get to a point where you see things and the register just by scanning rather than direct looking. There are so many clues that lead you to having a more in depth look, and your eye picks them up in seconds. You just KNOW from experience. We acquire experience at a rate few can comprehend, each of them seeing enough broodnests in one season and making enough observations and disease checks that would take an average amateur with 6 hives some 150 to 200 years to accumulate. (Its not really a linear comparison, but I am sure you get the point) That's where the pace comes from.

 

[maddydog]

LOL....the idea that our hives could possibly be sitting with 5 full supers each during the active examination time.......or at ANY time fwiw..............is the dreams one has when indulging in hallucinogenic substance. Or reading forums where high peeing competitions are commonplace. Reality just aint like that.....lucky if you are moving ONE full super aside.

We manage for heather. Blossom honey is an incidental product in that plan, and we do not get a whole lot of it. No full examinations after early July so heather time is an add boxes and take honey time.

Ahh, horses for courses. 4-5 full supers is not uncommon for me in may/June as I live in OSR country however unlike you that's me pretty much done for the year until they feed themselves on ivy! I probably need to find some field bean & borage fields and then move them to heather on the moors if I was to farm properly. Thanks again for your insights

 

[mjt68]

I wonder if you could make a vanity hive so beeks could boast about having the most supers? I think small, shallow frames with big long lugs. Oh wait...

I kid, I kid because I love.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I wonder if you could make a vanity hive so beeks could boast about having the most supers?

I've got a lot of supers. They're stacked about 6 high and would make a brilliant picture.

The rest, in ones and twos, are above brood boxes!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I've got a lot of supers. They're stacked about 6 high and would make a brilliant picture.

The rest, in ones and twos, are above brood boxes!

Same here - The thing is, not all of us have the luxury of a dedicated honey room and a team of servants to run it so we have to find a day or two when we can dedicate the kitchen to extracting, thus the supers stay on.
Here's one I prepared earlier.

 

[pargyle]

Same here - The thing is, not all of us have the luxury of a dedicated honey room and a team of servants to run it so we have to find a day or two when we can dedicate the kitchen to extracting, thus the supers stay on.
Here's one I prepared earlier.

Trying to fool everyone .. We all know you are stunted Welsh stock and only 4' 9 3/4" tall and you are stood on two empty brood boxes !

 

[Madge]

Same here - The thing is, not all of us have the luxury of a dedicated honey room and a team of servants to run it so we have to find a day or two when we can dedicate the kitchen to extracting, thus the supers stay on.
Here's one I prepared earlier.

With a tower like that I'll need a team of servants (and at least one of them very tall) just to get to the brood box.

How do you manage such a tower?

Ps: or is that only a tower of honey - no bees?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

How do you manage such a tower?

It's hard work - the roof becomes a hop-up to get at the top ones and the supers get put on the hive next door during inspections - it was a Demarree when it was but three supers so I could get away with not going into the brood box quite so often.
It's not quite so tall now with some supers extracted

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

It's hard work - the roof becomes a hop-up to get at the top ones and the supers get put on the hive next door during inspections - it was a Demarree when it was but three supers so I could get away with not going into the brood box quite so often.

It's not quite so tall now with some supers extracted

What's your forage, JBM?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

What's your forage, JBM?

just the general mix - early dandelions and some hawthorn, a bit of clover but mostly bramble in the main flow - plenty of urban gardens within flying distance, rosebay willowherb then Himalayan balsam and heather towards the end.

 

[tudorcd]

Tt

 

[stucat]

Oh dear! Don't be sorry. You should be happy. I am proud that you have time to pay attention to me all the time. With that average crop you may poke me every day 5 times, but no more.

I have driven with car from Snowdon to Cardiff in June and I remember the landscapes.


.

You really do think you know everything because "you" have seen it.
One drive down a single road and you know the whole countries flora and fauna.
Amazing !

 

[Finman]

You really do think you know everything because "you" have seen it.
One drive down a single road and you know the whole countries flora and fauna.
Amazing !

Dear Stuga. I look from google.

Single road ...whole country....everything
.
Amazing questions. How old are you? Teenage?
Next question!

 

[stucat]

Dear Stuga. I look from google.

Single road ...whole country....everything
.
Amazing questions. How old are you? Teenage?
Next question!

I didn't ask a question, but we already know you cant read or write in English.
My mistake, of course you know everything after looking on google, if that's how you choose your own apiaries it explains your 15kg average.
Your priceless , I can see why they keep you here.

 

[Finman]

I didn't ask a question, but we already know you don't know you don't read or write in English
My mistake, of course you know everything after looking on google.
Your priceless , I can see why they keep you here.

Remember medication!

By the way. I know everything. What is wrong in it?

 

[Finman]

if that's how you choose your own apiaries it explains your 15kg average.
.

That is British normal yield and my hives bring that in 3 days. I have 60-80 kg.

My best hive has brought 200 kg.
150 kg is not rare.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

That is British normal yield and my hives bring that in 3 days. I have 60-80 kg.

My best hive has brought 200 kg.
150 kg is not rare.

.
I have 3 langstroth brood boxes. I extract from those normally 30 kg per hive.

Something smells - and it ain't daddy cow's a*rse