Slow year??

[thurrock bees]

Hi all
I have noticed that all my hives are doing well in themselves however there has been no honey put in the supers, there is plenty of brood and the queens are laying well, some hives I had to split, Yet there has not been honey in the supers to remove yet in previous years I have extracted something like 300-400 lbs by now ?
Anybody else noticed a bad or slow year??
TB

 

[Eyeman]

Are you using supers with drawn or undrawn foundation?
I supect your brood box isn't very congested with stores.
Some of mine have 5 supers on other haven't filled the first one.

 

[thurrock bees]

they have drawn comb with one or two foundation frames per super

 

[Splodge]

I am in north Essex and a lot of local farms have switched from osr. Which seems to have made a difference.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

You're quibbling over 12 lbs per colony. 300-400 lbs now is a detail in the ton at least I imagine you aim for.

 

[Sadders]

Hi all
I have noticed that all my hives are doing well in themselves however there has been no honey put in the supers, there is plenty of brood and the queens are laying well, some hives I had to split, Yet there has not been honey in the supers to remove yet in previous years I have extracted something like 300-400 lbs by now ?
Anybody else noticed a bad or slow year??
TB

Same for me although others in my apiary have several supers on.

 

[sahtlinurk]

same here, slowest year i have ever had. went through the records and normally had an extraction day half way through the June. Not this year.


Lauri

 

[enrico]

It was good here until last week, but hopefully the rain will plump the lime up!

 

[birdsandbees]

Had a few queen issues and lost a swarm but it does seem slow, started to get going the they've slowed again.

 

[Binge]

I'm not complaining.
It was raining by now last year and didn't stop until after Christmas!

 

[birdsandbees]

I'm not complaining.
It was raining by now last year and didn't stop until after Christmas!

Well, looking out of the window currently, let's hope history doesn't repeat itself!

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Well, looking out of the window currently, let's hope history doesn't repeat itself!

If it rains on St Swithins day it will rain for forty days and forty nights or so the old wives tale says.

 

[Swarm]

If it rains on St Swithins day it will rain for forty days and forty nights or so the old wives tale says.

Heard that for years but not much cop if you've no idea when that is

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Slower here too, less than half the spring crop of last year. I think the main difference for me is mostly down to having 2 and 3 year old queens this year. Plus stupidly lost 2 swarms.... Rectifying that now, I am hoping that some newly mated queens and a bit of uniting before the limes and brambles get going will save the day!

 

[BeeJayBee]

If it rains on St Swithins day it will rain for forty days and forty nights or so the old wives tale says.

Heard that for years but not much cop if you've no idea when that is

Phew! Had me panicking for a moment. Made me think I'd lost a whole month of 2016!

 

[Binge]

Heard that for years but not much cop if you've no idea when that is

12th July.
Maybe we're getting our 40 days in beforehand this year?!

 

[tonyofarr]

Oak before ash, you're in for a splash
Ash before oak, you're in for a soak

The oak trees were definitely out before the ash this year, so I'm hoping that this rain does not last long.
Last week I had some honey being capped, the bees had done really well on the hawthorn and the smell of it being ripened was over-powering. However, it has not stopped raining since last Thursday and they are strong colonies so the next time I check them I will probably find a load of honey has been eaten and swarm preps.

 

[Fatbee]

Because if the wet spring if it does warm up I would say it will be a good season because blackberries etc will keep flowering for longer.

 

[Stiffy]

Slowed down considerably since weather turned but until this week some of mine were nearly filling a super a week and took 4 supers off one hive last weekend, others were on 2-3 full. These were hives away from OSR, ones on OSR were filling a super a week but that crop has been finished for a couple of weeks.
I always try to use 'wet' supers (cover them in pallet wrap) as I find bees take to them a lot quicker, the wrap seems to keep wax moth and (touch wood) mice out during winter.
Steve

 

[BeeJayBee]

12th July.
Maybe we're getting our 40 days in beforehand this year?!

Errm, St Swithun's Day is 15th July.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swithun