this season's yield

[Swarm]

At my place..
Seems I got little over 2000kg this year as stationary. Before never reached 1000kg. If I didn't sold some colonies it could be 500-600kg more. Selling the honey for decent price is other story.. I will again try to sell lot colonies in spring, but most want as cheap .. as I can't sell for..

Stunning result Goran, I just wish you could get the prices you deserve for your honey and your bees.

 

[Goran]

Stunning result Goran, I just wish you could get the prices you deserve for your honey and your bees.

Thanx. Such yields here were considered as average ( normal occurence) before climate gone berserk. Now we consider it as great when happen. I am still in process of excluding some queens, introducing newly grown. So this will be my investment ( more labour than financial) for the next season either I sell the great colonies or go for honey. Made some changes in queen growing after some discussions and advices ( even from members of this forum - thanx again) - will keep multiple lines not forcing only one. So far, overall even I am mostly satisfied of potential I have for my amateur operation. Late queen growing is what for now I maintain as practice, evenso from time to time shown some swarmy colonies from which I exclude queens from stock. Mostly in 1st full season new queens don't go for swarming.

 

[Martin921]

All colonies have a full super left on for winter feed with the following being extracted;

colony #1 = 55lbs
colony #2 = 20lbs
colony #4 = 86lbs

colony #3 = Nothing
colony #5 = combined with colony #2
colony #6 = Nothing - late artificial swarm from colony #4

 

[For want of a better word]

A lot of supers still full of uncapped honey... the Italians are starting to eat them... the pure native black Cornish Amms have produced very well.. on a par if not better than the NZIs.. The black bees cappings are incredible... white and uniform.. look fantastic in cut comb boxes and sell for a premium... I did 100 frames ( a weeks winter sun & diving in Teneriffe looks on the cards).
Risking leaving supers on as there is still bramble and H balsam in flower... and need to be capped.

Yeghes da

I usually store the extracted frames wet... but the Native Cornish black bees seemed to still be at it... I put 10 supers back to clear.. on colonies that still had loads of bees and supers removed.
This morning I have yet another 10 FULL supers, and have put another 10 on.

I do not know what the flow is... not HB.. possibly a late Autumn raspberry?


The yellow perils are now being fed and I have a stack of Apiguard ekes to make... it never ends!

Perhaps the old beekeeper down the Pub was right.. and Indian Summer!!

Yeghes da

 

[Ely]

Is there anyone around the Great Yarmouth/Suffolk border still receiving a flow? I'm in Burgh Castle and it has been pretty dry for me

 

[Finman]

.
Summer was bad.
My hives brought 50-100 kg.
Last 3 weeks were good.

Summer rape gove finally a good yield.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

I usually store the extracted frames wet... but the Native Cornish black bees seemed to still be at it... I put 10 supers back to clear.. on colonies that still had loads of bees and supers removed.
This morning I have yet another 10 FULL supers, and have put another 10 on.

Sorry to spell it out, but you mean the supers put on to be cleared were filled instead?

I have a dilemma; took most supers off over the weekend but left a couple that were part-filled. I still have a flow on (heather?); the dilemma is I am away for three weeks in a week and mid-Sept might (or might not) be far too late to have supers on; weather forecasting is a guess at best for that period.

 

[psafloyd]

Had around 100lb from four supers so far, have two ready to go and anticipate another 6-10 in the next week or two.

Definitely a slow down while i was away at the end of July until last week. Still packing it away, but not as fast as they were in the few weeks before my holiday.

 

[For want of a better word]

Sorry to spell it out, but you mean the supers put on to be cleared were filled instead?

I have a dilemma; took most supers off over the weekend but left a couple that were part-filled. I still have a flow on (heather?); the dilemma is I am away for three weeks in a week and mid-Sept might (or might not) be far too late to have supers on; weather forecasting is a guess at best for that period.

Yes I put them on top without a queen excluder as I could not be arsed with lifting double brood to nadir them... filled but not capped... have now put qe back on as do not want queen laying in brood boxed destined for honey production.

I would leave the half uncapped honey on... but remove anything capped!

Worth the gamble... unless you take the uncapped stuff for mead / cyser... etc!

I am hoping for an Indian Summer!!

Yeghes da

 

[Thymallus]

but the Native Cornish black bees seemed to still be at it...

The yellow perils are now being fed and I have a stack of Apiguard ekes to make... it never ends!

Are they in the same apiary?
If they aren't in the same apiary with equal opportunities on the same forage it's an invalid observation. As the available forage will vary with location.
It was only when I put some of my Buckfast hives in the same apiary as my (now ex) local mongrels that I realised how crap the local mongrels (in my area at least) were.

 

[Thymallus]

mid-Sept might (or might not) be far too late to have supers on; weather forecasting is a guess at best for that period.

Mid September is when I tend to take my final supers off. And that's in North Yorkshire, so not too late at all.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Mid September is when I tend to take my final supers off.

Same here.

I never cease to be amazed at how people want to rush into things far too early - first inspections, adding supers, deciding the season is over, autumn feeding, to name but four.

Chill, people, chill.

Dusty

 

[Thymallus]

In some ways it's understandable. Went down to Pershore (Worcestershire) today. It's a barren dessert for bee forage. roadside verges only have ragwort ...and not a lot of that. Back into North Yorkshire, fireweed all over the verges, late meadowsweet, funny yellow things, Blue thingys (meadow summat), Himalayan balsam. Plus the moors are in full bloom. Be mid September before things quieten down uup here.
Only problem is (heather excepted) not a lot of nectar in them at the moment. Which is unusual but probably down to cold summer. I have loads of Balsam near me, but few bees working it.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Yeah; there's sort of a flow here now but it's been really thin. Hence the dilemma. Part supers are a PITA and a lot of room to heat for them.

 

[Teemore]

My bees are still bringing in pollen and nectar - admittedly the nectar is in reduced quantities. We still have meadowsweet, rosebay willowherb, bramble and what I think is great hairy willowherb in flower locally. The residue of my supers will stay on until the bramble is finished. After the bramble, there will be precious little for my bees to forage on until the ivy flowers.

 

[Fatbee]

Yep - I'm waiting for the ivy. Here is to a sunny September. Can't be any gloomier than August

 

[Melbee]

Hello everyone. Really enjoyed reading the posts over the summer - interesting and very informative - thanks !

85lbs of honey from my 3 hives - I'm pleased. Late July was damp but warm here and the traffic up to our 6 large lime trees was noticeable as was the coming and going from the bramble. Lots of balsam pollen coming in still.

 

[thorn]

Two weeks ago my best colony had filled one super, virtually fillled the next one up and were well on the way to filling a third.

The lousy weather over the last couple of weeks has led to their eating most of the stores in the first super, and the other two haven't progressed.

Another hive, which had been on target for one full super, is now going to need what they've got left as the foundation for their winter fuel.

I was feeling good as we went into August, despite July having not been what it was last year.

Oh well, at least the extraction and jarring won't take too long.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Mid September is when I tend to take my final supers off. And that's in North Yorkshire, so not too late at all.

Same here.

I never cease to be amazed at how people want to rush into things far too early - first inspections, adding supers, deciding the season is over, autumn feeding, to name but four.

Chill, people, chill.

Dusty

From today's perspective, mid-September is starting to look a bit punchy. Let's hope that's wrong.

 

[JohnRoss]

So Far the last two weeks have been the best all summer for me. all hives are putting on good weight. I put previously extracted suppers onto a number of hives two weeks ago and they have all 10-15lb gathered since then.