this season's yield

[BrianO]

Frustrating ... ahhh

Took a mix of frames off various supers , left some full but uncapped hoping another week will see them capped, terrible year.

Still could be worse !! : heading for 3 supers

 

[biglongdarren]

still supers on here, had some off this evening to extract and a good few of them will need to go on again as the honey was shaking out of them when i got home.

Darren.

 

[Icing Sugar]

Still have 6 supers to remove from 4 colonies...three of these will come off tomorrow. Already extracted 90lbs this year. Unfortunately no lime flow to speak of this summer. Not all the remaining supers are completely full but I am confident that the total for 2015 will exceed 200lbs from the 4 colonies. One colony has performed much better than the others, being responsible for about half the honey. All are locally-collected swarms, two of them reaching the end of their second season.

 

[maddydog]

Doubled my colonies from 4 to 8 using splits/AS's. 180lbs spring honey (mostly osr) and 140lbs of summer honey (tastes of bramble) More than happy with that given others experience this year. Have sold 47lbs to a local beek who had no crop at all, trying to sell the rest as I'm moving counties soon
Insulation and low hive density seem to be the way forwards

 

[ianorsven]

Three hives into spring. About 80lb honey taken at end of May - OSR.
As others, problems getting new queens mated meant AS splits remaining Q- and build up of colonies not happening. One better colony producing a surplus and 20lb taken from it in late August.
Last year sam number of hives going into spring produced 240lb honey - what a difference. Fairly sure down to poor conditions in and around May.

(Eventually new queens reared, mated and colonies united (or shaken out in one case) - now with 4 Q+ colonies.)

 

[Falesh]

We just extracted ours and got 80kg total from two hives, I think the split was something like 35kg/45kg. I didn't think we would get as much as we had a number of queen deaths, an artificial swarm and the fact that we had one hive at the start of the year and split it into the two.

 

[stephenpug]

not a good year just managed to get about 80lb good job i dont do it for a living

 

[Tonyatcwfarm]

Got 70lb spring honey
Extracted 68lb Monday
Checked a double brood to check if queen is laying after maqs treatment to find top bb to have 10 fully filled and capped frames so will extract them tomorrow
Still have 5 supers on,don't expect them to finish filling them out but should get another 50/60 off them
Poor enough return off 7 colonies but weather in July was a major factor

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

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

This year, with hindsight, winter started in mid-August in stores terms.

 

[Obee1]

Just finished extracting the frames I removed in mid August before going on holiday. Really glad I took them off when I did as in my absence the bees found ragwort or something else neon yellow and the honey isn't as nice.
So... The results are..... Started the year with one colony and bought in a buckfast Nuc.
The original colony got split into two - the first of those halves got split into three. (temperament problems) The second half had major queen problems- evil queen squidged- replacement was drone layer and only just got a decent queen a month ago.
so my spring harvest was 75 lbs of lime ish honey. No OSR as I'm in a town centre. The second harvest I just extracted is 45lbs. I could have had more but left the yellow honey for the bees and didn't take any honey off the three caerphilly hives despite there being a brood box used as a super that was fairly heavy.
Grand total in my honey coffers. 120 lbs Well chuffed considering the perceived wisdom of nucs and splits not producing a honey crop. Well that's where all my crop came from.

 

[Swarm]

Lime as a Spring crop?

 

[Obee1]

Lime as a Spring crop?

No sorry - my first crop, as opposed to my second crop - you're right it was taken in the summer.

 

[Tom Jay]

Just taken 43 lbs from two hives which have managed a surplus this year.
In the spring I cut 4 lbs of comb honey from another hive which has since swarmed [which I caught and hived] and has subsequently lost at least two casts so no more honey there.

This is just my second season and my queens are my own from swarming activity. So, given the collapse of the season in terms of temperature and sunshine, I'm content.

Meanwhile I have sufficient un-capped store on super frames for each of my four hives to have one super on the brood box for the winter. All being well they will finish filling and seal them with the ivy flow which looks like it's about to start and there is loads of it very near. - weather permitting.

ps this multi-flora suburban-garden tree and riverside-common honey is exceedingly good with a succession of delights on the palate and nose. So I must settle for quality instead of quantity, this year anyway.

 

[scituatema]

I couldn't say. Less for sure.

have you kept any of your bees in your backyard? if so, what was the average yield?

 

[Somerford]

22 supers off 11 hives

Not my best, not my worst year ever

 

[GlenJ]

Started the year with 4 colonies, going out of this one with 6. Two of them followed the same books as me and gave me 130 lbs of honey between them. Quite enough left to share out for the winter as well. Overall more than happy, considering the area and this years weather.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

not noticed much difference between urban or countryside in the South East, My good production hives with new Queens in 2014 made in excess of 120lbs, the difficulty this year was stopping the swarming and that i had several badly mated 2015 and 2014 queens all going drone layers

unlike the west Englands wet weather the SE has been very Dry, this is yield from the best hives

Claudia (5ft 2) is with a hive in a London Garden and I(6ft 2) am with a hive in Hertfordshire Countryside 10 miles away (though that also poduce a further 30lbs of OSR in May)

How are you getting on this year, MM? I'm still getting the last of the blackberry but worried that this heatwave over wet ground (otherwise ideal) is late for the plants.

 

[psafloyd]

As the title suggests and hopefully a thread that can be added to for future seasons like the 'what did you do in the apiary' thread.

So, how have you done this year in terms of main flow honey crop? Has it been as bad as many thought early on or did your bees turn things around?

For what its worth, I haven't extracted yet but from 8 hives (united down to 5), I have 5 heavy supers, maybe in the region of 100lb of honey which I'd be very happy with.

About to extract five or six from one apiary (four colonies) and a few more from another on two. Would have done it at weekend if I wasn't ill.

 

[psafloyd]

Hmm I'm noticing lots of the Beeks with a decent crop seem to be urban. Maybe gardens and managed parks are the reason. human intervention in the form of watering the plants could have helped with nectar flow?
My very urban hives - one biggie I split in April and one overwintered nuc have brought in 75 lbs between them which was taken off 3 weeks ago - quite a bit more still in the supers.

I've done OK every year but not as good this year. Do have a wide choice of gardens, parks, some woodland, river banks, train lines and of course road margins as councils cut less than half what they used to.

 

[madasafish]

30lbs from hawthorn, left full supers on. On Friday virtually nothing left- really wet and cold max 17C . Now with two good weather days (26C today), filling up with lime (?) .

If the weather and flow continues I will need more boxes/start extracting.