This years honey crop (so far)

[ianorsven]

Two hives at start of spring.
50lb OSR honey
120 lb summer honey
4 hives now.
Happy.

 

[ianorsven]

Two hives at start of spring.
50lb OSR honey
120 lb summer honey
4 hives now.
Happy.

 

[Dave /Oscroft]

Rubbish !!!!!!if it wasn't for the heather honey from Llandegla, id be buying it !

Dave

 

[maddydog]

Increased my numbers from 6 to 20 colonies using my own bees, bought in queens, and a gift of one colony. Just over 200lbs of honey but 5 hives on heather was a near complete failure (have not bothered to extract what little there is)

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

tried tange did not work so used the radial cage instead. I spiked them gave a short spin then spiked them again and spun them for a couple of minutes which cleared most of the honey out of the frames.

 

[Somerford]

I'd say if you average my crop between my total number of colonies then it was a below average year. However, in the spring only 8 out of 14 were what I'd term full colonies and from them I obtained 14 full supers of OSR.

Fast forward to end August and from 15 full colonies (out of 25) I removed 33 supers so not a bad harvest on a full colony basis.

Some very promising colonies from swarms taken in June which I have high hopes for next season. In general they are heading into the Autumn looking healthy and strong with plenty of ivy honey too (I tend not to remove Ivy as I see it as free feed) but am feeding invert sugar syrup now just in case the weather changes in October and we have a harsh winter.

KR

S

 

[GlenJ]

Having spent most of the miserable spring fixing problems I'm mostly just glad I've got healthy colonies going into winter. Three produced a total surplus of 30lb. Last year I had 130lb from just two productive colonies.There's always next year!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

tried tange did not work so used the radial cage instead. I spiked them gave a short spin then spiked them again and spun them for a couple of minutes which cleared most of the honey out of the frames.

funny - I'm getting more joy spinning them tangentially

 

[Swarm]

Just got back with the first trailer load of bees from the heather, it looks like I'll have buckets and buckets to sell judging by the stiffness in my back now.

Lucky man. I have the ache in my lower back ....... nothing to do with honey

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

Must be the north/south divide.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Must be the north/south divide.

I didn't get around to moving any hives up to the heather this year but, it seems it didn't matter to the bees. Thought I'd just have an easy one as I didn't come back from the hospital until the afternoon so I decided to quickly spin the Garn Cottage supers - nowhere near any heather and half a dozen supers won't take long (did a quick extraction there a month or so ago and only two hives on production) I thought!! wrong!! mostly heather in all the supers and the nearest heather is over three miles away!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Just got back with the first trailer load of bees from the heather, it looks like I'll have buckets and buckets to sell judging by the stiffness in my back now.

OK
Will you sell me one please?

 

[mbc]

OK
Will you sell me one please?

No worries, I'll pm you when it's extracted.

 

[Erichalfbee]

 

[psafloyd]

well, the situation is looking pretty dire. How's everyone else getting on?

rubbish!

 

[Plenty of honey]

I saw this thread and wanted to just say that i could have used this header title, but changed one letter: this years honey harvest, Crap so far!!!

 

[Plenty of honey]

 

[Mandeville]

My best season ever, 200lbs from 3 hives

Really light in colour, it's always been very dark in previous years.

 

[Eyeman]

Have come across some different ways of quoting ones average.

1. The number of full size hives at the start of the season come spring after accounting for winter losses, DLQ etc. So if I start the season with 10 and end up with 15 its the 10 I use to calculate my average.
2. The numbers of full size hives you had at the end of the season.

Both options have been used by presenters at meeting, sometimes I have only found out after asking.
I can see advantages and disadvantages of both. Option 1 allows for splits which may both produce some honey but perhaps no more than if the colony wasn't split. It also allows one to 'inflate ' ones average yield.
Increased stock from collecting swarms and moving nucs to full size hives can generate significant amounts of honey but aren't accounted for in option 1.

 

[Hachi]

My total for this year is round the 300lb mark. Boo Yah