This years honey crop (so far)

[preyingmantos]

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

 

[MuswellMetro]

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

had a OSR of 40- 60lbs by first week of May at my out apairy but after that nothing and the urban apiaries are only averaging 20lbs

The blackbury here is almost over and lime is halfway through but it is too wet for the bees to collect it. Most have eaten back about a quarter of what they have collected

but saying that my breeder colony has 80lbs on it but it is the only one

i have just put my prices up to £6 per 12oz jar due to expect shortages of honey

 

[YorkshireBees]

Spring crop not highest but pretty decent.
Large colonies and not too much swarming so waiting for the weather and a decent Summer crop!

 

[Fatbee]

Colonies primed to go go go on blackberry and lime that will come out if we get a week or two of hot weather, if.......

Spring crop pretty decent but not extracted all which they will no doubt be munching through now.

Bigger pain is 2 out of 4 raised queens gone drone layers. Another poor mating season methinks.

 

[madasafish]

Extracted 30lbs from spring hawthorn with another 3 full supers (90lbs) left on hives..

(I fed all colonies early to build them up for hawthorn - glad I did).

And if we get semi decent July weather and a lime harvest, I could be extracting all day to make room for more. Or not as the case may be.

Edit the wet weather should mean a big balsam flow..

 

[Plenty of honey]

Not the best spring harvest, 300 kilos, but the summer is looking even worse. chestnut and bramble in flower and raining, we've still got 3 weeks but its looking bad!! We just need better weather!!

 

[pargyle]

had a OSR of 40- 60lbs by first week of May at my out apairy but after that nothing and the urban apiaries are only averaging 20lbs

The blackbury here is almost over and lime is halfway through but it is too wet for the bees to collect it. Most have eaten back about a quarter of what they have collected

but saying that my breeder colony has 80lbs on it but it is the only one

i have just put my prices up to £6 per 12oz jar due to expect shortages of honey

Yeh ... Mine are busy chompin their way back through the supers I left on ... but when it's not raining (and even in the showers) they are out and about so I'm hopeful we are not going to have a repeat of last year when they ate virtually all the spring honey. I've had a taste of it and it's lovely so I can't blame them for eating it.

 

[Dadnlad]

Spring crop was our best ever(well in 3 years ) averaging about 20lb a hive mostly OSR

They've still only half filled the super that was left on a month ago and not touched the extracted one I added under. Fingers crossed for some bramble+raspberry to get a summer crop as June has been a washout

My early AS and splits have yielded 2 drone layers, 2 non returners and 3 good uns - not great but sufficient

 

[Obee1]

Mixed bag really. My farm apiary - 7 miles outside Cardiff in the middle of beautiful countryside has 4 proper colonies - but I've had swarming problems and done many splits and lost two swarms. However I got a 40 lb crop of OSR from there. They don't seem to be be bringing much in atm and I had to feed two of the nucs this week.
As for my garden apiary which is about a mile from the centre of the city- I have one large colony. In April I split it into a nuc for a new queen and the top box from a demaree made a new queen. So one became three. From these three I have got about 40 lbs of delicious darkish honey that I removed two weeks ago - but there are several full supers still on the hives - in fact I need to put some more on as no time to extract before holiday.

So in short ( I don't do short very well!) from 5 colones at start of spring - 80 lbs extracted so far and probably another 40 in the supers on the garden hives. And the lime trees opposite are mahoosive.

Btw saw a few ghost bees in my farm apiary today - in pouring rain. Assume the HB must be out.

 

[BeeJayBee]

At the moment I'm guessing this year's crop will be about the same as last year's - close to zero or into the negative.

It would help if the weather would warm up a bit and the rain would stop, because the flowers are out there for them.

 

[Millet]

In the North east on the coast i have managed 12lb from nine frames i removed from a Q- hive after the virgin Queen vanished, all my friends who i give some too said it is the best they have ever tasted and i agree with them, so to me on this occasion with my first ever honey from my own bees quality certainly surpasses quantity.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Only two hives producing
One super of Spring honey taken from one and the remaining is being eaten.
I have 30lbs of dandelion honey smelling of sweaty socks mouldering in a honey bucket. It tastes fine....if you hold your nose.
2 colonies being fed

 

[snelgrove]

Averaged about 20 pounds of spring honey per colony , mostly rape and dandilion. I am surprised other regions away from this east coast have done poorly. Several weeks they had low 20 s while here 9 degrees.
Just had email from NBU warning of low stores, it's just like last year.

 

[Tom Bick]

Have cleared five supers of some lovely light spring honey and putting it down to sycamore.

A few weeks ago I thought I was going to run short of supers but now thinking if I manage to get off what's on the hives right now I will be happy.

 

[deanrpwaacs]

200lb now of osr . Could have been more if it wasnt for some swarming and an angry Q- to deal with . On the up side i am now up to 8 hives . Supers now slowly filling and i await the summer flow .

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

Best start to a year for myself, 523lb of spring honey which is mainly rape and sycamore with a bit of Hawthorne mixed in.

 

[snelgrove]

Best start to a year for myself, 523lb of spring honey which is mainly rape and sycamore with a bit of Hawthorne mixed in.

So it should with the weather you have had compared to here.

 

[Millet]

So it should with the weather you have had compared to here.

It has been diabolical for me weather wise a total washout, i just hope they have enough stores left as i can not get there till Saturday.

 

[Somerford]

The local OSR yielded 300lb off 8 hives that were in the right place at the right time. There's a further 15 supers full now but with with weather I will leave them until mid July and hopefully we get some better weather and the main flownstarts.

On the 5 in WBcs I have elsewhere they've had a poor start - one queen less and then a drone layer, 3 making huge attempts to swarm and another that almost bit got it in time. The last one had a fine super of Spring wildflower honey on it that once extracted was some of the finest I've ever tasted. Bloody expensive honey too seeing as it cost the site owner £30,000 to sow a wildflower meadow 2 years ago

It does make me think though that the beekeepers in the 18th century who had access to huge swathes of wildflower meadows probably took a fine Spring crop almost every year....!

Regards

S

 

[Millet]

The local OSR yielded 300lb off 8 hives that were in the right place at the right time. There's a further 15 supers full now but with with weather I will leave them until mid July and hopefully we get some better weather and the main flownstarts.

On the 5 in WBcs I have elsewhere they've had a poor start - one queen less and then a drone layer, 3 making huge attempts to swarm and another that almost bit got it in time. The last one had a fine super of Spring wildflower honey on it that once extracted was some of the finest I've ever tasted. Bloody expensive honey too seeing as it cost the site owner £30,000 to sow a wildflower meadow 2 years ago

It does make me think though that the beekeepers in the 18th century who had access to huge swathes of wildflower meadows probably took a fine Spring crop almost every year....!

Regards

S

Good god i thought i pushed the boat out when i spent 200 quid on bulbs.