Where is all the 'super' honey this year?

[Paddyg]

My Brood boxes are full but supers fairly empty. Poor year. What is happening?

 

[REDWOOD]

Good here

 

[pargyle]

All my hives have supers on that are full and capped.. one of them has four and I've just put another one on... not the best year as I let then eat the spring crop during the ensuing bad weather but they have done well considering..

 

[madasafish]

I have extracted 14 supers , all capped - but not 100% full.

Winter preps now.

 

[drex]

3-4 supers on most hives, nearly full. Fair bit in the broods too ( double broods), I will take some from the broods but leave them enough.

 

[Murox]

Managed to get one and a half supers drawn and capped/dried (15% on some open frames) on a new hive thanks to a late flowering field of mustard, otherwise it would have been a poor year for that hive - too dry for too long, the burn dried to limping trickle and the sunflowers I had hoped for couldn't be germinated (twice failed) this year. Too bloody wet again now of course!!

 

[victor meldrew]

We had a very poor start cold long spring followed by a drought followed by torrential rain however they have caught up and I’m about to take Honey off earlier than usual, bees are bees

 

[mbc]

Bees made good on clover and bramble during the heatwave and I've a very good crop.

 

[user 3509]

All supers extracted now and it has been a good crop. No spring harvest and nothing much up until a few weeks ago when everything seemed to happen at once. Making winter preparations now, and even had to feed some colonies as the bees have eaten the honey filled supers that we left on, as there seems to be little or no forage around, and the weather is wet!

 

[Curly green finger's]

Bees made good on clover and bramble during the heatwave and I've a very good crop.

Harwthorne and dandelion, clover +blackberry and vetch. Best colony has produced 160lbs and one of yours you bugger!!
I have two supers on some colonys that will be producing ling at two sites on the hills, lowland Heather is only started to get going and I don't know if it will produce.
The clover has been really good this year and the harwthorne blossom was the best I've seen it in 17 years on and around the South Shropshire hills.the best colony for honey this season, and still has 5 supers on filling up

 

[elainemary]

My Brood boxes are full but supers fairly empty. Poor year. What is happening?

Think it can be an indication of a relatively weak colony. Strong colonies fill the brood box with brood and put the nectar above. Or they’re preparing for winter and bringing stores down into the brood box. None of mine are doing this at the moment as a good flow on with balsam & heather - what’s your forage like, has your flow stopped?

 

[Brewer24]

Your not alone mate. I chuckle about how you ask a question on honey stores and virtually everyone brags about
Towers of supers overflowing with honey!
Anyway mine started good then proceeded to eat what they had collected and haven’t filled the supers they had put on.
It appears to me that the further south you are based (M4 south) the less supers are filled?

 

[madasafish]

Finished extracting last week. Prior years usually 2-3 weeks later but the weather has since extracting been lousy (rain/cool) and is forecast to do more of the same.
2 out of 6 overwintered hives were very weak, were nuc'd and then rehived when they expanded. On/off March /April created havoc.
Terrible cold May, then latter half warmed up, June good, July good in parts.

Average yield per production hive stable at c 50lbs.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Your not alone mate. I chuckle about how you ask a question on honey stores and virtually everyone brags about
Towers of supers overflowing with honey!
Anyway mine started good then proceeded to eat what they had collected and haven’t filled the supers they had put on.
It appears to me that the further south you are based (M4 south) the less supers are filled?

Yes wait a little while and somebody will start a Willie waving thread

 

[drdrday]

It appears to me that the further south you are based (M4 south) the less supers are filled?

I'm intrigued by whereabouts you're located Brewer. I always got the opposite impression, that it was the further south you were the more likely you were to have more full supers. I'm pretty far south, in Kent, just outside Maidstone. I don't have too many year's yields to compare yet, but I'm up slightly on last year so far.

 

[Brewer24]

I'm intrigued by whereabouts you're located Brewer. I always got the opposite impression, that it was the further south you were the more likely you were to have more full supers. I'm pretty far south, in Kent, just outside Maidstone. I don't have too many year's yields to compare yet, but I'm up slightly on last year so far.

Couldn’t get much further south on the British Isles without getting on a boat. I’m on another forum and quite a few beeks are reporting low yields in the south. But you never know, just my opinion.

 

[beebopper]

This has been the worst year for a while for me. When things get going it is followed by rain.
Have a few supers full but definitely a really poor year.

 

[Ian123]

Start of the year was good but as most found they just ate everything. Although only having to feed a handful of Nucs everything was running on fumes. This meant it took a little while before anything got put into supers. Lime was useless. Blackberry appeared a little later than normal but best was past before weather broke. The real saviour was chestnut and the weather in mid July was good. Mine have packed in a decent amount and the big colonies made hay
So probably down on last year but not the wash out that it could have been.

 

[Mumph]

My Brood boxes are full but supers fairly empty. Poor year. What is happening?

Same for me, I'm in Wiltshire, outside Bath, I have two hives, I've put supers on which both colony's haven't touched, they still haven't filled the brood box fully. I'm thinking maybe something is wrong...

 

[bobba]

I am just about as far south as you can get.

Am only on 2nd year so dont have many past years to go on.

But this spring was rubbish for me compared to last year. Summer has been slow but steady. I have 11 supers on 4 hives, but none are full and capped. Right now I think I have the equivalent of maybe 4-5 full supers. But there is still time.

I think I messed up this year with my super management, mostly timing of when they went on.

Weather has not been good, started cold and dry, then went wet and warm, we have only had about 10 days in the last 3 months with 0 rain.

My bees just seem to fill supers but not cap them this year.