Zero Harvest Returns

[BBC]

At the end of June I had two supers brimming with honey in various stages of sealing. Come the beginning of September I have a few isolated corners of stores. I put this down to the wet July and early August.
I wonder how other Beekeepers faired generally.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

on the whole - down significantly on last year (but then again, last year was a bumper crop) we had a really good spring harvest (around here we usually leave the spring crop on the hives and just harvest at the end of the season) June went off with a bang with fears by the time the Royal Welsh came along that I would be clean out of supers, but the poor July and August meant that 30% of the supers ended up empty, still not a bad harvest though

 

[Erichalfbee]

Stonking hawthorn crop
Then fell off a cliff
Supers came off early. We do have balsam but generally it’s never yielded much so I leave it for the bees. This year they piled it in and now we have a few days of really warm weather and a massive Ivy flow. Most of the hives are nailed down already.
I’ve had to put a few supers back just to give the colonies room to shift nectar somewhere.

 

[enrico]

Had a great year. Sorry!!!
Edit.....and sold out already

 

[blackcloud]

Ditto -doubled last year's yield.
Still have 50% left to sell (somehow?)
Took off a spring crop due to a new patch of OSR appearing in the valley, then the usual summer crop in early August.
They continued to pile it in for the rest of the month but the subsequent crap weather has meant feeding is more intense this year.
Refilled feeders on Friday and again this morning.

 

[user 819]

Last year was pretty good for me and given this year I would say par for par a better year per my two only production colonies, my six colonies I went into winter with ended up as only two production colonies due to two DLQ's , two CBPV's (I lost one of them).
My remaining two colonies returned me 144lbs & 237 lbs.

I am now back to six colonies going into winter , two swarms (one turned up and one collected four weeks ago) and one A/S in the summer. The CBPV colony rebounded strongly and is well but no harvest from them.

Most are nailed down now , this mild spell has seen the ivy paying dividends for them in the last week and a half.

 

[Anduril]

Bumper year for me.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Not a bad year for me, but normally my spring crop is half of my summer crop. This year it was the other way round.

 

[user 819]

Spring crops I have noticed of the last few years are getting better due to the warmer early conditions , exploiting the conditions requires early quick colony build up .

 

[Do224]

Stonking hawthorn crop
Then fell off a cliff
Supers came off early. We do have balsam but generally it’s never yielded much so I leave it for the bees. This year they piled it in and now we have a few days of really warm weather and a massive Ivy flow. Most of the hives are nailed down already.
I’ve had to put a few supers back just to give the colonies room to shift nectar somewhere.

What will you do with the part filled supers?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Spin them off and mix with something else.

 

[Swarm]

On a par with last year, mainly thanks to the outstanding Hawthorn flow. Balsam and now Ivy since pulling the supers has meant very little need for feeding and some beautiful new combs drawn.

 

[The Poot]

Best ever Spring crop, worst ever July and August, resulting in early feeding. Ivy only recently in flower here, but the very warm weather is proving a bonus, reducing the need for continued feeding.

 

[Christine Hamilton]

Very bad very me in north Lancs. Full supers in June were emptied over Summer . That teaches me a lesson to remove at least some of the full ones as the year goes along.

 

[robmort]

Bumper year with over 200kg from 2 hives after losing 3 in the winter.

 

[elainemary]

Good year for me, less than last year which was a bit of an outlier, but up on the year previous to that. Had a very good Spring (best ever) and an excellent September - bees piled in balsam (heather at home) over a 10 day period. Fortunately didn’t need to feed the bees in July / Aug but was touch and go for my colonies at home, near the heather. All colonies are now nailed down with c 20-22kg of their own honey stores, so I’m not feeding at all this year. V happy with that - we ‘shared’ the harvest.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Good spring rubbish summer 80% of colony’s don’t need feeding this autumn.
Edit: I still have 90 x 30 lb buckets of honey and I haven’t finished the heather yet .
Plan is to use bigger buckets if my bad back allows I’m having problems with my lower back while having a virus torn muscles so doc tells me and trapped nerves .

 

[Ely]

I took around 2 and a half deeps resulting in about 70 12oz jars of honey. I started up again this year after a short break with a nuc in April. I caught a swarm in June that grew very quickly and produced its own super of honey. Not bad results considering. I am looking forward to expanding next year, and possibly a new location as we are possibly moving to Hickling. All honey sold in a week on Facebook Marketplace.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Good spring rubbish summer 80% of colony’s don’t need feeding this autumn.
Edit: I still have 90 x 30 lb buckets of honey and I haven’t finished the heather yet .
Plan is to use bigger buckets if my bad back allows I’m having problems with my lower back while having a virus torn muscles so doc tells me and trapped nerves .

As a much younger chap I had disc problems. My doctor gave me some invaluable advice. " if there's something heavy to lift, get someone else to do it"

 

[thorn]

As a much younger chap I had disc problems. My doctor gave me some invaluable advice. " if there's something heavy to lift, get someone else to do it"

My bee buddy is nearly 20 years younger than me, 6 inches taller and goes to the gym regularly. I'm trying to persuade him that next year we can demaree one of our 14x12s, reunite the bees and let them fill up and cap the upper box. He's not keen.