Eaglesfate
Bronze Member
About to pop open the hoods and see if they are ready to put my next box on.
Honey bees
- Thread starter m1garand762
- Start date
LittleBittyBigJohn
Platinum Member
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- Central Arkansas
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Ours have all but quit drawing comb.
Eaglesfate
Bronze Member
Checked the two hives, the boxes were filled with unworked out frames, contemplating adding feed to help get the frames built out quicker. bees only working three of the frames.
CloverKnollFarms
Elite Member
Well, it looks like the early swarming and cold temps at that time caused four of my colonies to go queenless.
Really disappointed. It looks like we will pull 150 pounds of honey from them and have 40 fully drawn frames to put into production next year… but still sad. They aren’t dead yet, but the numbers are abysmal and not a single egg.
The other four colonies are working hard and thriving. The clover is in full bloom and the bees are busy storing it up. The buckwheat will come online in a couple weeks as well as the soy beans nearby.
So, I suppose out of 8 colonies, we will likely head into winter with four. Probably just shy of 300 pounds of honey for the year, and plenty of empty equipment to go into next season.
Really disappointed. It looks like we will pull 150 pounds of honey from them and have 40 fully drawn frames to put into production next year… but still sad. They aren’t dead yet, but the numbers are abysmal and not a single egg.
The other four colonies are working hard and thriving. The clover is in full bloom and the bees are busy storing it up. The buckwheat will come online in a couple weeks as well as the soy beans nearby.
So, I suppose out of 8 colonies, we will likely head into winter with four. Probably just shy of 300 pounds of honey for the year, and plenty of empty equipment to go into next season.
CloverKnollFarms
Elite Member
Finished up a new hive for a swarm I caught this spring. Not bad for drawing it myself!
CloverKnollFarms
Elite Member
Moved the swarm to their new home today. Some beautiful clover honey comb being built!
LittleBittyBigJohn
Platinum Member
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- Central Arkansas
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looking good!
CloverKnollFarms
Elite Member
Harvested about 80 pounds of honey today. Add to that about 30 pounds from the cutout, and what we will harvest this fall... We will be around 300 pounds. For the first time ever I have colonies filling 20 frame hives! This has been a not so great year due to the drought, but still seeing great production. In part perhaps due to the good clover growth and now buckwheat!
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CloverKnollFarms
Elite Member
I'm also curious to see if with fewer colonies, we see a noticeable difference in excess honey production. We have never seen a colony fill a hive to 20 frames. Each colony CONSUMES 200 pounds of honey per year to just survive in our zone. So, the (4) colonies that went queenless will free up a theoretical 800 pounds of honey for surplus. My (4) working colonies cannot save that much excess, but could each save about 40-50 pounds more than they typically do. So, my optimal number of colonies may be about (6). That would create a need for 400 pounds to survive, and 160 pounds of excess. Adding one more colony would just divide the resources too much and limit excess honey.
I didn't get into this to sell honey, but I won't lie, $4000 a year for minimum input is very nice.
I didn't get into this to sell honey, but I won't lie, $4000 a year for minimum input is very nice.
LittleBittyBigJohn
Platinum Member
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- Central Arkansas
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- John Deere 1025R, Spartan SRT-XD 72" zero turn
We harvested 77 lbs of honey yesterday. Only took 2 medium supers and 2 additional frames. Left plenty for the ladies.
