Author Topic: Finished honey harvest 2021  (Read 3125 times)

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Online Bakersdozen

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Finished honey harvest 2021
« on: August 14, 2021, 11:57:39 am »
My sister and I wrapped up 2021's spring honey harvest a couple of days ago.  It was just an odd year weather wise and that was reflected in the honey crop.  The honey is an amber color.  Darker than in previous years, but still tastes great.
Two of the colonies managed to get laying queens in the supers.  I got one squared away but didn't get much honey off of that colony due to that major mishap.  The second colony I removed the queen excluder and wasn't up to reorganizing the boxes.  Some of the smaller colonies only produced one super.  Over all I got a lot less honey than in previous years and that's OK.

I offered my new honey house, for extraction, to a couple of gals that only have 2 colonies each.  One of the gals said her bees hadn't capped any of the honey and she chose to feed it back to the bees in the fall.  The 2nd gal got nothing.  Not sure what happened there as she lives about 3/4 of a mile from me.

I am going to do mite tests today and treat.  I know the mite numbers will be high, I am just curious how high.  We have a break in the extreme heat this week and it will be an opportune time to treat.  So, for me, time to start prepping the bees for winter.

Offline RAST

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Re: Finished honey harvest 2021
« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2021, 03:04:17 pm »
Do be careful in the heat, I let it dehydrate me Tuesday requeening and making nucs. Still felt it Wed. Finished this morning finally.

Online Bakersdozen

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Re: Finished honey harvest 2021
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2021, 04:39:11 pm »
Do be careful in the heat, I let it dehydrate me Tuesday requeening and making nucs. Still felt it Wed. Finished this morning finally.
That's scary RAST!  I don't know how you folks work outside in the heat and humidity you have in Florida.  Maybe you are used to it.
We are back down into the mid 80's today and the next couple of days.   Later this week we will creep up to the low 90's.  This break makes it possible to get mite treatments done. 

Offline Zweefer

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Re: Finished honey harvest 2021
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2021, 10:12:21 pm »
Sorry to hear harvest was underwhelming.  How did the mite counts go?


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Online Bakersdozen

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Re: Finished honey harvest 2021
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2021, 07:05:37 pm »
Underwhelming is ok.  It is what it is.
I tested 3 colonies out of 7 in the back yard.  6 mites, 6 mites, and 3 mites in 100 bee samples.  I treated all colonies.  Also treated other remote colonies too.

Offline The15thMember

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Re: Finished honey harvest 2021
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2021, 06:39:55 pm »
I got less honey than last year too.  This is only my second year with a major honey harvest.  I got about 10 gal., and I'm going to be selling 7.5 gal. of that.  We have plenty left over from last year for our own personal use.  The sourwood flow was not great this year, not strong enough to get hardly any monofloral frames. 

I had several colonies spike in mites over the last month, from like 2% to almost 10%!  I just put treatments on today. 
I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led.  And through the air, I am she that walks unseen.

Online Bakersdozen

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Re: Finished honey harvest 2021
« Reply #6 on: September 04, 2021, 10:20:49 am »
I got less honey than last year too.  This is only my second year with a major honey harvest.  The sourwood flow was not great this year, not strong enough to get hardly any monofloral frames. 

I know sourwood makes great honey!  That's a shame.  Is sourwood usually dependable?
We have Black Locust here that makes premium honey.  Usually Mother Nature decides to rain cats and dogs while it's in bloom. The old timers say that you can get a Black Locust crop about 1 out of every 5 years.

Offline The15thMember

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Re: Finished honey harvest 2021
« Reply #7 on: September 04, 2021, 10:28:34 am »
I know sourwood makes great honey!  That's a shame. Is sourwood usually dependable?
We have Black Locust here that makes premium honey.  Usually Mother Nature decides to rain cats and dogs while it's in bloom. The old timers say that you can get a Black Locust crop about 1 out of every 5 years.
Well, I'm only 4 years running, but so far I've had 2 good years (although one was my second year, so I didn't take much honey), 1 bad year where the trees didn't hardly bloom, and this year which wasn't horrible, but not great either, so based on this sample size, I'm assuming it's just a variable thing. 
I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led.  And through the air, I am she that walks unseen.

Offline Zweefer

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Re: Finished honey harvest 2021
« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2021, 11:05:20 am »
3 hives and 22.5 gallons. Was a bumper year for me!



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Offline The15thMember

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Re: Finished honey harvest 2021
« Reply #9 on: September 05, 2021, 11:37:42 am »
3 hives and 22.5 gallons. Was a bumper year for me!
Wow!  That's great!
I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led.  And through the air, I am she that walks unseen.

Offline rober

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Re: Finished honey harvest 2021
« Reply #10 on: September 16, 2021, 09:40:45 pm »
i got 1140 pounds ( 95 gallons ) from 24 hives. some new hives didn't make much. i had around 30 frames of uncapped honey. i put those in supers away from the hives & let the bees rob them out. with the pinched nerve in my back extracting all the honey kicked my *ss. i did it in 1/2 day shifts & took every other day off.

Offline Zweefer

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Re: Finished honey harvest 2021
« Reply #11 on: September 18, 2021, 08:55:41 am »
That’s a lot of honey!  Sorry to hear about your back. Hope you are on the mend now?
Keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.
Henry David Thoreau

Online Bakersdozen

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Re: Finished honey harvest 2021
« Reply #12 on: September 19, 2021, 10:00:35 am »
with the pinched nerve in my back extracting all the honey kicked my *ss. i did it in 1/2 day shifts & took every other day off.
There are beekeepers with bad backs and those that will have bad backs.
rober, sorry yours is giving you fits.

Offline rober

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Re: Finished honey harvest 2021
« Reply #13 on: September 20, 2021, 02:00:22 pm »
yet another spinal epidural on oct. 5th. they're looking for the sweet spot to either do nerve burns or install an appliance called the vertiflex. the pain is in my right hip & my my as the brits say my dangly bits. there are days that i can barely walk. aging sucks.