Girls just hanging out in the evening.

[Some Day]

Just thought I would post some photos of some of the girls hanging out on the porch of an evening.

[tedh]

Lookin good Some Day!  Happy, healthy hives.  How'd the honey harvest go for you?  Ted

[Some Day]

Ted,

The honey harvest was very poor.  Our area has had no rain this summer.  If it rained 5 miles north or south of us we would not get a drop.  I extracted 100 pounds for our use, it is at 17%.  I have some frames of honey stored in reserve for next spring to boost splits or perhaps help hives low on stores.

I am still trying to build my hive numbers so I am focusing on making more bees instead of honey production.  I am finding that taking smaller numbers of strong healthy hives into winter is resulting in more hives alive in the spring.  It may not be the case next year.  This is only my fifth year with bees so I can not say that I have a clue as to what I am doing.

[tedh]

Yeah boy.  I mentioned our weather in a different post, hot, dry and very humid.  Last week or ten days ago we got a quarter inch, the folks that live about 1.25 mile away, diagonally across the field, got 9/10ths.  I mean, i could almost throw a rock that far!  Well, probably not, but you get the idea. I guess that's what's meant by "scattered" or "isolated" showers.  How many hives are you shooting for?

[Some Day]

My goal is to be at 52 hives by the fall of 2020.  I would like to run 48 production hives with 4 as resource hives for extra brood and queen rearing.  I came through the winter of 2016-2017 with one surviving hive.  This past winter I had 7 survive out of 8 that went into winter.  None of them are package bees they are all from swarms, cut outs and splits.  It looks like I am going into winter with 13 hives this year.  I have started mite treatment the first of August this year.  Last year I started treating at the end of August.

There were not very many swarms in my area this year and they were late.  The first swarm I caught was on June 30 with three in July.

I am retired and I don't want to work very hard.  I think I can handle 52 hives without wearing my self out.

[tedh]

I'm interested in the specificity of 48 and 52.  Why not say...47?  Is there something that happens at 48 but doesn't happen at 47 or 49?  Not trying to be cute or a jerk or anything.  I understand the math, 48 production plus 4 resource equals 52, just curious about the numbers.  We're hoping to keep between 20 and 25.  It'll fluctuate with winter deadouts and spring splits but in there somewhere.  We'd like to give that a go and see how we're doing then MAYBE add more.  We went into last winter with 17, had 4 croakers and sold one.  We'll enter this winter with 17 and maybe a couple nucs.  We ended up with 720+- pounds this year

[Some Day]

12 hives fit on my trailer.  I can move to 4 out yards for a total of 48 hives.  4 hives at home to be cell builders and queen rearing hives.  Realistically going into winter with 52 hives will be coming out of winter with 42 to 47 surviving hives if I don't mess up big time.  That number of 52 will not be a constant with splits, dead outs, and culls of poor performing hives and perhaps the selling of a few over wintered nucs.  I can work 12 hives for inspections etc. per day and not be stressed out or over heated.

A goal is just something to shoot for.  If I say I am going to have some hives, how much equipment do I need for some hives?  If I say I shall try for 52 hives I have a concrete idea of how much equipment I would need and can budget accordingly with a certain time frame in mind plus some for extra nucs, swarms, etc.  I think that number 52 goal would also be a minimum number for a self sustainable apiary where I would not need to purchase packages and or queens unless I wanted to add diversity to my bee stock.

The limiting factor in starting out in bee keeping , (besides lack of knowledge and experience) is lack of built drawn comb and frames of honey and healthy bees to make bees that will make bees.  Does this make sense?  Or am I way off base?

Also, I have a small goal for making a small profit as a side liner.  In a good year I can see production hives making 150 lbs of honey and in a bad year (like these last 3 years in my local area) making zero excess honey.  Hopefully over a 5 year period the hives will average 40 to 50 lbs of excess honey.  Again, this may be way off base. 

[Bakersdozen]

The limiting factor in starting out in bee keeping , (besides lack of knowledge and experience) is lack of built drawn comb and frames of honey and healthy bees to make bees that will make bees.  Does this make sense?  Or am I way off base?

Also, I have a small goal for making a small profit as a side liner.  In a good year I can see production hives making 150 lbs of honey and in a bad year (like these last 3 years in my local area) making zero excess honey.  Hopefully over a 5 year period the hives will average 40 to 50 lbs of excess honey.  Again, this may be way off base.

Regarding drawn comb, Some Day, you are spot on.  Drawn comb is money in the bank.  It takes a strong nectar flow for the bees to draw out comb.  I use queen excluders when I put honey supers on and I am still using frames from my first year. 
Brood comb is a slightly different situation.  I have started to cull out comb that is over 5 years old.  That set slowed me down this spring.  I had all my drawn comb on colonies and hoped that splits and swarms would be able to draw out comb.  Swarms should be comb factories.
I also feel confident that you will see larger crops of honey, per colony, as you gain more knowledge and management skills.   

[tedh]

I knew it!  I knew there was a logical, intelligent reason!  Twelve hives per trailer load, twelve hives per day, makes perfect sense.  That and having a number as far as building equipment goes I completely understand.  As I said earlier we're shooting for 20 - 25 hives but I'll keep building a few each year until we get the equipment for 28 hives, along with extra bottom boards, inner covers, tele covers and entrance reducers.

We've been keeping 4 hives per outyard, just because it breaks up the inspections giving us time to drink water and cool off on the way to the next site.  Also, having heard that just about any area can support 6 hives, we figure maybe we have a better chance for a honey crop with 4 hives per.

Apologies for high jacking the thread, but it's been fun chatting.  Ted

[Some Day]

Ted,

No worries about hi-jacking the thread.  There have not been many threads on the forum lately and a guy probably needs to practice his hi-jacking skills or he will lose them.

Maybe we should start a few "this vs that" type of threads to generate some activity.  Like say screened bottom boards vs solid. Or treatment of mites vs treatment free.  Perhaps all medium equipment vs all deep vs a mix of the two.  Then again maybe not, it has been over a 150 years since our last Civil War and I am in favor of peace time.

[tedh]

Meh.  Peace schmeace.  The place HAS been somewhat of a ghost town lately so if you pick a topic and a side, I'll argue the other.

[Bakersdozen]

  The place HAS been somewhat of a ghost town lately

I like it!   Post away Some Day and tedh!  Generate some controversy!