2022 Nectar Dearth

[MudSongs]

As a backyard beekeeper with 6-10 hives, I usually harvest honey when fireweed goes to seed, typically the second week of September in my local climate.




Extreme heat and no rain (i.e., a nectar dearth) seems to have everything messed up this year. Fireweed has already gone to seed. Even the goldenrod this year came in late and most of it has looked half dried up since it came in, not the fields of bright yellow goldenrod that I'm used to seeing.

I don't get much honey from this particular beeyard because 1/3 of the bees' forage area is the North Atlantic Ocean and the wind coming off is freezing half the time.  But I can usually get at the very least one medium super of honey from each hive.  This year, I don't plan to harvest any honey.  I'm leaving it all for the bees.

Which is okay because I don't mind taking a break of pulling out the extractor and all that business.  It should also give me a chance to try out a springtime honey harvest.  I know someone doesn't harvest in the fall and therefore doesn't need to top up his hives with syrup going into winter.  He takes what the bees haven't consumed in the spring and it works.  It wouldn't work for canola honey, but it seems to work for him.

I guess it's time to take this twist of fate and turn into something new.

This is my local climate:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John%27s,_Newfoundland_and_Labrador#Climate

This is where I keep my bees:

https://goo.gl/maps/Wh8sgEGh6NvRfu4a6

[Bakersdozen]

Sorry to hear that, Mudsongs.  Fireweed is a highly desirable honey.
Down here, Kansas, some of us were affected by unusual weather as well.  Others in the same region fared better.  On the plus side, the ground has been so hard that the small hive beetles are almost non-existent.

[The15thMember]

We had a late frost that destroyed our early flowers.  I had to feed in spring for the first time.  But the rest of our flows have been pretty normal this year, and the sourwood was much better than last year.