Bottom line: ~12 gallons. Details: We are running 4 hives this year, all from new packages since last winter killed all of our hives. 3 hives are doing great and we were able to harvest 1.5 - 2 supers from each of them. The 4th hive is definitely a weaker so we only extracted one super and left the other partially capped super for them. We have to think about re-queening that hive.(?) I hope the late summer and fall nectar flows are good this year so we don't have to feed them.
My grandfather was a keeper, and I remember some of the things he taught me when I was younger. I wish I had more time to do something like that. thanks for sharing Mike
My son is trying this hobby this summer. I haven't spoken to him about any results yet...(crs)...interesting, though.
"They" say you may not get to harvest honey in the first year, but as long as the hive behaves itself, we have always been able to harvest at least a little honey. I wish him luck. The first honey harvest from your own bees is a really special event.
We just use the standard Langstroth style hives from Brushy Mountain. My wife likes to paint them fun colors. I keep tossing around the idea of a top bar, either Kenyan or Warre.
As you no doubt have figured, the purple hive is the weak one. The other 2 hives (notpictured) are doing about the same as the orange one. We were very conservative extracting from the purple, but, we still might re-queen this hive before Fall-Winter.
Tell me more about your hive. Did this one over winter or is it new this Spring? Is it a nuc or a package? Local or Southern Queen?
nice bee hives. I had some for a couple years. They died off and I let it all go. Have to get a really sheltered area around here. The wind would topple those hives just sitting out in the open.
I had a strange situation happen this year.... The hive all died off last winter, we had the bees left in the hive tested but I never got a report back from the state. There were only about 100 dead bees left in the hive. I cleaned the hive out and left it alone, one day we noticed a couple bees buzzing around about a week later I had a "BOOOOMING" hive. I had some of my friend and my mentor scratching their heads, It appears I accumulated a swarm, All by pure luck! I haven't opened it yet but it's a booming hive.
Mike, I just took these pics moments ago, I was right up in with them and they were gentle, not bothered once.
Yeah man! You can stick your hand right into the bearding. Looks like they got a great population going. Way better than any bees you can buy. Now dont do any of the treatment nonsense with them.
I haven't touched them and I won't!!! Not after last year! I will go get some honey but I'm gonna let them build the hive!
U will start seeing golden rod soon. Early stuff got color here last week. I would wait until then to see if there is any honey to take. Should be a decent fall flow with the rain we have been seeing every few days or so.
