# Honey harvesting schedule and amounts?



## gibbsgirl (May 1, 2013)

I'm trying to familiarize myself with the routine of working with our bees during the year.

I'm curious if y'all would mind answering these questions, so I could compare what you do.

What type of hives do you keep?

What part of the country are you in?

What times of year do you harvest?

How much honey do you take vs. Leave for each hive?

Thanks all.


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

I don't take honey anymore. Just got the bees for pollination. When I did I would pull honey in late spring and again going into winter.I always leave a double brood and a small honey super. I think the biggest mistake people make is not realizing the impact of dry weather on the colony. Typically July and August are dry and with very little nectar flow.If you do not put feed on them then the queen will slow down laying and when the fall flow starts the population will be too low to take advantage of it and lessen the stores for the winter.

Wade


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

(1. We keep double deeps with 10 frames each on screen bottom boards sitting on stands 15 inches tall. Experimenting with 3 deeps trying to over winter better.



(2. We are in SE Michigan.

(3. We put the honey supers on as soon as the maple trees bloom about mid April. We remove the honey supers normal by the end of may early June when they are full of honey and fully capped. Used to reset the honey supers when we finish extracting and make sure to pull them all off by Labor day. All golden rod and Aster nectar was the bees.
We have not put honey supers on going on 3 years this year. We have been having some very dry summers so nectar just isn't there like it should be. This year we are behind normal rain fall 2 inches in March 3.5 inches in April and another 2.75 inches in May. Hive inspection's when we would normal put supers on showed the bees had about a 3d of normal honey for the time of year. 

(3. We always try to make sure the bees have two deeps full of honey b mid Sept.

 Al


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

I raise bees to sell. This means that I am asking my hives to draw out new comb and raise more brood than they normally would. I rarely get any honey as they consume it drawing out wax and feeding brood.

Because I am not harvesting a lot of honey it is somewhat of a nuisance. I mostly just cut out chunks of comb honey when I want to take some from the bees.


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