Three weeks after 7th harvest.
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Hi bob Great effort from your bees , we have just done our second harvest tonight and got 19kg of honey 
two weeks ago we got 17.5kg in our first harvest so will see how quick they fill it this time !! kind regards
Mark Kate and Kids
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Love the pics, thanks for sharing. Are you operating on three brood box there, canāt say from the pic.
Hi Paras , No we have two brood boxes with brood and honey stores that we leave for the bees as well and the super is on top .
I have reversed the super as i have the hive up against our chicken coup and its very hard to harvest the honey out . but with it reversed its a piece of cake ā¦luckily our bees are quiet and seem to like us being around them 
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Hi Mark,
Do you know what the main nectar source is?
Hi Jeffh , thatās an average of just under 17kg per harvest .
We have just done our second harvest (which was darker and thicker than our fist harvest) and have just under 20kg of honey and our first was just under 18 kg of honey without any leakage .
I am keeping Apairy Production records of each harvest etc which I got from the bio security web site
I will find the document link and post it up for all to use
Kind regards
Mark Kate and Kids
Hi Dan,
No but im guessing its lavendar as ive seen the bees on our bushes out front ,we also have a lot of fruit trees apricot ,apple, blueberry, lemon fig and plum also have 6 garden beds rhubarb ,kale , tomato ,spring onion,spinach ,silverbeet etc we are in a built up area in Eltham VIC just a normal house block .
I would like to find out exactly what it is any idea how can we get the honey tested ?
Kind regards
Mark Kate and kids
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Great job Mark! Where are you located that you are just getting your first harvest?
I believe that two brood boxes are definitely the best way to go to make the best use of the Flowhive investment.
Last week I harvested half of my Flow hives and got 10 more pints. That turns outs to be 150 pints for the season. 
That should be it for the season. My second hive that I started in July now has both brood boxes full of bees and they are just now starting to prepare the Flowhive. I expect that it will March for the first harvest there just like my first hive since they will hunker down for the winter.
Bob
Hi Mark, thatās great to see those results. Itās also great to see that you have a productive back yard. My guess would be that your honey is a neighborhood floral blend. You wouldnāt normally expect to get a dominant flavor from back yard honey.
Hi Bob ,
We are in Eltham suburb of Melbourne Victoria Australia,
Nice and green here but comming into summer going by your efforts we are on target with our two harvests so far first harvest October 10 second harvest November 10 , we are only 12 months into our bee adventure and loving it
Will be setting the kids up making labels and then selling at the local market etc to pay for another flow hive asap
Will keep you posted on our next harvest hopefully next month 10/12/2017 seems to be a pattern hmmm smart bees
Kind regards
Mark Kate and kids
Hi Jeff ,
We are ā¦and our friends are Amazed at our progress !! whats more the honey is fantastic and our garden is flying as well
Kind regards
Mark Kate and kids
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Hi Mark, Kate and Kids,
With that quantity of honey in a short time my guess is there are a good number of gums flowering around your area perhaps. I have been to Eltham and it is a beautiful gummy area with plenty of tree corridors as I recallā¦ Iād take another look up high and report backā¦
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Hi Dan ,
Forgot about the Gums we have 6 out front all tall and more up our street and others close by .
This harvest is much darker and thicker too
Looking forward to the next harvest will see if the bees stick to their pattern 10th of each month for harvest
Kind regards
Mark Kate and kids
Off to print labels now
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Hi Guys ,
here is the link for the Apairy Production Records Iām Using
http://farmbiosecurity.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ApiaryProductionRecords-bees.pdf
Kind regards
Mark Kate and Kids
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Thank you Mark,
Did you harvest at night.
What type of bees do you have, its good to have calm bees to work with. My bees are also very placid.
Thank you for sharing.
Hi Paras , yes we harvested last night they are calm local bees that we brought in a Nuc and transfered to our flow hive we have had them for just over 12 months .
Whole family loves our bees and what we do with them and getting the reward of beautiful honey , my kids are now creating a label to put on the jars to sell at our local market and explain how we get the honey etc with the money going towards another flow hive
We are amazed at our results already even though we have been patient .
enjoy my friend as we are
Kind regards
Mark Kate and kids
Mark,
It looks like you are ready to split your hive and start another one. That is what I did this summer twice so that they did not swarm because of overcrowding. And we still got the 18.5 gallons of honey.
ā¦yes Bobā¦you reminded me to ask Mark what they had done, if anything, to reduce the swarming impulse? Perhaps it was adding the second deep brood box?
If my bees are looking for space I will add a third brood box in between the two brood next year. That way they have plenty of space and add the Super on top.
One of my mentors does this on the commercial hives he looks after, he said out of many hives he looks after only 3/4 hives swarmed this year.
At present I am experimenting to see what works for my colonies and will share my results with you.
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Lack of space is not necessarily the only reason that bees swarm. Like everything else in the natural world, they want to reproduce. The best that we can do is postpone the swarming urge for the time being.
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