First Season: No Honey?

After having started from scratch early this month (May) with my first 3lb package and foundationless frames…should I prepare myself for no notable production of harvestable volume of honey until next year?

That seems to be the common sentiment, that the first year is spent building up and building comb so that the next year they are ready to store honey instead of eat it. Depending on where you live and what the seasons are like you may get some off the first year but most people leave it on and anything that isn’t needed gets pulled in spring.

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I don’t know how our Australian season compares to yours- but we only managed to install our Nuc in the middle of summer. We let the hivve develop for a few months- then we were able to harvest 15+ Kg’s of honey and another 3.5 liters of nectar - before removing our super a few weeks ago as we go into late autumn/winter down here. So it is possible to get a harvest in the first season- definitely:

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Great photo with the bee in front of the tube. She’s like “Wait… what?!”