Hopefully Optimistic

Just did an inspection and there are signs of nectar in the flow frames. The gums have just started to flower so hopefully I may get a harvest this year, it’s been looking very doubtful up to today. 28th February last year I had my first harvest, gonna be a lot later this year, if at all. :crossed_fingers: :laughing: Cheers Dave.

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Feeling your optimisim too mate! We are just starting to get a glimmer of nectar from some stringy barks. By this point in the season last year we had harvested on average around 150kg per hive. This year we have harvested 30kg total from all hives. Most hives we haven’t even touched.
Fortunately I don’t rely on honey for my income but I feel for the commercial guys who do. It’s a tough gig this year!

Wow! 150kg per hive. How many harvests per hive is that? I had 18 kg from 6 frames last year. Just once.

It was an EXCEPTIONAL season! Number of harvests varied between hives. My best producing hive was a 7 frame Flow Hive. We went away for 10 days over new years, emptied the hives the day before we left. When we got home that best producing hive was full and had 30kg in it including 6kg I crushed and strained out of the roof cavity.

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By the way this is a perfect example of why you should always use a hive mat. Not sure how I slipped up on that one.

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Certainly make sure I put one on now, thanks.

If you have the crown board that comes with the flow hive that will be sufficient. This particular hive is just a standard langstroth with a flow super on top, no crown board and has a standard flat lid.

Yes I do have the flow crown board, both that and a hive mate are in place. :+1:

Well that is then 36 kg + maybe 30 kg from the previously full hive. How do you figure that you got 150kg from this hive. I’nm sincerely asking because I’ve seen someone else claim this and just can’t reconcile the numbers.

I think he’s just describing two of many harvests…

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Assuming @TimG still has 4 hives, I read that post, then figured that he harvested 600kg (150kg av.) total from the 4 hives, by this time last year, for the season. Not this current season.

Hi Grace, yes multiple harvests. The supers were filling fortnightly from spring right through to autumn. It was a crazy season.
FYI the 30kg included what I crushed out the roof. 24kg in the frames plus 6in the roof.

Correct Jeff,
In your part of the world it would be fairly common to get figures like that on an annual basis wouldn’t it?

How many hives do you have?
g

Hi Tim, I can normally average a hundred kilos per hive, per season. I’m sure some hives produce 150 to make up for the ones that struggle to make the grade. I tell new beekeepers around here that if they follow my advice, their hives should produce a hundred kilos a year.

If I’m doing lots of splits, the average should come down, which it has done recently. However things are picking up since the number of bee customers have dwindled, allowing me to build my colonies up again.