How much honey are you getting per frame?

General Bee Chat
1

Gday All.

Just did my first harvest the other day (very excited) but noticed that I only harvested around 2.3kg from the one frame. I had heard that you can get up to 3 kgs. Just wondering how others are going with their harvests, similar to mine or a lot more? I thought that a full frame is a full frame and that the amount wouldn’t vary that much.
Cheers Matt

2

Hi axematt, congrats on your first harvest! :partying_face::+1: I think you did well with the amount you got. I don’t think it’s possible to get a standard maximum per frame, because there will be the occasional open cells at corners, the coating of honey inside the cells and remaining in the channel, as well as possible leaks down into the lower box. You mentioned full frames, so I assume you checked beforehand and saw no open arcs that workers sometimes leave for the queen to lay in.

Did you see any signs of leakage? Such as lots of bearding, and honey down in the bottom tray.

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3

I average about 3.3kg per frame, which is about 2.3litres. Honey has An SG of ~1.425.

Did you measure weight or volume?

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4

Thank you Eva!. Yes full frames and no gaps or leaks. I am very happy to get any honey let alone over 2.3lt. I have heard that the bees sometimes fill the cells a lot more during peak season and a little less at close of season? Either way I am happy with a happy hive with no diseases.

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5

Well I hadn’t even thought of that Adam!! I am an avid homebrewer and know all about SG and FG, so I am a little embarrassed about my conversion stuff up. I measured volume not weight :grimacing:

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6

Yes, plus I forgot to mention that one of my colonies built out the FF cells a lot more than necessary so there was definitely more honey per frame then!

7

I agree with all of the above, but have one thing to add. Patience is a golden virtue when you are using gravity to harvest your honey. In other words, it takes a lot of time to get the full amount out of the frames. I usually allow around 6 hours for harvesting per frame. You get most of it in the first 2 hours, but the thicker, more viscous (higher SG) honey takes longer to trickle down. A lot longer!

:wink:

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