# United States Honey Production Up 19 Percent



## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

United States Honey Production Up 19 Percent 
Honey production in 2014 from producers with five or more colonies totaled 178 million pounds, up 19 percent from 2013. There were 2.74 million colonies producing honey in 2014, up 4 percent from 2013. Yield per colony averaged 65.1 pounds, up 15 percent from the 56.6 pounds in 2013.

Florida has 3515 beekeepers of which 2512 beekeepers with 5 hives or less are not getting surveyed. From the beekeepers I and my inspectors inspect, we are seeing better production per hive in the city than in the big operations. It is not uncommon to get 5 times the state average per pound for backyard beekeepers.


----------



## B52EW (Jun 3, 2013)

AmericasBeekeeper said:


> Florida has 3515 beekeepers of which 2512 beekeepers with 5 hives or less are not getting surveyed. From the beekeepers I and my inspectors inspect, we are seeing better production per hive in the city than in the big operations. It is not uncommon to get 5 times the state average per pound for backyard beekeepers.


Do you think this is due to hive density per forage area for commercial keepers or something else? It may be impractical for the big guys to disperse their hives and be efficient, but could someone with less than 20 hives benefit from dispersing hives over a greater forage area?


----------



## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

The survey is USDA http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/Hone/Hone-03-20-2015.pdf
I have commercial beekeepers that set on gallberry in very small yards distributed across the forests. It is more work but they make more honey. I wish I had pictures. It was awesome last year. I think it is more to do with lawns being watered and planted with things constantly blooming.


----------

