# Not much honey



## Boondocks (Sep 16, 2020)

I wonder if that cold spell you had back in the spring when that arctic air hit the northern states affected the nectar production of the plants? 
Another thought is the age of your queens. Are they 3 years old?


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## LarryBud (Jul 19, 2020)

I'm in NJ about an hour south east of you and had the same thing, lots of foraging, and strong populations-30# per honey per hive this year vs over a 100#s last 2 years. It seemed that we didn't see the flowers and at least here, we had average rainfall but of was a couple of big storms per month with 10-15 day dry period between. Lack of nectar flow due to dryness? I was also wondering if the smoke in the upper atmosphere from the western and Canadian fires (Blame Canada!) had an impact in either rain or sunlight. Seems like were back to regular light rains a few day a week for fall and the goldenrod and asters are just starting-first frost here is usually mid November so we may have some time IF there's a fall flow. I put the stickies back on and when I did harvest, left quite a few frames that were fully capped on so we'll see. All of my overwintered hives were split last spring and I did queen replacements with VSH stock so I doubt age is an issue but had the same harvest with my new Spring nuc's. Just a bad year? 

As far as treatments, I did formic pro and all of the hives right after harvest before replacing the stickies. It is getting late up where you are and I'd forego any honey if you're doing anything outside of Formic and I do that now. Temps are good for it and it's has better results than just OAV at this time. I plan on starting OAV in mid October and then insulating and prepping for winter in early November.


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## username00101 (Apr 17, 2019)

mrbeer said:


> I have 3 colony's this year and didn't get the honey I expected. We have had a good year for foraging. Bees have been very busy carrying in pollen almost all summer with barely a dearth. I had 7 supers on and only got about 50# of honey. I did fill 2 full supers with uncapped frames and just put them back on because they didn't have enough comb capped. I really wanted to start treating right now but I am going to have to wait and see if they cap them in a month or so and start treating then. We are now having a great golden rod run. I did see some empty cells in the comb so I think I had some robbing but not a lot. I also had some capped brood on some of the frames. I tried excluders my first year but the bees didn't want to go thru them so I stopped using them. Last year I got 111# from 3 colonies and the year before I got 133# from only 2 colonies. Also they had all drawn out comb to start with so they didn't have to start with new frames. Any advice to a 3 year novice?



Temps are about to turn cold, and the time to harvest honey is over.


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## mrbeer (Apr 4, 2017)

Boondocks said:


> I wonder if that cold spell you had back in the spring when that arctic air hit the northern states affected the nectar production of the plants?
> Another thought is the age of your queens. Are they 3 years old?


2 of the hives swarmed last year so they have 1 year old queens, the other is a new colony and queen this year.


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## mrbeer (Apr 4, 2017)

LarryBud said:


> I'm in NJ about an hour south east of you and had the same thing, lots of foraging, and strong populations-30# per honey per hive this year vs over a 100#s last 2 years. It seemed that we didn't see the flowers and at least here, we had average rainfall but of was a couple of big storms per month with 10-15 day dry period between. Lack of nectar flow due to dryness? I was also wondering if the smoke in the upper atmosphere from the western and Canadian fires (Blame Canada!) had an impact in either rain or sunlight. Seems like were back to regular light rains a few day a week for fall and the goldenrod and asters are just starting-first frost here is usually mid November so we may have some time IF there's a fall flow. I put the stickies back on and when I did harvest, left quite a few frames that were fully capped on so we'll see. All of my overwintered hives were split last spring and I did queen replacements with VSH stock so I doubt age is an issue but had the same harvest with my new Spring nuc's. Just a bad year?
> 
> As far as treatments, I did formic pro and all of the hives right after harvest before replacing the stickies. It is getting late up where you are and I'd forego any honey if you're doing anything outside of Formic and I do that now. Temps are good for it and it's has better results than just OAV at this time. I plan on starting OAV in mid October and then insulating and prepping for winter in early November.


We have had so much rain this year we are floating. ( 16 inches in the last 4 weeks) Even though we had tons of rain it came mostly at night so it didn't really hurt the foraging and it has the flowers blooming like crazy.


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## username00101 (Apr 17, 2019)

mrbeer said:


> We have had so much rain this year we are floating. ( 16 inches in the last 4 weeks) Even though we had tons of rain it came mostly at night so it didn't really hurt the foraging and it has the flowers blooming like crazy.


If it didn't hurt the foraging then why isn't there any honey?


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## LarryBud (Jul 19, 2020)

username00101 said:


> If it didn't hurt the foraging then why isn't there any honey?


I had the same issue, lots of foraging but only averaged 30-40 lbs. per hive. I asked the bees but they wouldn't tell me


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## Gray Goose (Sep 4, 2018)

mrbeer said:


> I have 3 colony's this year and didn't get the honey I expected. *every year can and will be different.*
> 
> We have had a good year for foraging. Bees have been very busy carrying in pollen almost all summer with barely a dearth. I had 7 supers on and only got about 50# of honey. 7 on each or 7 total? I assume 7 total.
> I did fill 2 full supers with uncapped frames and just put them back on because they didn't have enough comb capped. I really wanted to start treating right now but I am going to have to wait and see if they cap them in a month or so and start treating then.* I made this exact mistake on 7 hives last year at one yard, 6 did not make the winter, by the time I treated it was too late the winter bees already had Mites. I recommend a "different" plan B or C even.*
> ...


*
comments in line*


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