# Canadian prairie and northern US honey crop outlook



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

For all you prairie beekeepers, how has the summer shaped up and how does this next month look? 

We will finish extraction on Monday, looking at 240-250 drums. The summer heat and dryness had taken the last bit of my honey crop off, and now the continued wetness is hampering our grain harvest... Coolness is forcasted, looks like fall has arrived. We will start bulking our hives up for winter starting this weekend. I know a few beekeepers trying to chase the late alfalfa flow betting on heat, who have now started to strip off the empty boxes.
My hives look to be in good shape. No mite treatments this fall.


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## MNbees (May 27, 2013)

Pretty horrible honey crop here in MN. Not a complete disaster. 55-60 lb average.
Bees have more mites then this time last year.
Farmers have been spraying for aphids like crazy for the last few months.
That really has knocked the hives back. And yes I am sure it was the pesticides. I was lucky or unlucky enough to come into a yard to harvest the honey and noticed thousands and thousands of bees crawling all over and piles of dead bees, I could smell it as soon as i got out of the truck.
I called the state of MN and within 3 hours 4 people showed up. They took more samples then i have ever seen. They were incredibly thorough.
They said since i caught the poisoning so soon they would figure out exactly what it was. It was poisoning from the soy bean spray. They also said this was one of the more dramatic cases.
I had this in lots of yards. I have seen this in the past but this year seems a lot worse.


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

The bees that were sent on canola pollination came back heavy. They built a lot of foundation for us and was our second best average. Lots of bees in the hives and many have been split since coming back. The last ones were split this week. Queens go in tomorrow. Mite levels are fine. We will treat but we are not at threshold levels.

Got a report from a friend that NE Alberta bees were good but very little pollen in the hives due to a lack of recent moisture. He is alarmed enough that he plans to bring bees back 6 weeks sooner than anticipated.

Overall a very good year for us. Good honey prices are very healthy for the industry. People assuming they get a crop will have a few dollars in their jeans. Some will want to expand which is good for the guys such as myself who sell bees. Outfits can turnover because there is hope of profitability, again assuming that the old guy does not think that his rundown equipment is worth a small fortune when he sells out. 

Cheers to a good season and good honey prices.

Jean-Marc


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## Haraga (Sep 12, 2011)

Ditto here Ian. OA will happen after all the supers are gone.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I came very close to a moster crop, I had the bees, the flowers and the man power... just needed a bit more moisture and extended heat


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

So many things have to come together to get the monster crop.

Jean-Marc


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Did that late crop out in Saskatchewan, western Manitoba materialize ?


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## Birds&Bees (Feb 26, 2009)

The canola did bloom late however I adjusted our management this spring in anticipation of a much delayed flow. Two frame splits in mid June did surprising well, three frames of brood at the end of May in some cases was too strong too early, could have made many more splits. The rain has washed away most of the fall potential that was there, another 60 pounds was available had the weather been favorable. We've had over 6 inches in the last few weeks. Drove through a pounding hailstorm yesterday which left the hwy covered in ice. Not great for anyone in agriculture, we did need some rain, not that much, and certainly no more!


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I was wondering about how that late water logged crop was going to react. The weather just hit the timing a bit wrong...

That hail is what is motivating our harvest crew this year!!!


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## Haraga (Sep 12, 2011)

Snow forecast for Wednesday here. Canola still has over 5% green in it. The three inches of rain from a few days ago has everybody shut down. Maybe tomorrow.


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## Buzzlightyear (Dec 4, 2013)

I have made a pretty good contact with a local guy that has 2600 hives. I asked how his year was. He's said when the flow hit it was lots and short. I think he had a few too many swarms because of hives full of honey no time to super. 
Good for beginners like me free bees are always good. He calls me when he gets a swarm call. I think I missed 3 cuz I don't always carry my cell.

We had a cool wet spring that went a little long summer was hot but short. Weather man is talking 21 tomorrow followed by 7 and 4 for mon and tuesday.
I have a feeling winter is going to be early and lots of snow.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

Had a good season here but it was not the monster I thought it was going to be. Ran out of moisture partly. Got a huge slow rain that has promoted the late honey flow we are having. Cold comes in next week so may be time to pull the last of the supers. Above average temps predicted after that if things don't freeze. On a trip to Biliings I see Many outfits have already stripped supers. My double brood nests are lead heavy and look to be in great shape to winter. I have feeders on nucs I am going to attempt to bring thru the winter in two story divided deep boxes. Wondering if we are going to have a repeat of last years cold long winter


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

Jean-Marc, I'm curious about splitting so late. We run our bees in the North (not Peace north, but north enough) and then move them south for winter to Niagara, so perhaps a similar situation. You're cracking a big double in half at this time of year and then adding a mated queen? I have tons of questions, but perhaps this isn't the best place for them all. If you don't feel like responding here perhaps PM me or let me know how can get in touch with you please. 

-are you doing it on a large scale?
-are not the tops of the double too heavy? ie: not much brood?
-do you care which half has the old queen? ie: does you get better results if the new queen goes into the bottom where she has lots of room to lay..

I guess none of those questions matter if you have never tried this before...is it a new experiment or have you done this for 30 years?  Thanks


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Haraga said:


> Snow forecast for Wednesday here. Canola still has over 5% green in it. The three inches of rain from a few days ago has everybody shut down. Maybe tomorrow.


how much crop is at frost risk out there Haraga?


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## Buzzlightyear (Dec 4, 2013)

In my neck of the woods most crops are still standing. Probly 80 to 90%. Snowing today 
At what point do you stop feeding Ian?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Buzzlightyear said:


> At what point do you stop feeding Ian?


It is best to weigh your hives and target weights, but I don't have time in the falls, and running singles now, I sock it to them til it gets cold or they quit taking it.


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## Haraga (Sep 12, 2011)

At least 50% could get frosted. Nasty overcast now. Nothing will be dry enough to combine in this weather. The swathers will be going hard once this weather system goes through. People are really nervous now.


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

B&E: we split and keep the bees in the same yard. We try to smoke the bees up and queen to the top box. We move a bit of honey and brood around to equalize them. Some bees fly to the old location. Some stay with the queen.

2 keys in the program. A) Feed a lot of Caspian solution. B) Feed a lot of pollen patties. 25 L water, 60 kg pollen , 60 kg sugar, 10 kg soya flour. This help in queen acceptance. Keeps the bees brooding until November. The splits that were done 2 weeks ago have queens setting 4 large frames of brood... about 85% coverage.

We have been doing this for sometime... many years. Our patties are better now and this helps the bees build up fast even when going against the seasons.

It is done on a fairly large scale.

Jean-Marc


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## dgl1948 (Oct 5, 2005)

Our honey crop in Southeast Sask was average to a little better than average. We lacked heat and flying days to have that huge crop. All our supers are off and bees are backfilling brood supers now. Our biggest problem has been to much rain. I have trees in the yard that were planted in 1948. They are being drowned out. It is so wet we even have poplars blowing over, as the ground is so wet, the roots will not hold them.

A lot of land in our area was not seeded this spring due to moisture. There is a lot more acres under water now than in the spring. Very little harvesting has been done. I am hearing wheat is full of fusarium and causing huge losses. Frost in the forecast so it will hit a lot of grain. Soybeans are in big trouble. Grain farmers could be facing a very trying year.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I hear ya dgl1948


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## Buzzlightyear (Dec 4, 2013)

I think our crop farmers have a very good crop going. They last 2 days of rain/snow are going to put a real damper on things. I'm hoping we get some heat next week for them.


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## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

Truly bizarre summer for me.

Came out of dandelions with most hives having about 15-20 lbs of honey. Way more than normal. Then after the 4 days of rain around July 1 I had hives starving. Totally caught me off guard. The next week these hives were all forming swarm cell. What gives? Had an incredible amount of swarming this year.

Strangely the swarming seemed to have little effect on honey production. Had an incredible run for the first 5 - 6 week of the summer flow. Averaged about 30 lbs per hive per week. Too dry after the middle of August and the sunflowers and alfalfa produced very little honey. Last 1000 supers were a bit depressing to extract. Ended up with an above average crop.

Hives look fantastic going into winter for the most part. Fed a gallon of syrup to some of the hives at the end of August and they hardly had any room to store it due to the large amount of capped brood still present. May have to finish feeding a little later than I would like to let the brood hatch.

Honey is all pulled, treatments done and extracting should be done by tomorrow or the day after. Nice to be done the mad rush. Part of the mad rush was my own doing as I was running with an average of 2.6 supers per hive.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Walking one of our pastures today and the entire landscape was covered with knee high white clover in full bloom. The cattle have kept it grazed to about a foot high and they must be grazing it enough to keep the plant in flowering mode. 
i like to keep my hives close to our pasture lands, the diversity that flows off it can't be matched!


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Tell me Ian, is that clover producing nectar and or pollen? I believe there has been a killing frost in the area. My understanding is that after that event plants do not recover and no longer produce food for the bees.

Jean-Marc


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Jean-marc,

Do you find the Caspian solution increases brood production etc..?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

jean-marc said:


> Tell me Ian, is that clover producing nectar and or pollen? I believe there has been a killing frost in the area. My understanding is that after that event plants do not recover and no longer produce food for the bees.
> 
> Jean-Marc


no killing frost yet, the reason its still blooming


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

JRG13: Caspian works as promised but it is not a one time usage product that will solve all the bee problems. It is a feeding regime that can solve many beekeeping problems. 

Jean-Marc


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

So Ian, much food coming off those blooms?

Jean-Marc


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

not yesterday because it was cool, but pollen was being brought in the week before hand. I am now assuming it was coming off that meadow. There is also Alfalfa blooming around.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Here is a glimps of the pasture I was on today;

http://s1277.photobucket.com/user/IanSteppler/media/IMG_2325_zps62a6237f.jpg.html

This one did not have as much white clover in the mix... but holy crap look at the clover flowering late this year! And yes, too cold today for any type of foraging.


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## Birds&Bees (Feb 26, 2009)

The ABJ is reporting very good crops in the Dakotas and predicting an overall US honey crop for this year up to 175 million lbs. Alberta and Saskatchewan are reporting less than average however Manitoba seems to be slightly above average. Does this seem accurate?


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

I would guess that Montana's crop was better than usual. North Dakota and Minnesota had a lot of sub par weather but I know nothing solid from there.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Birds&Bees said:


> The ABJ is reporting very good crops in the Dakotas and predicting an overall US honey crop for this year up to 175 million lbs. Alberta and Saskatchewan are reporting less than average however Manitoba seems to be slightly above average. Does this seem accurate?


I had an average crop but heard through the grape vine many who had extremely poor crop thanks to that late Aug cold wet weather.


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## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

I haven't talked to many beekeepers here in the southeast part of Manitoba, but those I spoke to had above average crops.


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