# Upper midwest beeks???



## Brian Suchan (Apr 6, 2005)

Been hearing all kinds of stories bout peeps still feeding. Not much honey being made in the dakotas & minn, speak up


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## T152 (Jun 15, 2012)

I haven't fed for quite some time now. Both my hives are doing exceptionally well. Lots of honey- they're starting on the medium supers. Flowers are plentiful and have been for a while.


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## Beeslave (Feb 6, 2009)

It's spotty here. Some yards have a fair amount of surplus already and other yards are light.


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## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

I have never had to feed in the spring, dandelion bloom was strong this year. The main flow seems to have started, and bees are working like they should. FYI, I am located 30 miles east of Minneapolis.


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## Trevor Mansell (Jan 16, 2005)

Both of my hives look good also, I thought this was the commercial thread?


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## woodedareas (Sep 10, 2010)

Very light. Started off great in may and tapered off significantly a few weeks ago.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

I am on the prairie in Montana and after fruit bloom and dandelions ended, the bees brought in nothing for quite a while. A friend of mine had some starve before he figured out how light bees were. I have been feeding most but I see the alfalfa finally starting to break here so I think I made it.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

We have had a few rare hives produce two deeps already. Agreed, spotty results. We will fire up the extracting room tomorrow, very early, in the 60's(I was a kid in the extracting room) July 4th was the norm. 

Crazy Roland


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

We quit feeding most of a month ago, bees got off to a real nice start with a lot of hives making a couple of mediums but hot windy conditions and a lack of rainfall has really slowed things down.


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

Not much going on here. A couple hives have a super of honey, but all the empties still sit empty. Unless we get some rain, I don't think there will be much of anything this year. Most of mine are coming off of splits and they're struggling to work the third medium in the brood nest.


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## busy bee apiary (Aug 7, 2010)

Its ben dry and windy this spring in eastern montana and all of my hives have been feed 5 gallons of syrup since they hit the ground in early May. The last 1100 gallons went out 6/21. But the bees are very strong with good stores awaiting the honey flow. So even though its more then i've ever feed in the spring i can't complain.


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## jkola404 (Jan 8, 2008)

The frost and cold weather really hurt us this spring. We also need some rain, our main honey flow is just starting. We will be lucky to get half of what we had last year.


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## NowThen (Nov 26, 2008)

I finished feeding packages last week. The overwintered colonies have had honey supers on for a few weeks. They are just now starting to use them. I've got a few yards on alfalfa and am really happy that the land owners have held off on their first cutting.


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## suttonbeeman (Aug 22, 2003)

This is one of those white clover years in central Ky. Without hot and dry conditionswe could have had a flow thru July. Really getting dry and burning up the clover. Bees still have a shake and storing a little but has slowed down alot, I expect this weekends 95 plus temp to end it. looks like a 125 lb average on overwintered with some at 200. Splits make after almonds 1 to 3 med supers. A good crop but this was the yea to have a bumper crop if we ever get "normal" weather. Hoping to have extracting room finished and bigger system up and running first week of July and then we will see. Bees may eat alot of it as forecast is for 95 to 100 and no rain for next two weeks. Was hoping to stay in KY until dec 1...looks like that may change!


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## remmy (Jun 5, 2012)

im located in se Minnesota. My winter colonies needed no feed. Been bringing in fairly steady flow of honey. Starter/nucs that I got early may I had to feed till 2weeks ago. Their strength to build up took longer than usually. They are bringing the gold now. If we get rain every 7 to 10days it will keep up.


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## Clairesmom (Jun 6, 2012)

We are 2 1/2 hours NW of the Twin Cities in Minnesota.

Our overwintered colonies get no feed.

The packages we installed around the first of May were provided with a gallon of 1:1 syrup. Most of them hardly touched it- which is unusual. Some took as long as 2 weeks to finish the gallon. I never gave them any more.

Right now we are having the best basswood flow we have ever had. No rain, flowers are full of nectar, and the bees are working from 6am to 9:30pm. All of the packages have filled or almost filled the third medium/second deep and some have started filling supers. 

Overwintered colonies were split 3 ways with purchased queens and we are still going to get some surplus from most of them.

Today was Day 9 of the basswood flow. Very pleased with how things are progressing.


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## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

The main flow is starting and some yards have 3-4 supers filled and other just coming through the excluder. If we get an inch. of rain in the next month we should do a 150 lb avg. Extracted 179 supers yesterday to try new extracting setup. It looks like the honey is coming in 2-3 weeks early this year. Just hope the flow last longer this year.


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## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

Ron, you're teasing us. Did your extracting set-up work as planned?


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Since the last report of 6-22-2012, both the scale hive at home, and 25 miles west at the shop, had been gaining 3lbs a day, untill today. The home scale hive did very little in the middle of the day, and only gained 1 1/2 lbs. It has been over 100 Deg F. the last two days, so I guess we should be happy they went up. Everything is dried up like late August. I have NO idea what they are finding at home in a suburb. At the shop, the alfalfa is blooming, so that is understandable.

Crazy Roland


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

Here in west central Montana, the bees are bringing in a little honey but most of the crp alfalfa my bees are on has brown scars where the buds were a week ago. The only plants blooming are in low spots or on patches of better soil. East Montana is burned up and brown. If we don't get rain, it is going to get pretty grim here. I was still feeding a couple yards two weeks ago. But on the brght side, I am still waiting for May queens from a Mississippi address.


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## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

Adrian Quiney WI said:


> Ron, you're teasing us. Did your extracting set-up work as planned?


Still have a few bugs to workout and they aren't bees. Another 4000 supers and we should have it down. Hired a guy to run the honey house this year so I can put more time out in the bee yards, in hope of upping my avg. this year.


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## woodedareas (Sep 10, 2010)

Here in northern Illinois things have pretty well dried out as of the other day, But yesterday part of our area had a nice rain which might generate some new plant growth so the bees may have a short spurt of a flow. Not gaining much of anything in the hives the past week with temperatures about 100+. Some folks are removing their supers now. 



Roland said:


> Since the last report of 6-22-2012, both the scale hive at home, and 25 miles west at the shop, had been gaining 3lbs a day, untill today. The home scale hive did very little in the middle of the day, and only gained 1 1/2 lbs. It has been over 100 Deg F. the last two days, so I guess we should be happy they went up. Everything is dried up like late August. I have NO idea what they are finding at home in a suburb. At the shop, the alfalfa is blooming, so that is understandable.
> 
> 
> Crazy Roland


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

We hit the wall at home, no gain yesterday.

Crazy Roland


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## StevenG (Mar 27, 2009)

My apologies, I'm not commercial. Everything is dry here in SE Missouri, and I moved my trailer of 20 hives to irrigated soybeans July 1. My stronger hives have loaded up 2 and 3 shallow supers, others trailing, but it's coming along.
Regards,
Steven


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Christian and I spoke in person with StevenG for several hours about many aspects of beekeeping. He may not fit the numerical classification for commercial, but his mindset definitely is. 

Had a little "slop" late in the day, but I am afraid as Wolfie would say "The Offen is aus"
meaning the kitchen is closed, oven is off.

Crazy Roland


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## bee luscious (Nov 28, 2007)

Northern MN has had great seasonal temps between 75 to 85 degrees i put on 300 new boxes full of new frames and all have been drawn out. have another 100 new boxes full of new frames and cant wait to see them get filled. We are having an abundance of blooms, buckwheat, canola, clover, alfalfa, and wild flowers. Cant ask for a better season.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

After flat lining since my last post, the scale hive at the shop went up 4 lbs today. What!!! Could it be soybeans that are producing nectar, they just started blooming?

Crazy Roland


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Roland said:


> After flat lining since my last post, the scale hive at the shop went up 4 lbs today. What!!! Could it be soybeans that are producing nectar, they just started blooming?
> 
> Crazy Roland


Alfalfa?


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## Bill Russell (Aug 12, 2006)

Roland, Have been watching your posts last few weeks. Glad to hear of the possible turn around. Jim mentioned alfalfa; I think that's our only hope at this point. I think it was 1988 when Wisconsin had its last real drought. The two drought years that I've had bees they didn't make honey until the middle of July and then packed away a nice crops during the following 3-4 weeks. I remember a friend talking about going out to feed bees on the 4th of July the drought year prior to '88 and by the middle of July adding supers. Western Wisconsin has had two little shots of rain that you didn't get. We've pulled honey off 9 yards so far; probably averaging about 70-80 pounds. Alot of that was made after those two rains of a few weeks ago. Bees aren't making any progress now. Population could and should be better than it is.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Most of the alfalfa has been cut the second time and has been in bloom for weeks. It is too short to cut, but has no nectar anymore. My guess is soybeans, because they are just starting to bloom. I have no memory of ever having a substantial soybean flow, but anything is possible this year.

As a reference, we are on glacial till, round rocks and a little sand, over bedrock Limestone(Niagara escarpment).

Crazy ROland


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## rainesridgefarm (Sep 4, 2001)

the soybean flow is on in my area of N. IL. Went to a wedding and was told because of the drought that they are going to start to spray for spider mits on the beans. Lorsban is what they are recommending for them. I was told that they are starting to spray this week. It is the start of the bloom and i am very nervous about this. I have about 200 hives next to beans in 5 different yards.


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## NorthernIllinoisPlumber (Aug 17, 2010)

I have Carni's, Italians, and Russians and they are all trying to rob each other. Kind of funny...an Italian bee sure does stand out in a black Carni hive!!

On another note, I just ordered a dozen chics, getting back into the egg business!


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## Clairesmom (Jun 6, 2012)

Our basswood just ended after a solid 16 day flow. One day with light showers, another day of heavy downpour, so we did not lose much to rain.


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## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

Claire's Mom, how much per hive did that yield? I am curious. Thanks.


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