# Why not harvest honey in spring?



## alpha6 (May 12, 2008)

I don't see why you can't do this, though I would leave them a frame or two as emergency back up. Additionally, If you replace it with drawn comb they will lay it in faster as they don't have to consume the honey and clean out the comb for the queen to lay first.

I personally would set the frames aside for the year and use them in hives that are light going into the next winter.


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## jdb1930 (Apr 20, 2008)

The main reason is that a smaller area is easier to keep warm than a large area, if leave lots of supers on them in the winter it is harder for them to keep warm. The reason 2 deeps are a standard is because it leaves the bees enough honey to make it through the winter but a small enough space so they can stay warm. Kind of like trying to heat your whole house with a small space heater if they have too many supers.

You can harvest the honey when ever you like as long as you have a place to store it away from pest.


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## ScadsOBees (Oct 2, 2003)

In the spring the honey will be cold, and often the fall honey will crystallize. This makes extraction that much more difficult.

I find that often the winter is hard on the bees and the combs can get messy at times. In the fall it is usually nice, clean, and fresh.

And for many people it is more lucrative to take all the honey off and give them back sugar for the winter.

It's easier in the late summer/fall. Rick


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## Will (Aug 3, 2002)

I do, as do others who run unlimited broodnests. I don't extract all honey in spring, but what is needed to open up the broodnests after the bees have turned 3-4 rounds of brood.


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## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

I pull some honey in the spring but it's tough to extract when it's cold. Sure, you can do it but fall makes more sense.


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## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

If a beekeeper does any kind of treatments for mites or nosema, honey [for human consumption] supers have to be taken off before treatment. Even doing sugar dusting with 2-3-4 heavy honey supers on the hives would be unnecessary hard work and probably not very effective. In the spring, beekeepers need to be getting ready and do preparations for the early summer nectar flows and not be extracting honey. I would think honey left on the hives during the freezing and thawing temperatures of winter [our winter] would lose its special essence and flavor. Moisture from the respirating cluster of overwintering bees might condense on the honey supers. In more Southern parts of the country, wax moths may enter the hives as bee activity and the cluster reduces in size in early/late fall.


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## beedeetee (Nov 27, 2004)

Well you are in Graham, WA so you will have weather like mine. The problem is that we can have a month of mostly rain anytime through June. Right now hives are expanding rapidly. You will find that when hives are large and suddenly they have to stay inside, they don't go on diets. In the spring they can go through 40 lbs of honey in 3-4 weeks where that much would have lasted them all winter.

Several years I have found huge hives in June with no honey and filled with bees staying out of the rain. I have had to do emergency feeding just when the honey flow is getting into full speed. Not a good option.

I do extract around the first of August and don't wait until fall since we really don't have a fall honey flow.


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

*Beekeeping 101*

Whenever someone learns to leave a full super of honey for winter and for spring especially, a new beekeeper is born.


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## Troutsqueezer (May 17, 2005)

>The main reason is that a smaller area is easier to keep warm than a large area, if leave lots of supers on them in the winter it is harder for them to keep warm. The reason 2 deeps are a standard is because it leaves the bees enough honey to make it through the winter but a small enough space so they can stay warm. Kind of like trying to heat your whole house with a small space heater if they have too many supers.

They don't heat the whole box, only within the cluster. You might want to do a forum search on this as it has been the topic of much heated discussion (no pun intended). 

Agree with Oldbee...if you treated for mites with Apistan last fall or used other chemicals leading up to early Spring, the honey should not be consumed by humans.


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## mgmoore7 (Jul 6, 2007)

I already pulled orange blossom honey for this year.


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

*Orange Honey*

Allright! Here bloom is just starting but it's windy and dry. Last two years have been pretty good so,...who knows?


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## mariongoose (Oct 3, 2008)

Wow, everyone thanks for the great advise! It sounds like I can always save the honey I pull to give back to the bees if they need it.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Honey left on for the winter can absorb moisture and then ferment.


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## bleta12 (Feb 28, 2007)

Tom G. Laury said:


> Whenever someone learns to leave a full super of honey for winter and for spring especially, a new beekeeper is born.


There is no better way to describe the importance of leaving enough honey in the hive to avoid that the bees feel that they have to ration, especially in the spring.

Thank you Tom

Gilman


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