# How much honey do you take?



## ToeOfDog (Sep 25, 2013)

The question is not how much you can take but how much do you leave. I do not feed sugar water to my bees unless it is an emergency such as last years drought. The honey they have on June 21 has to last them til next April so you cant skimp on resources. My hive configuration is double deeps. Any honey in the double deeps belongs to them and anything in the honey supers belongs to me. Most of my second deeps are full now. Conventional wisdom says to leave them 40 pounds for the winter. Hugh Feagle had a scale hive and said that he would still have to feed a little in March after they had eaten 48 pounds. I would trust Feagle before the others.


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## Bee Nut (Oct 10, 2015)

We rob after the spring/summer flow, then feed through the summer dearth, checking regularly to make sure we only feed as much as necessary to get them to the fall flow. Up to this point, we've never robbed the fall crop but thinking this year we may and feed to get their weights back up for winter. The numbers may differ where you are but roughly honey is $5-10/lb retail and sugar is $.30-.60/lb. If this is a business venture, then maybe the numbers will help make your decision.


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