# Honey production



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

well, yes, but make sure they are building up fast right into a flow, and keep ahead of them with boxes to fill, at least one box ahead for sure at the beginning.
But your saying May, June, about the time the bees have the strongest earge to swarm.
So they probably will, regardless of the space,.

I do as you discribe, but I follow a rule of thumb, four frames of brood, 6 weeks before the main flow. That being four frames of brood near end of May,


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## brooksbeefarm (Apr 13, 2008)

I also have 50 hives (45 now).lost 5 so far.I try to build my hives up strong befor the honey flow. I make splits out of my weaker hives (their probably not going to do much anyway),and let my strong hives make honey.Yes you can make honey from a single deep hive,the best way i've found to get the bees to come through the excluder into the honey super,is to put a bait frame in the super (with brood).After the brood hatches they will fill it with honey. The treat of swarming will always be there,you will have to keep a close eye on them (check for queen cells) every 8 to 10 days and keep planty of room (supers) when needed. This is what makes beekeeping fun< the challenge. Good Luck. Jack


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## jesuslives31548 (May 10, 2008)

Thanks for the advise and the recommendation for the bait frame. Never thought of that one. If it was not for the demand of honey this year I would concern myself with bee yard growth. I have a customer that baught everything I had last year and is ready to purchase again. Kinda hard to turn that down when you only produce jar honey and a little cut comb. Guess its a big blessing. Thanks for the advise.


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## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

I only run my bees in a single. If you are looking to make honey it's all in the queen. I run over 600 hives and produce over 50 ton a year in singles. I buy all my packages and Queens from Wilbanks out of Claxton, GA.
I start out each spring with 2# packages, and by May I'm selling packages from those packages. I make all my comb honey from my splits from my packages. Wilbanks queens are the best that I have found in the 20 years of beekeeping. You don't have to take my word, ask around. 
I live in NW Ohio and our basswood flow start mids June and the main flow start around the 4 of July.
The only thing if you run them in single you better have extra honey suppers. 

The Honey Householder


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## jesuslives31548 (May 10, 2008)

Thanks Honey Householder, I have close to 300 6 5/8 supers, most with drawn comb. I will be buying another 100 150 or so soon. I'm thinking about splitting everything down to singles. When I get the desired number I want I guess I can Sale the splits.. Thanks again for the advise........


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## beekinjax (Jan 7, 2009)

If you have any splits to sell let me know I'm just down the street and in need of bees. Thanks


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## mlewis48 (Nov 24, 2007)

My question to running with 1 deep is when you overwinter your hives how many supers do you leave on the hives? I see that Honey Householder is in the same state that I am in so that should help. I will be splitting several hives in the Spring so I will give this a shot.


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## jesuslives31548 (May 10, 2008)

beekinjax.. I may have a few extra late Sept, I will be making a run to my supplier in late Febuary If you need me to pic up a few packages for you..


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## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

mlewis48 said:


> My question to running with 1 deep is when you overwinter your hives how many supers do you leave on the hives?


I run singles and don't leave any supers on for winter, just get an average of 4 gallons of syrup into them for winter. I do winter indoors though. I have wintered some outdoors with decent success -- and our winters are cold and long (5+ months). Petersen Apiaries in northern Saskatchewan winter singles outdoors consistently. Two links about their method are:
http://www.pedersenapiaries.sasktelwebsite.net/wintering_singles.html
http://www.pedersenapiaries.sasktelwebsite.net/revisited.html


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## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

Winterover, who said I winterover, that cost to much. Ok if you take the extra 50 lbs you would feed and sell it for $1.30 a lb. =$65.00. then buy a 2# package and 2 gal. sryup for feed to get things started=$46. I have all new bees and queens to start the year. Ever in NW Ohio I'll split or make packages to sell from the 2# packages I buy in the spring. I sell over 55 packages to just local beekeeper that just need a package or two. It beats driving or shipping bees from the south. If you do have a few hive that you want to winterover you can feed HFC, it is a lot cheaper then honey. I buy it by the truck load and pay $.25 a pounds.

The Honey Householder


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## bleta12 (Feb 28, 2007)

The Honey Householder said:


> Winterover, who said I winterover, that cost to much. Ok if you take the extra 50 lbs you would feed and sell it for $1.30 a lb. =$65.00. then buy a 2# package and 2 gal. sryup for feed to get things started=$46. I have all new bees and queens to start the year. Ever in NW Ohio I'll split or make packages to sell from the 2# packages I buy in the spring. I sell over 55 packages to just local beekeeper that just need a package or two. It beats driving or shipping bees from the south. If you do have a few hive that you want to winterover you can feed HFC, it is a lot cheaper then honey. I buy it by the truck load and pay $.25 a pounds.
> 
> The Honey Householder


If you don't overwinter what you do with the bees in the fall?

Gilman


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## CPeavey (Jan 21, 2009)

*Make nuc's and keep the queen to one box*

It is way easier to treat winter bees when there is only box. Same goes for honey production. You can make nuc's instead of full splits and still get a good crop. One Brood box with excluder and short supers above works for me.


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