Honey average per hive

[Rob]

Hi Everyone,
Over here in Brazil in our region(Bahia) we've just finished our main honey harvest of the year which comes from the vast eucaliptus plantations in this area,our next harvest isn't due until August when the coffee plant comes into bloom.I realise that the majority of the users of this site are based in the U.S. and I presume you are not yet harvesting honey but out of curiosity I'd like to know what is your average honey production per hive.
In two months of harvesting our 200 hives managed to produce 6000 kg(13260 lbs) giving us an average of 30 kg(66.3 lbs) per hive.7 hives produced over 90 kg(198.9 lbs) each but then again a lot produced pratically nothing.We were hoping for a harvest of 8000 kg(17680 lbs) but bearing in mind none of the hives have a 2nd brood chamber (yet to convince my business partner it's the way forward) I don't think we did too badly.
So let us know what your averages are regardless of the location because I'm curious to find out,
Thanks
Rob

[Rob]

By the way I'm not 100% certain that my kg to lbs conversions are correct but you can check them yourselves if you like.

[Rod Weakley]

I would say your conversions were pretty close. My conversion program came up with 13227.72 for 6000 kgs. Don't know about per hive averages since I haven't been able to harvest yet. Sounds like you did pretty good though.

[Bob Nelson]

The variability of production among hives is typical. Your crop is typically average production.

Here in the US http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/reports/nassr/other/zho-bb/ we see crops of 40 to 150-200 lbs/colony (2.2 lbs/kg) or 88 to 330-440 kg. Most are in the 50 to 80 lbs (110 to 176 kg) range with over 100 lbs a very good crop.

Bob Nelson

[BubbaBob]

Here in the N GA mountains we, too, get 2 crops...spring wildflower and fall sourwood. A good year is around 200 lbs, an average year is 150 lbs, and a bad year is 90-100 lbs. The last three years have been particularily bad, with the average for ALL of Georgia, including south of sourwood region, being 66.9 lbs in 2003, the last year for which statistics are available. That year I averaged 110 lbs having the advantage of fall sourwood.

BubbaBob

[Bob Nelson]

Oops, went the wrong way on my conversions. 40 to 150-200 lbs would be 18 to 68-90 kg. 50 to 80 lbs would be 23 to 36 kg.

Simple way to figure this is divide the pounds by 2 and subtract 10 percent. 100 divided by 2 is 50 and subtract 5 makes 45. You can do the same going the other way by muliplying by 2 and adding 10 percent and get pretty close too.

The link on US production figures again is:
http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/reports/nassr/other/zho-bb/

Sorry about the error.

Bob Nelson

[athiker]

I just hope your coffee bean crop is a bin buster. Between gas and coffee prices, it's cutting into my bee money! :(

[Rob]

Athiker,
Not too sure what your on about there,I don't see how me putting my hives in the coffee plantations to harvest some honey is cutting into YOUR bee money.

[Michael Bush]

Athiker is saying he hopes Brazil has a bumper crop of coffee beans so he can afford coffee and bees. The price of gas and coffee is cutting into his bee money.

[guatebee]

Rob:
I am in Guatemala, and we also have most of our beekeeping in or near coffee plantations.
From what i know, coffee bloom is very short compared to the blooming of shade trees. At lower elevations most coffee is shaded with trees of the inga genus, which are very good honey plants.
At higher elevations, shade trees are gravillea, which is also very good but yields a dark, strong flavored honey.
Guatemalan beekeepers report 60 lbs per hive as an average. This season (just finished harvesting) was particularly low.
Our harvest season is from December until March.

I am curious to know what plants you use in Brazil to shade coffee.

Regards,
Alejando

[Rob]

Alejando,
In regards to your question on plants we use to shade coffee I'm sorry but I can't answer that for you.You see I'm not a coffee farmer and haven't got the faintest idea on the proccess of planting and growing coffee.What I do know is the bloom is quick but luckily the plants don't seem to flower all at the same time therefore stretching the bloom out for about 6 weeks,also August is the rainy season in our area so that dosen't help the harvest at all.During the week I will ask a friend of mine(who is a coffee farmer) about the shade plants and send you a reply at the weekend.

[the buzz]

I'm located in eastern Canada (quebec) a bit cooler climate than you guys.. here I harvest a crop at the end of July (clover and alfalfa) and the end of August . In all about an average of 100-120 lbs (45-55kg) The rest of the honey (2 brood boxes stay on because they need 60lbs of honey to get through the winter.

nice chatting with you stephen

[dimis]

Here in Melbourne (Victoria state)we harvest anything from 50 to 60 kilos per hive with super. This is 110 lb to 132 lb per hive.
Also we have 3-4 months of winter. In Queensland state where there is 9-11 months summer they get much more
cheers!