Honey Crop out Look

[Ian]

Whats the word on the world honey crop situation?
Whats the prices looking like this fall for white class of honey?

How does your honey crop look to figure this year,?

Thanks,

[alpha6]

Ian,

Here is a link with the current report.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220824

[Ian]

Thanks,

Hows your crop looking alpha6?

[JohnK and Sheri]

Not Alpha:) but our crop had really great potential going into summer with good ground moisture and enough rain to keep things going but the rain does not want to stop. In the upper Midwest rain has equated into lost opportunities for honey production. The crop may be out there but the bees can't work it. Hopefully things dry out soon or it may be a pretty washed out year in our part of the country.
I am also wondering if all the rain in China will adversely effect their crops and the honey production this year.
As for the remainder of the year's prices, I know beeks that are extracting like crazy trying to catch these high prices. Time will tell if they hold or <gasp> go higher.
Sheri

[Ian]

OUr crop is late, and so is our honey crop. Looks like it may be a smaller crop that I earlier anticipated. Time will tell,

[high rate of speed]

Crop will be late here on the eastern end of the Dakotas also.We got our much needed rain yesturday,about 2 inches so all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.good luck to all.:)

[pahvantpiper]

Looks like a good, although late, crop this year relative to last year. Mind you, our good is like a Dakotas poor - average crop.

[alpha6]

This year is looking pretty good so far. We have been extracting large numbers of supers and if we start getting some decent rains, which it just yesterday started doing, the flow should continue and it will be an excellent year. :)

[Michael Palmer]

How does your honey crop look to figure this year,?

Havent started harvest yet, but it looks like 120+ lb average out there now.

[IndianaHoney]

Well, I'm not commercial, more sideline. But in my part of Indiana looks like each hive that is healthy, strong, and managed good will produce about 100lbs average. I would consider that a decent year. I know that other parts of Indiana did not fair so well.

[MadBowbee]

I know this was an old thread, but its been months since I've been on the website. Our part of Western N. Dakota very dry, will likely get half the normal crop.

[pahvantpiper]

Sorry to hear that Madbow, a local beekeeper from here takes his bees to South Dakota every year and this year he's making his biggest crop ever - 250 LBS average. The whitest honey I've ever seen and the whitest he's seen in 40 years.

[sqkcrk]

Havent started harvest yet, but it looks like 120+ lb average out there now.

Whatcha waitin' for Mike? Do you take it all off at once so the light and the amber are naturally mixed?

I took honey off w/ Chuck Kutik a couple of weeks ago, in Jefferson Co.. We averaged three mediums per col., I believe. And we left them w/ room enough for 100 lbs above the excluder. The golden rod looks good. Now if we could get some hot days w/out rain we could have another good flow.

[irwin harlton]

totally dependent on the weather.

A beekeeper must have big ,strong colonies to pull a big crop

Been a cool wet spring and summer in southwest manitoba.Old time beekeepers tell me july can make or break you.July is usually the hottest, driest month, the month with most sunshine and daylight hours, the bees usually peak in their population after the first flow off canola in the first weeks of july........... not this year.It didn't happen. This 2008 season always seemed to be 3 weeks behind, the hay crop was late and it's cutting delayed by rain ,2,3 ,or 4 showers a week. My crap apples are still small and green, quite often they are ripe this time of year
Sunflowers are in bloom and we are getting a good flow with the current hot weather. The clover in the gravel pit is 6 feet high and still growing from all the moisture, but it seems to be the season of coloured honey is upon us.I am still hoping to pull an average crop but kinda doubt this will happen......... the days are getting shorter. The nites this year have been the coolest that I can remember,8 AND 10 DEGREES celcuis.......... that is not too far from frost.

I guess we will take what the bees and the good lord gives us and we wil be thankfull.

[Michael Palmer]

Whatcha waitin' for Mike? Do you take it all off at once so the light and the amber are naturally mixed?

Well Mark, you and Chuck take your bees to South Carolina. I winter mine here in the north. My supers are full, but the broodnests are still too light for winter.

So, what would you have me do? Take the main crop off and add additional supers for the Goldenrod flow? And then feed the p..., heck out of them? I don't think so.

And anyway, the supers are full. Where is the mixing going to happen? And also...my customer...buys the whole crop...and doesn't care what the color is.

And the way I see it, that extra super of honey...or maybe two if you're lucky and the rain stops, and nothing else goes wrong...goes for transporting your bees down and back up to and from SC. Not to mention all the trips down and back, and the motels and....

You can keep it. :-)

[sqkcrk]

Where is the mixing going to happen?
:-)

In the extraction process?

Okay Mike. I was just curious. I know that you know what you are doing. I wasn't aware of how you do what you do w/ your honey crop.

You sounded good on Todd Moe's expose' on beekeeping in NY.

[Michael Palmer]

Okay Mike. I was just curious.

You sounded good on Todd Moe's expose' on beekeeping in NY.

It's ok Mark..I jest figgered ya was ribbin' me.

Todd Moe?...oh the interview with North Country Public Radio? I don't get that station over here. It's 88.3 from Canton, isn't it? I used to listen to Barb Heller Burns and "String Fever" when I worked bees in NY. Even won tickets to a bluegrass festival over there somewhere...twice actually. No one could answer the questions...name two famous violin makers...Stradavari and Guarnari I said. And, name 4 woods that violins are made of...Maple, Spruce, Ebony, and Rosewood...among others...I have a luthier friend who used some Lilac. I didn't accept the tickets, and told them to give them away...too far for me to go.

[Tom G. Laury]

Gee, Irwin, it almost sounds like you have an investment in bees...

Thank you for all of your input. Keep it up please.

[Tom G. Laury]

By the way what are Crap Apples ???

Explain please.

[irwin harlton]

that should be crab apples

My "investement in bees" is pure gambling like alot of agriculture endeavors.It's addictive and gets into your blood.With these current prices and market conditions it should not be difficult to make money with even a poor crop...... but it sure would be nice to have a bumper and cash in on these prices.

Definition of investment

"Invest" redirects here. For other uses, see Invest (disambiguation).

Investment or investing[1] is a term with several closely-related meanings in business management, finance and economics, related to saving or deferring consumption. An asset is usually purchased, or equivalently a deposit is made in a bank, in hopes of getting a future return or interest from it. The word originates in the Latin "vestis", meaning garment, and refers to the act of putting things (money or other claims to resources) into others' pockets. See Invest. The basic meaning of the term being an asset held to have some recurring or capital gains. It is an asset that is expected to give returns without any work
on the asset per se.


And of course the bees do all the work, and some years they return a good profit to their keeper on that investement

[Tom G. Laury]

The bees do all the work!

[Ian]

Didnt get the flow off the canola I expected, still came in over 100lbs / hive at a 2mm colour. Happy with that.
Extracting sunflower now, it seemed to flow about average,
and now, with that rain we got last week and just last night, the buckwheat has turned on and is flowing better than i have ever seen. Alfalfa is starting to pick up nicely.
I put boxes out last week, something I have never done before this late.
We shal see how long of a flow we get this fall.

If it runs long, I am going to take it and focus on colony prep later. Not much can be done with v mite now until late in fall anyway, looking at oxalic treatments. Doubt formic will work with well with this funny weather we are haveing, and checkmite and apistan done seem to work any more. Going to run them into mid September before I strip them to feed.

[Ian]

Anyone notice the vapourizer Cowen is offering? Expensive, 3000-5000$. Teats 4 at once, controls the temp of the vapourizing and allows you to meater the treatment dose as you work.

[Joel]

We have had an almost non-stop bloom this year thanks to abundant night rain and sunny days. Started with 200 nucs this year and already pulled avg. 25 lbs/hive of basswood the 3rd week of July which was followed by a fantastic teasel/knotweed/clover/ and other early August Crop.(including a large loosestrife bloom I could do without) The Golden Rod is at about 20% bloom and looks like it will be a thick one. You can smell it 50 yards away. Haven't seen this kind of bloom since 1996. I would expect a fall flow of 90-100 lbs a hive judging from past years, maybe a bit more.