Honey Crop in midwest & upper midwest?

[Brian Suchan]

Just wondering what kinda honey crop is out there? Hearing all kinds of horror stories about peeps in the dakotas who are already sending bees back to texas?

[Gregg]

Haven't heard much from anyone else. For me, crop will not be good. The drought is terrible. Some places where they got a couple timely rains might not be too bad, but overall it's gotta be lousy.

[rainesridgefarm]

just a average year in N. IL. about 80 - 100 lbs

[rainesridgefarm]

just a average year in N. IL. about 80 - 100 lbs

[Hillside]

Even with the dry weather it's looking like it could be an average year for production.

I'm fine with average. In the long run that's what we should expect.

[notaclue]

I'm a mile or eight south of you, but I seem to be the only one, in the area, not feeding his bees. There is a honey smell from the hives and they are active, but the drought is terrible. Even though we received about an inch to an inch and a half Friday (local rain gauges) it was too hard and most ran off. It was as if we didn't get any. The ground is packed and dry down to a foot in the yard.

Right now as long as they live I'm happy.

[Todd Zeiner]

Indiana must be the only state to have rain on a regular basis. Everything here is green and bushy. One of my owners where I keep hives called me and asked when I was going to cut all the grass around my hives. I'm usually done mowing by now and have to watch where I dump my smoker.


I just pulled 12 packed supers off. I could have pulled another 12 but can't handle that many at one time yet.

Sorry to hear about all the other drought problems. Wish I could send ya some rain!!

[jlyon]

From south central South Dakota we are average at best. It gets much worse as you go north. From what I have seen of the state it is safe to say the crop is going to be well below average.

[Brent Bean]

This year has been a good year, I will probably average over a hundred pounds per hive. And have had none of my hives swarm. I was feeding a couple of splits but they werenÂ’t interested in the sugar syrup so I pulled it off. We had a dry June but July has been above average in rainfall and a lot of wild flowers are blooming. I have to keep a close eye for supering, up looks like it might be a record year for me. Wish I could say the same for everyone else.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

I am having my best crop ever. I've only pulled my full combs of spring honey so far and have averaged 60 lbs per hive. That's about the state average and I still have honey to pull. Soy beans are just starting and will have that too. Should have a good fall crop yet.

[Bob Harrison]

The Clover flow burned up early. 1-2 supers if lucky.

Hives on certain types of soybeans are bringing in nectar. I checked quite a few fields yesterday and only found one field in which the bloom is almost done. Most had not yet set bloom.

Rain is predicted tonight which should start a soybean flow in many areas.

A decade ago we made little honey from soybeans but times are changing.

Quite a bit of the clover honey this year had dark honey in frames from another source.

Very little comb honey produced due to the short spring flow.

Cecil Sweeny (Mid Con) said the northeast Kansas clover flow was over in two weeks due to heat and lack of rain early in the season.

Reports largely depend on the weather this spring when looking at flows for different areas.

In Nebraska areas had bumper crops and other beekeepers moved their bees from Nebraska looking for honey sources.

All beekeeping is local.

[redbee]

DRY DRY DRY here in my part of South Dakota. In an average year 500,000 honey,this year will be lucky to start the extracters up.plus the bees never buildted up, hope feed is cheap.

[BerkeyDavid]

Bob

<Quite a bit of the clover honey this year had dark honey in frames from another source.>

I had the same thing, so did my buddy Mitch 25 miles south.

What is it? Any ideas?

[BULLSEYE BILL]

Beekeeping being local is right!

Our yellow clover bloomed a full seven weeks and the white has just quit last week durring the 106 to 109 temperature week, (man it was hot!). It was a clover year for me. I'm glad I pulled my early honey before the soybeans started, my clover honey has a distinct citrus flavor. Half my crop is in the bin.

[John Gesner]

I'm curious to know where this dark early honey came from, too.

My early crop was washed out just as the blacklocust bloomed. Seemed everyone around me missed the rain, but I got pummeled.

The dandelions were off, too.

Then the clover dried up early.

My comb honey customers are disappointed that I'm not going to get any good early comb this year. That'll hurt my sales.

No crops around my location, so I'm hoping for good wildflowers. Queen Anne's lace is coming on strong. Maybe that'll help.

[Dan Williamson]

I've talked to some people in Indiana that said they were having a slow year for honey. I talked to someone else in Kentucky that said the same thing.

I have alot of nectar on the hives.... several with at least 4 supers but i can't get them to fully cap it. Many frames are capped halfway down and then they just stopped or one side is nearly fully capped and the other side hardly capped at all. I am assuming humidity is partly to blame.

My soybean flow was extremely strong this year but only got about 2weeks of it. Nectar was very very light colored. My soybean flow last year was about 3 1/2 weeks but not as strong.

[Bob Harrison]

We have had quite a bit of discussion between beekeepers as to the source of the dark honey.

So far I have not had a single cell of dark honey but only a third way through extracting.

Bell Hill Honey has had two barrels. Dark but without an odor.

I extracted the crop of Justine Danner (former employee of mine and Kona queen) and we had whole supers of dark honey.

Both the above honey was made in the Lone Jack Missouri area. I have had locations in the area every year since around 1978 except for this spring when I traded those locations to another beekeeper for his locations north of me.

I was shown a frame of honey by a small beekeeper with a couple hives in the intercity of KC. Was no doubt "smartweed" honey which is easily pin pointed by the smell. Unusual place to get smartweed honey this time of year.

Some beekeepers say sumac, chicory or a plant they call blue bonnet. I personally think they are calling chicory "blue bonnet" as Lupine "blue bonnet" blooms March & April.

Chicory is all over the place in our area and I have seen the bees on chicory. The state has seeded chicory in its wildflower plantings along country road sides.

My guess for dark honey source for our area is laurel sumac ( Rhus laurina) which is all over the place in many areas. I believe the early heat brought on a June bloom instead of the normal July bloom. I have seen the bees working sumac. I have also seen sumac in bloom in middle June this year.

All of the above are my observations for Northwest Missouri and can be different even between counties!

[Nick Noyes]

We are looking at an average crop in ND. Moved some bees and got some rain that will help the flow last a little longer. It is very spotty from what I have heard and seen.

[mobees]

< Our yellow clover bloomed a full seven weeks and the white has just quit last week durring the 106 to 109 temperature week, >

Sounds wicked good ! 7 weeks of clover was it just yellow over the period or both yellow/white/other(Hubam etc?) lumped together. Did you have to irrigate?

mo

[BULLSEYE BILL]

The yellow clover started blooming the second week of May and ended the first week of July. The white started the middle of June and ended the middle of July. They overlapped for three or four weeks.

We started off with a hot spell in May, got some rains, then another hot spell in June, more rain, then some killer heat last week.

It is the hot dry spells that entice the clover to produce nectar to keep the flower fresh while waiting to be pollinated. We had just the right timing of rain and heat.

We have what we call clover years. They seem to be about every other year, the difference this year was the timing of the rain and the hot dry spells. Clover was everywhere except where I planned to move my hives to.

I contacted to move my bees to a parental CRP field that has a great stand of clovers every year, a really great location. Even though he said that he had no plans to burn the field in the spring, he did. There was no clover there this year. I ended up not moving and still had a bumper year. [img]smile.gif[/img]

No irrigation in my neck of the woods, just mother nature and a little luck.

[size="1"][ July 26, 2006, 03:01 AM: Message edited by: BULLSEYE BILL ][/size]