Late summer honey harvest

**RADJr** · 08-10-2012, 07:06 PM

I started beekeeping this year with a hive (3lbs of Italian) in late April 2012. My hive did well and within two months I had the bottom deep filled with brood and some honey and the top deep filled with honey drawn out with white wax. I added a medium super and another medium two weeks later (they were really busy) and by last week, the girls had drawn out the majority of the two supers. I removed the two medium supers and harvested 16 frames of fully drawn out frames. My wife and I extracted 45 lbs of wonderful honey, filtered and bottled it with no problems.

The question is this. At this time, how much of a honey flow should I expect here in Northern Wisconsin and should I attempt to harvest it or should I leave it for the bees this fall?

Any input would be appreciated.

**activematrix** · 08-10-2012, 07:39 PM

I would recommend that you hook up with a local beekeeping club for information on local honey flows. here's a list. As far as trying to harvest more, you might want to think about leaving the rest to the bees, since most of northern Wisconsin is zone 3-4, which is freaking COLD! Those girls are gonna need all the help they can get (and lots of honey!) to make it to spring. The best place to get all of the answers you need would be a local beek club, since they can show you how much they leave for the bees, and they know when the local flows are.

**ralittlefield** · 08-10-2012, 08:07 PM

As activematrix has said, your best info on these questions will come from guys in your area. Lacking local advice, you may want to consider wintering in two deeps and one medium. One of the deeps and the medium should be full of honey.

**cmonkey** · 08-13-2012, 01:28 PM

I'm south of Superior and my local guys are saying two deeps are enough. I've done the last two years with two deeps and a medium, and with the early spring this year, that was barely enough. Part of the answer depends on how long/hard winter is and when spring comes. I'd rather leave an extra super on and extract it in the spring if they don't use it. Unless the goldenrod is amazeballs this year, I don't think I'll get any harvest at all, since I had so many problems keeping queens this year.