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finally, fall flow!

9K views 53 replies 22 participants last post by  johng 
#1 ·
we had some good soaking rain over the weekend and the foraging today is wide open. i haven't seen them working like this since our main flow back in may. i'm not sure what they're working but it's a welcomed sight. i've only harvested about half my supers because they failed to get the other half capped before things slowed down, and i'm guessing that's because spring was late in getting here this year yet summer came right on time. i'm seeing a little goldenrod blooming here and there but i don't smell it yet in the beeyard. if we get a month or more of this i should be in pretty good shape.
 
#5 ·
Just checked my hives and goldenrod is flowing for sure - not gushing, but since we don't usually get any and this is two years in a row that we have... Not complaining. Established hives have been productive and had no trouble feeding themselves this year.
 
#6 ·
awesome. a couple of 1st year hives that i inspected recently were very full of capped brood and very light on stores. i'm guessing something triggered them into brooding up in anticipation of the fall forage availability.
 
#8 ·
My season started a month late this spring. The bees have been playing catchup all summer. The weather got dry during first of August but then we got 6 1/2 inches of rain during the middle of August. My bees have been collecting almost every day the sun shines.

And it is raining again right now!
Charlie
 
#9 ·
The Japanese knot weed and second growth goldenrod has started to produce this past week here in Southern Ohio, my production hives have gained 20 or 30 pounds each, my second heaviest hive weighed in yesterday at 166 pounds, I am seriously considering placing a super on it :).
 
#12 ·
Golden rod starting to bloom everywhere in west Alabama, along with swamp sunflowers and boneset. Asters starting to form flower heads so not too far behind. Most of my hives had orientation flights between the showers this afternoon. One hive had so many bees flying around I thought it was swarming but they settled back into the hive after about 15 minutes.
 
#14 ·
Getting some activity here in Hamilton too. I saw the first goldenrod blooms a week ago. The bees are finally bringing enough to feed themselves. Hopefully they will get a good surplus for winter.

I finished extracting a week ago and have almost all the honey sold. This has been the best year in a while for honey production, and the best year in 20 years for people driving up wanting to buy honey.
 
#19 ·
Marshmasterpat: As far as I can tell, the bees get both nectar and pollen from the swamp sunflowers and mostly nectar from the boneset. I may not have observed them at the right time of day to see pollen collection from the boneset. I'll try to watch them tomorrow and see if they get any pollen from the boneset. It has a slight fruity fragrance, the kind with the shiny leaves. We also have some that has a dull, lighter colored leaf. I'll have to check it for fragrance.
 
#22 ·
I have been smelling it for a couple of weeks now. The bees are very busy but the hives are still light. I will have to let them keep what ever they bring in. I removed supers or put the partials over the inner cover so the bees can bring what little honey there is down.
 
#24 ·
Haven't seen goldenrod in my area of Birmingham yet, (on the east side) but our showers have been pretty much hit or miss with my area being mostly miss. I've had queen problems all summer and brood was down. Been feeding for a month now trying to get them built back up. If I see any evidence of fall flow, I'll pull the feeders and super up a couple of the strong hives. They all seem to be cleaning up the feed too quickly for a flow to be on.
 
#26 ·
:thumbsup:

while some areas of the country saw bumper years for honey production my little ridgetop did not.

our spring flows were shortened by a full month due to the late arrival of warm temps.

this resulted in over half of my supers not getting capped before the summer dearth hit.

the bees ended up brooding up through those supers of open feed and got themselves very strong just in time to exploit the fall flow.

if all goes well i believe they are positioned to make a lot of honey this fall as they are already making good progress back filling the supers.

if so it will be the first year for me when more honey was harvested from the fall flow than from the spring flow.
 
#28 ·
still bringing it in wide open today, and the later variety of goldenrod is just now starting to open up. the wall to wall brood i saw a few weeks ago has turned into massive orientation flights, so amazingly right on time for the flow. looks like i may have a shot at a decent harvest this year after all.
 
#29 ·
Down here near Montgomery the goldenrod is just getting ready to bust out. All we need is a good rain to get them blooming. As far as production goes, the honey flow has been pretty good for us this year, even with the late Spring, as we have pulled on average about 80 lbs per hive. However, I'm hoping for a good fall flow so the ladies will have plenty to feast on this winter as "they" are projecting a cold and wet winter for us down here.
 
#30 ·
Brazilian Pepper--here in abundance--is just beginning to bloom in SW Florida. It lasts about 6 weeks and so far I get a harvest every year from it. There are some other trees blooming that bees are collecting from, so it's not purely Brazilian. I suspect it's why we get September swarms. Last year I got 5 swarms to bait boxes in the last 2 weeks of September.
 
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#31 ·
The early goldenrod is already fading here - and the flow is a little bit disappointing so far. There certainly is not going to be honey to extract (unless something big changes) but at least they are feeding themselves. It's been an overall good year, so I can't complain.

Just about all over though.
 
#35 ·
The early goldenrod is already fading here - and the flow is a little bit disappointing so far.
David,

Its been my experience (at least locally), that the early season GR doesn't produce much (if any) honey, but it does provide some pollen. The later variety typically does produce honey, and has started blooming a few days ago. I haven't noticed any significant nectar coming in yet, but I'm still hopeful.
 
#34 ·
marshmasterpat: Sorry it took so long to get back. The whitish pollen is probably Boneset. Have been watching my bees since my last entry and the bees working Boneset here are getting an off white pollen. I have a short Golden Rod and a tall Golden Rod starting to bloom now. Some is starting to go by along the roadsides but a lot has not bloomed yet here. The bees start flying early and are still coming in at dusk. Several hives were light last week, hope to check this week. Should be putting on weight.
 
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