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How much is normal?

2K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  hipbee 
#1 ·
I ask this question sometimes, but never get a straight answer. I started last year with 2 hives and got about 100 lbs per hive, including what I did
not use of the autumn honey I kept "just in case". This year I have already gotten more than that from the those same 2 hives, and the new one I started from a package this year, which had a queen supercedure right off, is about ready to generate about this same quantity as the two old ones did last year. I know it differs from year to year.....any responses?
I raise them chemical free in middle Tennessee, feed them when they will eat syrup (which was any time after the spring flow and not much during the current fall flow-they wanted to nothing to do with it at those times). I think this is pretty decent, but have no frame of reference, which is ALWAYS pretty darned relative.....
What do most people get in a normal year? What is considered a decent return for the effort, which I think is A LOT OF EFFORT!!!!???? (when on the hobby level)
Thanx to all....just wondering.
 
#3 ·
The 100 LBS was before any feeding was done-the spring. Here in Tennessee, there is a pretty tough (hot and dry) lack of nectar and pollen through the middle of the summer....then comes the fall "abundance". They are pretty healthy and happy because of the added nutrition, though I sometimes wonder. The two older and stronger hives I give syrup to every other day if they will take some. New colonies get whatever they will take....I am still trying to develop drawn out comb for next year for everyone. And they have certainly generated a LOT more honey yet to be stored for later potential needs.
 
#4 ·
wish I had that luck.....I harvested about 200 lbs from 10 hives this year....3 were second year colonies, but suprisingly my packages I started this year produced as much honey as my survivors(but I did make quite a few splits from my survivors).
I usually only harvest the sourwood honey and leave the rest for the bees.
I have also went through a 55 gallon drum of sugar this year.
 
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