[The Honey Householder]

2010 sofar has been nothing like the 2009 honey season. I was 2 weeks late getting packages in because of cold spring in the south. The warmer weather in the north has made the flow kick in earlier by 2-3 week, so the hives are not built up to where they should be for early flow. Most sowbeams have not been planted which is our main flow. The honey demand right know looks to me more then can be produced. Hope for the best at 60+ ton.

Has others seen this for this year and is anyone quoting anyone honey prices for new crop yet.

 

[Nick Noyes]

I will make my 2010 crop prediction on October 15th.
I usually hit it pretty close.

 

[The Honey Householder]

I will make my 2010 crop prediction on October 15th.
I usually hit it pretty close.

Last year at this time it look better and I thought 72 ton and finished out at 49 ton. Maybe wishfull thinking, but crop came in short and was finished on Sept. 15 last year. Was all sold out by the end Oct.

 

[jmgi]

I'm just north of you in southeast Michigan and what you said about the season so far is exactly what I see here. A good 2-3 weeks earlier for sure and package bees not where I would like them to be as far as strength. I've got yellow and white sweet clover blooming at the same time and the yellow sweet clover just started blooming a little over a week and a half ago, very weird!

 

[jmgi]

Another interesting thing about this season, my best hive so far this year is a top bar hive that came through the winter in great shape, even had about 40 lbs. of unused honey left. This hive has workaholic bees, I already took 5 frames of brood from them to start a second top bar hive, and they still have managed to store about 50 lbs. of new spring honey so far, in the process of being capped over.

 

[alpha6]

Very slow start this year, but better then last year. Last year we had cool, wet weather till the end of June. This year we hit the dandelion flow and the hives are building up nicely. Strong ones are on their second super...which is a bonus with dandelion honey. Hives were light coming out of Almonds and we had to feed till the flow was strong. High winds have been another problem. We would have done even better but we have been blasted with high winds every day.

Snow is melting quick. Hopefully the rain will cooperate and we will get a solid flow through the summer. The alfalfa is looking great with plenty of moisture in the soil and nice hot temps now. We should get a bloom in about two weeks in the lower areas and work it's way up the altitude. Noticed the sweet clover blooming in the lower areas. Tons of that is showing everywhere so that should add to the mix. Keeping my fingers crossed anyway.

Hives are looking pretty good. The weak ones are either building up and have recovered or have had their lids flipped. I combined a number of them...they just couldn't recover from coming out light from Calf. Better to strengthen others then try and keep these going.

 

[Durandal]

Our spring honey flow looks like its about 12% of our total from last year, which is not too bad methinks.

Spring has been...well, weird.

Edit: Build up has been VERY nice. We feed a single patty the last day in February and then see what happens. This year and last it has resulted in good build up by flow. Our first swarm caught in April is already putting on honey.

 

[suttonbeeman]

Best year in a long time....two 200 yr dought years (2007/8)really thinned the pastures the last years rain germanated the dutch clover... looks like snow is on. Most bees have made 3 deeps with some starting number 5. Even nucs I started onApril 15 with cells are in second deep super. Mind you these are plugged full. Best clover flow since 1982 and 1987. bout time after the past 3 years where all added togather would make maybeone deep if lucky!

 

[Brent Bean]

I am robbing honey tomorrow this is a month earlier than normal. About half of my 32 hives have five mediums full to the brim. This year is looking a lot better compared to 2009. Several hives have swarmed but it didn’t seem to slow them down, all the queens are in high gear. With plenty of rain nectar as been flowing freely.

 

[jean-marc]

Bees look pretty good. We had no winter on the west coast. Now we've also had no spring. We are still feeding some hives. We've had a very wet and cool spring. Mayve 2 good weeks of foraging since april. Our mainhoneyflow has started but it's guess what... raining. Weather is supposed to turn in 2 days. We'll see. Definitely had more honey on the hives last year at this time. It's spotty as to who has honey on. If the guys took that extra frame of borrd out then the bees have very little honey, to the point where some have starved, 2 of them that I know of. More would have but we've been feeding the ones that need it. Still putting patties on. Without the feed I just hate to think what the bees would look like. It's money that is well spent, those hives that didn't starve because of it share that same opinion.

Jean-Marc

 

[Grant]

The winter was cold and steady with few fluctuations. Bees came through in fair condition.

The spring, however, was quite warm and encouraging. Then in May we had two weeks of cold and rain which held everything up, including the swarm impulse. Few hives swarmed and had lots of bees when the weather went from cool to incredibly hot and humid.

The nectar flowed very generously, but now everything is drying up about two weeks ahead of schedule. We need some rain.

Hives are full, but our flow is principally over. The hives I've harvested have been loaded with great yields. Compared to last year, I'm guessing we're about 125% of last year, and last year was a good year for us.

Grant
Jackson, MO

 

[ga.beeman]

best year i have had in the last five to seven years. with the cool spring everything bloomed at the same time but the dutch clover really bloomed a long time. starting to make a little sourwood honey and hope to go to cotton down south after the sourwood.

 

[alpha6]

Slow start in Western Colorado. Constant wind is drying everything out. Couple of fire are not helping either. Clouds came in this afternoon...if we get a good rain the flow should kick with all the heat.

 

[DRUR]

From this thread: <previous comments by poster on honey production, by individual queen. <note by moderator>>

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237603&page=4

 

[rainesridgefarm]

We have a few half full supers out there. With rain every other day for the past three weeks not much time for foraging flights. Almost 2 inches fell last night and now we are looking like 10 days of dry weather. I sure hope for 10lb daily gaines instead of 6 up and 4 down the last 10 days.

 

[alpha6]

Great soaking rains today...next week should be real good. :thumbsup:

 

[Roland]

The scale hive has been doing 2 lbs a day, until the last three days, when it averaged 3 lbs a day. We are looking at a drier spell for a while also. According to my "Mulberry" hypothesis, a good flow is right around the corner. When the mulberries are dry or not sweet, no flow. When the mulberries get fat and sweet, the honey flow is right around the corner. The mulberries just turned fat and sweet.

Roland
Linden Apiary

 

[suttonbeeman]

Roalnd...Mulberries must have been very very dry and sour last year!

 

[Roland]

Sutton, How did you know???? The year before that they where mediocre, but better than last year..

Roland

 

[Bud Dingler]

native basswood still in dingleberry stage.

lots of forage here on the Wi/Mn border but frequent and heavy rain holding things down. some locations have full supers already others do not yet and the basswood is still on the way.