Hi all,
We are trying to understand our bees' cycle more. Here's what we have noticed the past few years:
Early Spring--little nectar coming in but lots of bees produced
Late Spring (June)--Less bees being born but lots of nectar coming in
By July we have 40 lbs to 90 lbs of honey on some hives
By Mid-July they're eating it and uncapping the honey
By fall they've ate ALL of it.
Its almost like we don't have a fall flow. We have heard of "lazy" bees from too much syrup and not going out to forage...The questions is are our bees "lazy" because they have so much honey stores that they don't want to go forage for more? We are hesitant to take honey from them in July and spin it out and by fall there is nothing to take...What do we do? Do we really not have any fall flow? Are they making more bees and can't store nectar in addition to that? We live in Southern New York State in a heavily wooded area. The bees are in a field full of flowers. We have about 10 hives and they all do fairly similarly.
We would love to take some honey from them but since they're eating through it we haven't been able to...
-C
We are trying to understand our bees' cycle more. Here's what we have noticed the past few years:
Early Spring--little nectar coming in but lots of bees produced
Late Spring (June)--Less bees being born but lots of nectar coming in
By July we have 40 lbs to 90 lbs of honey on some hives
By Mid-July they're eating it and uncapping the honey
By fall they've ate ALL of it.
Its almost like we don't have a fall flow. We have heard of "lazy" bees from too much syrup and not going out to forage...The questions is are our bees "lazy" because they have so much honey stores that they don't want to go forage for more? We are hesitant to take honey from them in July and spin it out and by fall there is nothing to take...What do we do? Do we really not have any fall flow? Are they making more bees and can't store nectar in addition to that? We live in Southern New York State in a heavily wooded area. The bees are in a field full of flowers. We have about 10 hives and they all do fairly similarly.
We would love to take some honey from them but since they're eating through it we haven't been able to...
-C