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Other than a strong hive what are ways that you have found to increase honey production?
Honey production
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a good flow 
Drawn comb helps alot, takes a few years to buildup the inventory.
Drawn comb helps alot, takes a few years to buildup the inventory.
My strongest hive at the start of a honey flow, I'll take all frames of brood and shake all the bees off back into the hive, and give the nekid brood frames to weaker hives that have enough population to care for the brood.
I then put the remaining frames of honey in the strong hive in the bottom brood box, with 2 frames in the center of open cells and young larva and the queen on them. Put on excluder and stack supers up on top with bait frames.
With no brood to feed at beginning of nectar flow, with brood nest plugged with honey (except queen has room to lay on two frames in center so she won't go 'off laying') with room above for storage in supers, the workers will empty the bottom box for the queen to lay real quick by moving honey up and drawing out comb honey above. It can also be used this way for extracted honey, but the excluder is not needed in that case. This is a shook swarm method for comb honey, but I've used it also to get increase yields of extracted honey as well.
I then put the remaining frames of honey in the strong hive in the bottom brood box, with 2 frames in the center of open cells and young larva and the queen on them. Put on excluder and stack supers up on top with bait frames.
With no brood to feed at beginning of nectar flow, with brood nest plugged with honey (except queen has room to lay on two frames in center so she won't go 'off laying') with room above for storage in supers, the workers will empty the bottom box for the queen to lay real quick by moving honey up and drawing out comb honey above. It can also be used this way for extracted honey, but the excluder is not needed in that case. This is a shook swarm method for comb honey, but I've used it also to get increase yields of extracted honey as well.
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Ok thanks for all the info! Ray Marler what do you mean by bait frames?
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Where I am located it's about 30 pounds per hive
per year or per season?
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On a really strong hive that's per season but on a average hive that's per year
ok... it would be kind of interesting to see a map of average production rates per hive.
This is only my second summer but last year one hive swarmed and i got about 20 pounds from it and 10 from the parrent and the hive that didn't swarm i got 150 or so from. both colonies started out as 4 frame nucs with only foundations aside from the 4 frames. now that they have a good base i am looking forward to see what they can do now. split the 3 hives to six and have caught 3 swarms off them so far so that may set them back some. OT i know an i appologize.. just was curious.
This is only my second summer but last year one hive swarmed and i got about 20 pounds from it and 10 from the parrent and the hive that didn't swarm i got 150 or so from. both colonies started out as 4 frame nucs with only foundations aside from the 4 frames. now that they have a good base i am looking forward to see what they can do now. split the 3 hives to six and have caught 3 swarms off them so far so that may set them back some. OT i know an i appologize.. just was curious.
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Run a queen excluder.
Pull honey as soon as the bees make it, and feed them during mid-summer nectar dearths if necessary. If you don't pull the honey as soon as they make it, the bees will eat it during a dearth.
Pull honey as soon as the bees make it, and feed them during mid-summer nectar dearths if necessary. If you don't pull the honey as soon as they make it, the bees will eat it during a dearth.
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