Anytime I report yields per hive I follow the method you called "Option A". I use this method because I'm trying to keep bees that not only survive, but are also very productive, and I feel this approach does the most justice in measuring my success towards this objective.

 

What if you started with three and throug swarming and minipulation you end up with 8 hives and maby 50 lbs of honey. Is option A 50 lbs of honey from three hives or is it 50 lbs from 8 hives. I was thinking that I started from three and so it would be 50 lbs from three. Yes or no?
Cheers
gww
Ps and then when some one says that is not very productive, I can say but I have 5 new hives also.
Ps ps I was not trying for 5 new hives though and so success is hard to count.

 

Is option A 50 lbs of honey from three hives or is it 50 lbs from 8 hives.

Under your facts, Option A would be 50 pounds from 3 hives, or 16 2/3 lbs per hive.

That's how I do it, but I don't know how others do it.

Depends on purpose.

So what's your purpose Daisy?

For me, I track per hive averages year to year to see if I'm doing better or not. With that in mind, it doesn't matter how you do it as long as its consistent (which is easier said than done, as if you went Option B and had a ton of swarms or splits in one year, but not as many the next, it could mess things up). But I also like to compare my average to state average, just for giggles.

 

Depends on purpose. To track productivity, many side liners here log "supers pulled per individual hive". Calculations for the purpose of finance get complicated with depreciation etc.

 

Just curious how other people calculate their "per hive honey yield."

I just make stuff up. You think when you're in a "who has the highest yields" pizzin contest that everyone is honest?

 

We need a LIKE button.

 

'option a'.

total lbs honey harvested divided by # of overwintered colonies. poor harvests from nonproductive colonies get offset from honey that might be taken from caught swarms/early splits which are not counted in with the # of overwintered colonies.

no method is perfect, but i like this way because it normalizes comparisons year to year based on what i had to work with at the beginning of the season.

 

SpecialK.....

But I also like to compare my average to state average, just for giggles.

Me too but I also am new enough that I really don't know when I take stuff off the hive if I am doing what is normal or leaving more then normal. I only took what was in the fourth box (all mediums) and above and also left anything not close to 100 percent capped. I put the wets back on and some is ready again but I have heard the bees will use it to raise brood if left. I think a fall flow is starting and I think MO has an average of 40/50 lbs per hive. So I have hopes of getting closer to the average before winter but don't know what I am doing or should be doing yet and so will have to wait and see how it really works.

If your hives are light come winter and you throw some feed on do you subtract from what you really got?
Cheers
gww
Ps Wow you guys type fast.

 

If your hives are light come winter and you throw some feed on do you subtract from what you really got?

I wouldn't. What I take off is what I take off. Simple as that.

For my area it doesn't matter either way. If you leave food on after the flow, the dearth hits and they eat it all. The only way they stop brooding like crazy is to take the honey off. Not so much they starve, of course. So I always feed come fall, whether I take some, none, or all the honey off. YMMV.

I don't see this as a linear calculation for the small time beekeeper.

I don't see how it doesn't apply as much to the "small time beekeeper" but it does to someone with, say, 50 hives.

If you have 3 hives going into winter, you lose one over winter, and you harvest 50 lbs, how is that any different than a guy that has 100 hives going into winter, loses 33, and harvests 1,675 lbs? The math works the same.

In fact, I bet the guy that has 100 hives will lose a TON more swarms, have more queen issues (on the whole), have more incidents of EFB, AFB, Chalkbrood, and other abnormalities that will affect his "average" when compared to the guy that has 3 hives.

50 hives are enough to smooth out some of the highs and lows in the honey output and give you a reasonably per hive number.

Actually, not really. I can tell you I had MUCH less swarm issues when I ran 5 hives. I don't remember having any drone layers, and I've never had AFB. I could watch them like a hawk and correct anything I needed to. I'm now around 40 hives, with a 10 month old daughter, and work a 60 hour a week job. That doesn't give me an opportunity to look inside each hive once a week to stay on top of issues. I ride the averages now. Some hives die out, it happens, I don't worry about it. When I had 5, I did everything I could to keep them alive. Now I miss swarms for example, they hit the trees, and that hive produces less honey. But, looking at my math, my per hive number actually INCREASED during my transition from 5 to 40. Because my management practices increased, which has a greater affect on your honey yield (in my opinion) than some of those abnormalities.

 

2000 pounds from 42 hives but only about half (maybe 2/3) are production colonies.
Some are duplex nucs that built up and made a honey crop.

One hive made 5 supers and it ain't over yet.
This one made a lot too.

If I had to pick among all the beekeepers I've talked to...which one makes the most honey per hive.
I think JW Carlson would take that award.

 

I don't see this as a linear calculation for the small time beekeeper. As you mentioned so many things can determined the honey output of a hive. If you have say 50 production hives you may want to look at your honey yield at a per hive basis for business reason or growth potential. 50 hives are enough to smooth out some of the highs and lows in the honey output and give you a reasonably per hive number. In my case I harvested from only 3 hives this year but 60% came from one hive and that's what I tell people when they ask me how much honey I got. I what them to know it's not linear and each hive is unique and they all have their ups and downs goods and bads. If I cared about a number it would be total honey output and not per hive output.

 

SpecialK......
Thanks for the feed back and the little bit extra in explination. I helps me from thinking in circles to see others perspectives.
Cheers
gww

 

I have overwintered hives, hives I split in the current year, and captured swarms. I keep a log. I keep a record of how many capped frames I pull off of each hive. I keep fractional counts in the event a capped frame is not completely filled. I estimate to the 1/4 frame. After harvest, I add the total frames I pulled up and divide into the number of gallons pulled. I now have my per frame yield. I then multiply my per frame yield by my number of frames pulled from each hive and post my yields per hive in my log.

I only have 9 hives, so this might not be practical in a larger outfit. I have fun with it. When it stops being fun, I will stop doing it.

 

We set out 20-25 in out-yards in April and keep the rest in a home yard that is convenient for making queens and nucs. Average is calculated by taking the total yield divided by the number set out for honey production in April. Usually a few fail in each out-yard from April til July but we still include them in the average, along with colonies we don't pull honey from.

 

Quite a few of my colonies are being used for queen rearing. I'm constantly pulling brood and honey to make mating nucs, shaking bees to make starters, etc. I don't expect them to make honey. I wouldn't count them. The ones that were set aside for honey production, I would count them even if they didn't make anything. I had expected them to, and they weren't being used for queen rearing. So I would take the amount of honey divided by the hives that were intended for honey production even if they didn't make any surplus.

 

This year I started with 600 packages. I made up 185 hive increase for myself. So my production hive count is 785. That doesn't mean all my hives made production. That was just the number of hives I had to work with starting season. That is the number I use. I am half way into my second pull at 68K pounds. So at this time that is a 86 lb. APH. I would have to say if I was to over winter that would be my APH, but because I sell the bees off and extract all the honey it will be closer to 120-135 lb. APH this year. I did sell a lot of nucs and frames of brood this year instead of making up another 200+ hive increase for production. Trying to down size to manage operation better by myself.

 

Guess if someone is hung up on averages then in my mind total pounds produced should be divided by how many hives you put supers on at the beginning of the flow. Personally, my production yardstick is pounds per location but the best one is always gross income less expenses. That and how many strong hives we have going into the winter. At least thats how my commercial beekeeping brain is wired.

 

>... but the best one is always gross income less expenses...

and hours of work. Yes.

 

I never want to factor that one for fear that it would greatly discourage me . . . and my wife might find out just how much money and time I lose keeping bees every year.