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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: John McPhaul <john.mcphaul AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] When is the main nectar flow
  • Date: Fri, 16 May 2014 18:55:51 -0400

Hey John,

The article here may answer some of your questions, especially the one about queen excluders.

If you are feeding your bees, they are putting up "sugar water honey", which isn't honey at all since it isn't from nectar. That's fine for the bees but you won't want to harvest it and you definitely won't want to share it or sell it. 

If your new hives can store up plenty of honey to carry them through the summer and also make enough of a surplus of genuine honey for you to have some too, then you are doing great and should take advantage of it!

Randall

On 5/16/2014 4:39 PM, John McPhaul wrote:
Randall,

We split our hive in early April with Marty overseeing and both hives are thriving.  So much so we have added a super to each hive and we continue to also feed them.  When you are putting the supers on to collect the honey do you also put the queen excluder on or do you just put on the supers?  I also seem to recall Marty saying we may want to just let the bees have the honey this season since we split the hive but they seem to be some hard working rascals!

Any advice would be great and although I've been lurking on ocba list for a while and this is my first post!

Thanks
John McPhaul

-----Original Message----- From: Randall Austin
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 11:47 AM
To: jenshobbyfarm AT gmail.com ; ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [ocba] When is the main nectar flow

Hey Jennifer,

Our major nectar flow here is from tulip poplar trees, which are
supposed to bloom from around April 15th through May. This year has been
a little wacky, with the southern part of the county seeming to start a
good bit earlier than the northern part, and the whole thing being hit
or miss depending on your specific location.

Regardless, tulip poplar is the money-maker, supplemented by blackberry
and other fruiting plants which bloom roughly at the same time. These
all will dry up by the end of June in a typical year.

We get a minor flow in the fall from asters and goldenrod (this should
start by early September or so); our bees make their winter stores from
this, if all goes well. This flow lasts until we get a strong frost. The
amount of honey we get from it varies from year to year but it isn't
enough to have excess to harvest.

A few miles one way or the other can make a big difference in the
micro-ecology and can impact your results. So can the passage of time,
as "old field succession" naturally transforms the floral make-up of an
area.

I'm had years with extremely bountiful nectar flows where I extract
twice, once in mid/late May and again in late June/early July. After the
first extraction I return the supers to be filled up again. This allows
me to only need to have half as many supers. For years that aren't so
abundant, I extract once, some time in June.

Keep an eye on how much honey is in the deeps as well as the honey
supers. If the honey is all in the supers and not the deeps, one option
is to pull the supers and extract as the flow is winding down but before
it is actually over, and don't return the supers to the hives. Then the
bees will store the last honey in the deeps for their summer supply.
Make sure you don't do this too early or the deeps will become
honey-bound and your hive will swarm or suffer from hampered population
growth.

Randall Austin


On 5/15/2014 11:26 PM, jenshobbyfarm AT gmail.com wrote:
Hello, can someone tell me when the main nectar flow is for Orange county. Also, the time to harvest. Does anyone do two separate harvests ?  One of my hives has lots of honey, but the hives I did not use drawn comb in
aren't doing much yet.
Thank you for your help !
Jennifer Hall
Hall Hill Farm
Hillsborough
Sent from my iPhone
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