[SDCBeeks] Harvesting Honey

[Mark J. Sommer]

Hugh,

My recommendations follow along the lines of Julia’s. You want to leave at least 12 bars (sorry, they’re not not frames) for winter. Her advice for fall is great, because we don’t really know what’s coming.

The bars you leave are not just for winter. They’ll use most, in my experience in late winter and early spring to build up the colony next year. I recommend waiting until later unless you hive is honey bound.

If you have a honey bound hive and you have bars of extra comb somewhere, you can do a harvest and replace those bars with the empty comb so the bees won’t have to build more comb.

Good luck with your colonies and I hope for a good harvest this year. Bees needs should come first though.

~Mark
505-480-3157

> On Jul 14, 2024, at 5:20 PM, jvazquez at mcn.org wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi Hugh,
> My first thought when I read your post was - is that the only honey in the whole hive?
>  
> I cannot tell you how much to harvest or when the honey flow will stop, perhaps someone else in the group will.
> One would think with the rain we’ve had there is plenty more yet to forage.
>  
> The purpose of my reply is to encourage you to think of the bees too.
> How many frames of honey do they need to get through the winter?
> We are midway through the summer, and you are seeing two frames that will probably turn into honey, and are thinking of taking one?
>  
> I know from living further north with bees that I tried to leave a minimum of 12 frames for their winter stores, often more. Perhaps we don’t need so many frames in Santa Fe, but we can get a freeze that cuts off the fall forage early and they could need to utilize their own food for many months until blossoms start again in the spring.
>  
> How did it go last year for you and the bees? How many frames did you leave them for the winter in each hive? How did it look at this time last summer?
> Unfortunately, I lost my colonies to mites a few years ago, but I still am interested in how things are going in the bee world.
>  
> With abundant thoughts for you & your bees,
> Julia
>  
>  
> From: hive <hive-bounces at lists.sdcbeeks.org> On Behalf Of Hugh Schall
> Sent: Sunday, July 14, 2024 11:27 AM
> To: Sangre De Cristo Beekeepers <hive at sdcbeeks.org>
> Subject: [SDCBeeks] Harvesting Honey
>  
> I have two top bar hives that are two years old.  Last week I harvested a little honey from one, and noted that there were two frames with lots of nectar.  I checked today both frames are full, but no capped honey.  How late in the summer can I reasonable harvest honey in Santa Fe?  I am hoping that in two to three weeks at least one of the frames will be capped.
>  
> Thanks,
> Hugh
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