[alleyyooper]

2009 not many days over 90 a few over 80, net honey harvest 3500 pound with 83 colonies, 180 honey supers.

2010 to many days over 90 not a lot of rain which came at the wrong times, net honey harvest 1243 pounds with 110 colonies and 203 honey supers.





This capping tank was emptyed 6 times last year. This is all I got this year.



Bee looses this winter I am afraid will be very high. Many hobby bee keepers will not feed enough to build up the stores the bees need to get thru winter.

Al

[dori36]

I'm sorry for your crop losses but farmers growing corn, beans and/or wheat have had one of the best crops this year. Early harvest, good bushels/acre and dry enough that the propane costs to dry will be substantially lower than normal.

[wagonman76]

I just read that this summer was so much better that there will be no pumpkin shortage this year. Unlike last year when the weather was so bad that there was a considerable shortage.

[jeeg]

Very interesting photos! I've never had the chance to observe that process myself.

Sorry to hear the harvest was poor in comparison to last year. May your bees all make it through the winter and prosper next summer!!

[Cliffie]

I have to say, I saw MANY more honeybees this year than last. I only saw 2 last year, and this year it was more like a dozen, so that's progress. I hope.

Alleyyooper, what is trhe definition of a "honey super"?

[Airborn]

Do you ever notice how this type of thing goes in circles? Good year, not so good, terrible and then better and good year again.

[alleyyooper]

Honey supers, they are the wooden boxes that are only used for the collection of honey for bee keepers to rob from the bees.

Here in Michigan I think the majorty of bee keepers use two deeps with10 frames for brood chambers (where the bees live and the queen lays her eggs.). they are 19 7/8 inches X 16 1/4 inches and 9 5/8 inches deep.

Honey supers come in medium and shallow. Probably a 50 50 mix what is used. I have both but am slowly going to shallows since I am getting old.

They are both 19 7/8 inches by 16 1/4 inches, mediums are 7 5/8 inches deep (also called Illinois supers.)
Shallows are 6 5/8 inces deep. Most bee keepers only use 8 or 9 frames. Again I have a mix but am slowly going to 8 frames as there is more wax made in the 8 frame boxes. I make more money off the wax than honey per pound.

A 10 frame deep.
http://www.mannlakeltd.com/m23ProductImages//small/ww-827.jpg (broken link)

A 10 frame shallow.
http://www.mannlakeltd.com/m23ProductImages//small/ww-832.jpg (broken link)


The wax caps are cut off flush with the frame of honey then spun out. the frames are then set out so the bees clean up any little bits of remaining honey (called drying). then they are stacked till next spring. Next spring the girls only have to draw out a little bit deeper cells fill with honey and pollen and cap it.

A shallow empth frame.


http://www.mannlakeltd.com/m23ProductImages//frames.jpg (broken link)

Al

[Coldjensens]

I have not heard that this was a bad year for produce. Actually I heard the opposite. Is that wrong?

I have heard that our bees are dying out and no one knows why.

I met a guy on an airplane who is a bee keeper in Michigan. They go around to different states and take their bees to pollinate crops in places that do not have enough natural bees. They make a lot more money from this than they do from the honey that they produce. He said that the honey is hardly worth the effort, but the pollination business does very very well. They go all over the country following the crop cycles.

[michmoldman]

If you are wondering what has happened to all the honey bee's, I think it has to do with faster lawnmowers. I hate running them over when I mow, so I stop until they fly off but sometimes its hard. Imagine all the honey bee's that get clobbered by all these new fangled faster mowers. (that I want to buy)
Cool pictures by the way...very interesting!

[malamute]

It's probably pesticides. It's terrible how many tons of pesticides are used to destroy nature.