Realistic Expectations

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Bee Camp

"Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed"-- Alexander Pope

Typical questions How much honey? Bees drawing comb –Plastic –Wax –Foundationless Losses? How many splits? How many hives in one place?

How much Honey? First year? Typical year? Good year? Bad year?

First year harvest? Maybe none. Maybe 100 pounds Probably a few pounds

Typical year? Variation too wide to say what is a typical year. Should be some surplus in a typical year but even that varies by climate and available forage

Awesome year? 200 lbs per hive

Good year? 40 lbs per hive

Bad year? No honey Feed 100 lbs of sugar per hive

Bees drawing comb Plastic –Less enthusiastic than wax or foundationless –More durable and won’t sag –Easy to put in the hive –Often gets misdrawn (fins, combs out from the surface etc.) –Usually works very well in a strong flow Wax –More enthusiastic than plastic, less than foundationless –Often sags, less sag with wiring –Time consuming and tedious work to install –Sometimes gets misdrawn (fins, combs out from the surface etc.) –Works better in a strong flow Foundationless –More enthusiastic than plastic or wax, no hesitation whenever they need comb –More fragile at first –Less work –Sometimes gets misdrawn (doesn’t follow the guide)

Losses Typical –Varies so much it is hard to say, but a failed fall flow or a really bad winter can raise this significantly. Nationwide this is often as high as 50% and seldom less than 30% at the present time. Good year –Anything below 20% losses is better than the average. 20% was average back in the “Golden Age of Beekeeping” before Varroa etc. –Anything below 10% is excellent. Bad year –Certainly many beekeepers have lost 100% in a bad year. I would hope for much better than that even in a bad year. With and without treatment –Some years the surveys show one or the other doing better, but all in all it comes out the same. With and without acclimatized bees –Experience and studies have shown that local bees do much better than packages

How many splits? Typical –Most hives can be split once most years Good year/good hive –I have split a package as many as five times when I had drawn comb to give them and it was an amazing year. Bad year /poor hive –Not only is none likely in a bad year with a poor hive, but you may have to combine them with another hive to get them through the winter. Requeening doesn’t always fix everything, but it is a bit like hitting the “reset” button on a colony so that may snap them out of it.

How many hives in one place? Typical –Most farm land in most of North America can support about 40 hives in one place. Good forage/good year –On good forage in a good year that could go up considerably. For instance in the middle of 8,000 acres of sweet clover, you probably cannot have too many hives. Typical forage/poor year –The same place that supported 40 hives may not be able to in a bad year. Poor locations –Some locations just don’t work out. The bees never thrive there for whatever reason. Could be pesticides, herbicides, poor forage, predators (birds, skunks, dragonflies etc.)

How many hives in one place? Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s there were many discussions in bee magazines on the topic and the general consensus was that it was impossible to have too many hives in one place. With roundup-ready crops this has changed dramatically.

Contact Info Michael Bush bees at bushfarms dot com Book: The Practical Beekeeper