Extracting honey

[homer]

When is the best time to extract honey from the hive and still give the bees time to prepare for the winter?

[bassman1977]

My final robbing is done around October 1.  By this time the Goldenrod flow is over and the bees have the hive stuffed with honey, both in the brood chamber and supers.  Regardless of the time of year it is, I never rob from the brood nest.  That honey is for the bees.  When robbing, just make sure you check to make sure that the brood nest that you are going into winter with is stuffed with enough honey to last the winter.  Where I am, I winter with 3 mediums.

[lovelyembalmer]

Depends on your climate.  When do you usually get cold weather and how are the flowers doing in your area.  Personally, we usually don't take off honey after mid August and if the flowers aren't doing well like they have been in the drought, sometime none at all are taken or only until last of July. We took four supers off this year only because the hives were not strong enough to manage them. We probably will not take off any more.

[utahbeekeeper]

As they said . . . . it is so dependant on your clime and locale.  I am fortunate to have a long "season" so I pull supers end of June/early July for a great lighter honey, put 'em back on to fill again for a Sept harvest.  This honey is more amber.  I winter in 2 deeps that I allow to get fairly honeybound in the fall with the remainder of flow Sept Oct.  I 'spect that there is always 100 pounds of honey in those deeps by the time I reduce and wrap them in November.

[annette]

I get 2 honey flows, one extracted in July  and the other extracted around September/October.

The fall flow is not as much as the spring flow. This year I am not getting any honey for me, as due to the drought, any honey is for the bees.
I leave around 35-40 lbs of honey (or 1 medium super) for each hive and that gets them through the winter here.

Last February I did have to add a few frames of honey as they almost ran out.

[Frantz]

Homer, where in N Utah are you? We should get together with Utahbeekeeper and learn a little. It sounds like you are a new bee like me, I am in SLC area now at the mouth of Parleys Cyn. UTbkpr, do you really wrap for the winter. I have read a lot of pros and cons about that this last year. I will be wintering two double deeps and a nuc this year. I would love to get some insight from you.
Talk to you later,,, Good to hear we have a good sept flow, I figured that we did
F

[homer]

Homer, where in N Utah are you? We should get together with Utahbeekeeper and learn a little. It sounds like you are a new bee like me, I am in SLC area now at the mouth of Parleys Cyn. UTbkpr, do you really wrap for the winter. I have read a lot of pros and cons about that this last year. I will be wintering two double deeps and a nuc this year. I would love to get some insight from you.
Talk to you later,,, Good to hear we have a good sept flow, I figured that we did
F

I'm in Smithfield, just north of Logan.  I think it would be great to get together with the "pro" and learn more!  So what is the latest that you plan on extracting?

[Frantz]

My wife and I pulled off a super this last week and will extract that, but I don't know if we will get anything else this year. This is my first year and I am getting the hang of things and learning this year. I am bringing my hives down from PC maybe tomorrow. Once I get them in SLC here I might get a good sept flow. I have heard that SLC has a good late flow. But we will see. I kinda inherited 12 hives last year and lost 10 of them over the winter, so I don't want to chance losing anymore this year. I will most likely let them keep whatever they build through the fall. Who knows though as I said I am learing new stuff everyday. Watching my OB hive has helped a lot. I am able to see stuff through the glass and then know what to look for in the boxes.
How many hives you got? We should all meet somewhere and learn!!!
F

[blckoakbees]

I just took off a few frames from my four hives, first harvest and it is really exciting.  ;)

I crushed and strained and got about 16 pounds in 3 frames.  I am glad to hear I can take more in September.  The Bees have quite a bit, but the some of the frames were not all capped so I left them.

JA

[homer]

My wife and I pulled off a super this last week and will extract that, but I don't know if we will get anything else this year. This is my first year and I am getting the hang of things and learning this year. I am bringing my hives down from PC maybe tomorrow. Once I get them in SLC here I might get a good sept flow. I have heard that SLC has a good late flow. But we will see. I kinda inherited 12 hives last year and lost 10 of them over the winter, so I don't want to chance losing anymore this year. I will most likely let them keep whatever they build through the fall. Who knows though as I said I am learing new stuff everyday. Watching my OB hive has helped a lot. I am able to see stuff through the glass and then know what to look for in the boxes.
How many hives you got? We should all meet somewhere and learn!!!
F

I only have 1 hive this year, but am planning on building 5 more this winter.  Though I'm only going to buy 3 new packages of bees next year, I'll have 2 backups in case of swarms, and I might make a nuc as well.  I'd love to get together sometime, I've got lots to learn!

[Frantz]

JA, I know it is really exciting isn't it. And your own honey is the best in the world. I don't know if CA gets a Sept flow or not. I have just heard that we get one here in UT. I am in my second year of study, first year of beehaving so I am a virgin still to say the least. There are tons of Californians here thought that I am sure could tell you about the flow seasons there.
Homer, PM me with your address and I'll google it to see how far away we all are. It would be good to get a small group together. Golfpsycho, is here close to me, and so is the new guy Scott, I bet we could get a small group together here without to much hassle.
F