BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > TOP BAR HIVES - WARRE HIVES - LONG HIVES

Dangers of late honey harvest

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Ben Framed:
Bob  I have waited until the following Spring on one hive in particular and had a good harvest. Lucky? Maybe.

The15thMember:
I don't know if I would say "many don't" with any certainty, I just said that I don't.  :grin:  I'm someone who is typically pulling honey during a dearth due to the timing of the sourwood flow.  I always pull whole boxes because it's easy to clear the bees with an escape board and keep everything contained and taken inside quickly with few bees noticing.  With a horizontal hive, since you can't pull whole supers, I'd try getting a plastic bin or something else with a lid and putting the pulled frames directly into that from the hive to minimize robbing.     

Michael Bush:
I try to, but some years I have to harvest sooner if the population falls too much in a summer dearth.

Bill Murray:

--- Quote ---Do many langstroth beeks let supers sit on top until fall?
--- End quote ---

I would never try to get them through till fall. I call mid to late july late.
1) going into july I have huge amounts of bees, and no nectar coming in. so the bees have to eat something.
2) Then they start to slow down laying, and the pic you posted tell the tale. Bees are dying every day with not enough replacements to guard all the comb at some point.
3) Also I treat in july, or my varoa count just isnt manageable going into winter.
4) I try not to feed if there are still honeybands in the brood nest. Thats my switch to start feeding when they start to disappear.
Most of the time I can make it through summer without feeding. Sometimes its just not possible.

Bob Wilson:
I have never tried letting them get through dearth without inspections.
I can see I need to cull the empty comb through the summer as they consolidate nectar. It left a lot of empty comb to guard from the hive beetles.
Pulling honey here in the Fall (yesterday) worked well, though. I am sure all the colonies fed on honey through the dearth, but I have left each hive plenty as they head into winter...plus whatever goldenrod they pack into the brood nest through this next month.

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