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Author Topic: Beehives not producing honey  (Read 2394 times)

Offline TheFuzz

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Beehives not producing honey
« on: January 09, 2020, 12:16:12 am »
When I first started beekeeping, my beehives were producing so much honey that I could barely keep up. Seemed like they were producing 30kg every month or two when it wasn't winter. This went on for two years at two different bee apiary locations.

For the last three years, these same beehives haven't produced any honey at all. Last winter, I actually had to feed them sugar to survive. Whenever I speak to local beekeepers they tell me they're also not producing much honey. Allegedly, Australia has been in a nation wide honey shortage for a number of years now. Some people say it's because of the decade long drought, which is preventing the plants from creating nectar for honey production.

I'm at a lose as to what to do. I'm wondering how many more years is it going to take until I can get some honey out of my hives again. I have tried two other apiary sites for bees, but found those locations was even worse for me than the original two I've used.

Are any of you Australians having similar difficulties? Do I need to move my bees around until I find a good spot? Part of the problem for me is I don't know how to easily identify what will flower and create honey for the bees. I usually look for eucalyptus trees, but someone told me they tend to only bloom after it's rained, and that's somewhat I clearly cannot rely on.

Offline max2

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Re: Beehives not producing honey
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2020, 12:34:13 am »
Fuzz, what is your location?

Offline TheFuzz

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Re: Beehives not producing honey
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2020, 12:46:08 am »
South Australia.
« Last Edit: January 11, 2020, 08:20:24 am by TheFuzz »

Offline max2

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Re: Beehives not producing honey
« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2020, 12:59:47 am »
Assuming your hives are healthy and strong ....I would put it down to the dry years. Your humidity would be even lower then here and often you will see trees flowering but not producing.
2020 will be your year!

Offline TheFuzz

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Re: Beehives not producing honey
« Reply #4 on: January 09, 2020, 01:03:37 am »
I was hoping 2020 would be my year as well. However they haven't produced much of anything so far, I was hoping for a good spring but barely anything was produced and I'm left thinking that I might need to feed sugar again. Seems if anything this year is dryer than previous years and with climate change, I'm left to wonder how viable it is for me to actually produce honey as a beekeeping living in SA.

 

anything