Honey Harvest is Rather Low.

by David Kresge
(Wilkes-Barre, PA)

My bee colonies are strong and get sugar water daily. They just don't produce the amount of honey they should. It's a very dark honey real sweet too. I just wish the take was higher.

I live in NE Pennsylvania weather the hives well and have even seen bees out in February. There is an abundance of things to pollenate between wild plants and flowers to neighbors gardens..

This a hobby for me, I picked up the first hive three years ago as a swarm in the neighbor's yard to ten hives all swarms. You could say I'm a bee saver and keeper.

My eight year old helps me with them with no protection so she's a true bee charmer. I wish we could get our honey count up...thanks!

Hi David

I think you may just need to give it more time. I'm not sure what you mean by 'get sugar water daily'. It's usual to feed them in the spring with light syrup to stimulate the queen into thinking the flow has started and she will begin laying more eggs. This will help to build up the number of forager by the time there are plenty of flowers, thus increasing the honey production.

You can also feed in the fall, after you've harvested honey, to provide them with enough stores for the winter. If you feed at other times you run the risk of them storing the feed in the supers, which you then extract thinking it's honey.

Since all your hives are from swarms, it may be that they haven't had time to build themselves into big colonies. You might consider combining some of them so you end up with fewer large colonies.

To combine two hives, select two and place them side by side. Find the queen in the hive with the less attractive attributes and kill her. Then a day or two later remove the roof of one hive and the floor of the other place them on top of one another with a single sheet of newspaper, pierced in a few places with a matchstick, between them.

Within a few days the colonies will have chewed through the paper and become 'friends' and you will have a hive with two brood boxes. I think most people whose bees produce large honey harvests use two brood boxes.

I'm glad to hear you have a small assistant, what a great pastime to do together!

Good luck, send us a photo.

The Bee Guy