Honey Production: How to produce a ton of honey. NEOBA presentation by Grant Gillard on February 10, 2020 in Tulsa, OK. Principles of beekeeping that lead to better production for increasing honey yields.
13. Advice on Advice
“There’s plenty of free advice in
beekeeping…and most of it will conflict
and compete with other advice from
other beekeepers.”
Advice is just an opinion
based on experience.
14. Definition of an “Expert”
Someone who had made
enough mistakes to finally
figure things out.
(resiliency and perseverance)
from the Latin expertus, meaning “to try” or “experience.”
18. What’s at stake?
Why is Honey important?
Colony survival – bees need honey
Spouse/partner looking for return on the
investment in all that bee equipment
Family and relatives are looking for some
of that free honey you’ve been promising
them
Potential for financial opportunities
19. Quotes:
“Almost every beekeeper dreams
of producing the most honey from
their hives, then dreads how they are
going to get rid of it.”
--C. C. Miller
20. Quote:
“The person who seeks to maximize their
bees’ honey production gets the most in
terms of profit and enjoyment whatever
their reason for keeping bees.”
--Roger Morse
21. Honey Production is not hard
The Timing of Management
We set the stage, we prime the pump
We help the bees do what they do best.
Luck with Weather Conditions
Dry periods better than too much rain
Healthy Colony of Bees
Young productive queens
An aggressive army of foragers
Prudent mite management
22. But it’s not that easy…
1. Successfully bring a strong hive through
winter.
2. Induce a rapid spring build-up
3. Prevent the hive from swarming
4. Get the supers on before they need them
5. Harvest early and often
25. Know Your Foraging Opportunities
North Ave 60 lbs per hive
South Ave 100 – 120 lbs
26.
27. What Does It Take?
#1
Overwinter
Strong Colonies
28. What’s at stake?
Strong colonies…
-survive winter better
-deal with health issues better
-begin laying eggs earlier in the spring
-expand exponentially in the spring,
start with more bees,
end up with more bees
29. Five cornerstones for winter survival
1. Young queen, marked
2. Lots of young bees, strong population
(combine weak colonies into strong)
3. Minimal pest problems, low mites
4. Abundant stores, preferably honey,
candy board, if necessary, winter patty
5. Sufficient ventilation (upper entrance)
6. Patience
And all of this has to be done prior to winter.
Timing is important.
31. What’s at stake?
Earlier egg laying means a bigger population
for the nectar flow
Productive, young queens lay more eggs
Brother Adam, Buckfast Abbey: Queens
raised in the summer (nectar and pollen
abundant), then overwintered will be the
most productive (annual requeening?)
32. What’s at stake?
Some queens (Italians) start laying in
January, and begin laying more each day.
Other queens (Russians and Carniolans)
prefer to wait until pollen and nectar come
in, then start brooding up in earnest.
When does your nectar flow?
33. Three Management Strategies
1. Feeding syrup early – simulates a nectar flow
1:1 sugar/water
1:2 sugar/water
Covers periods of rainy weather
Rule of thumb: minimum 50 degree night temp
Do you use a feeding stimulant?
Honey-B-Healthy – 1 tsp per quart
Anise flavoring – 1 tsp per quart
34. Three Management Strategies
2. Pollen substitutes – nutritional supplements
Feed the bees that feed the bees
Generally won’t consume after natural pollen
A. Open feeding – weather dependent
B. Feed a “consumption” patty early
(“winter” patty)
35. Winter Patty
In a five-gallon bucket
1 cup lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
1 cup canola oil
1 cup clear Karo Syrup
4 cups pollen/protein supplement - AP23
10# dry sugar, adding a little at a time
Mix until dry enough to scoop
36. Three Management Strategies
3. Frame manipulation – expanding brood nest
Moving empty frames into brood nest
More opportunities to lay eggs
37. Right Kind of Bees
Early flow
Begins in mid-April
Comes on strong Mother’s Day through
the 4th of July
Italians seem to work best
Carniolans and Russians – too slow for
maximum production
38. Do You Treat?
Did you treat in the fall?
Did you need to treat?
--perform an alcohol wash?
(Two clean washes)
Can you treat prior to nectar flow?
39. Do You Treat?
Api-Var : 42 to 56 day treatment,
Don’t super for two weeks following use.
Strips in: Feb 14
Strips out: March 27 (April 10 for 56 day)
Supers on: April 10 (April 24 for 56 day)
40. Do You Treat?
Apistan: 42 days
Questionable efficacy/resistance
No waiting to super following use
Strips in: Feb 14
Strips out: March 27
Supers on: March 27
41. Do You Treat?
Oxalic Acid
Works best with broodless colonies
Formic Pro
Okay to use when honey supers are on
Potential for brood and queen mortality
Use only in temp range of 50 – 85 F
43. What’s at stake?
When a colony swarms, the productive
“margin” of foragers leaves.
If the colony swarms…you’ve given away
your honey crop.
Swarming takes time to prepare, but the
“signs” of a pending swarm are not
necessarily self-evident
44.
45.
46.
47. Swarm Prevention
“Congestion” is the trigger that sets up swarming
Congestion is the competition for open cells
between:
a) a productive, young queen looking to lay
more eggs
b) abundant, incoming nectar needing
storage (or feeding syrup more than
necessary).
48. Swarm Prevention
Simple solution: provide empty frames with
drawn comb
Stay one step ahead of the need
Pull in frames from the sides
(usually empty)
Reverse brood boxes
Add a third brood box (?)
53. What’s at stake?
Key Point: Add a super before nectar flow
Downside: Incoming nectar might be stored
in brood nest
Threat: 1. Congestion – swarming
2. You have to harvest honey from
brood frames
54. Intelligent Supering
Start with one or two supers
Drawn comb preferred
Add more supers as needed – 50%
(before you think they’re needed)
Bottom super (sliding new supers under
existing supers)**
**U of GA study, set up harvest
55.
56.
57. Queen Excluders (honey excluders?)
Bottom Entrance Bottom Entrance Closed Bottom Entrance
Control Queen Excluder Queen Excluder
Additional Upper Entrance
Less Brood (½) Slightly more brood
Less Honey (1/3) Slightly more honey
Skunk Predation Less Bearding in heat
59. Harvesting – two methods
“Early and Often”
--Remove frames as soon as frame is capped
--Works if you have a room dedicated to extracting
“Wait and Do it Once”
--Weekend with family
--Limited window of good weather
--Rented or borrowed extractor
--Want to get it over with
60.
61. Ray Nabors (ABJ Feb 2017, page 178)
“Putting supers on as needed and taking full ones
off will not only increase honey production but
keep colonies stronger.”
“A strong producing colony will be less active when
honey stores are adequate for winter.”
“Once they have produced a large amount of honey,
they seem to slow down.”
“They will put more effort into honey production if
some honey is removed during the flow.”
62. Bee Removal from supers
1. Pull frames and shake individually, no bee
brush
2. Install a bee escape, then return after 24
hours (better: put on late in the day, return
early the next)
64. Bee Removal from supers
Fume boards – quick and easy
**work better on warmer days
Pushes bees down, but reluctant to leave brood*
“Bee-go” – the most effective, the worst smell
“Honey Robber” – Bee-go with cherry flavoring
“Honey Bandit” – Really good, nice smell (Mann Lake)
“Fischer’s Bee Quick” – good
Fume boards on stack of supers on the truck –
prevents robbing
65. Honey House Management
Think: Product In – Product Out
Supers come in
Honey is removed - extracted
Honey is stored (in bulk)
Supers go out
Stored honey is bottled
66. Drying Room (“hot closet”)
Heat source –
electric heater 93 – 98 degrees
Fans
Dehumidifier
24 – 48 hours
No longer than three days
SHB hatch and “gummy” comb
67. Drying Room
Lowers moisture content –
reduces granulation
reduces chance of fermentation
Warm honey extracts faster, filters faster
Don’t have to do the entire batch of
supers that you brought in
89. Consider Moving Your Bees
Inconvenient…must be done at night
Bees crawl, not fly…need their beauty sleep, screen
entrance? Tape all the cracks?
Unless you have forklifts, you need hives secured,
strapped down, hand carts, young fellas with strong
backs….
I move some hives from Cape Girardeau County to
Scott County (different flow, later flow, second
harvest).
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95. What Does it Take?
#7
Wildcard:
Artificially Boost
Foraging Population
96. How?
1. Combine marginal colonies
2. Add a swarm to an existing colony
3. Create a two-queen colony – separated by a
double excluder
4. Simply transfer frames of bees and brood
97. Combine Marginal Colonies
At beginning of flow…
1. Remove queens (make nucs – reverse split)
Combine queenless portion with queen-right
2. Stack brood chambers, separated by excluders
Top with supers
French version: The Skyscraper Hive
Separate after the flow
98. Wildcard Rationale
Basis: One colony of 60,000 bees will produce more
honey than two colonies of 30,000 each.
Why? A certain number of bees must stay home to
take care of the brood. The rest are free to forage.
That number of “brood-caretakers” does not change
significantly with increased colony populations.
99. Why does this work?
Walter Gojmerac
15,000 79% 21% .0016
30,000 50% 50% .0022
60,000 30% 70% .0025
101. Two Queen Management
Not new
U of Wyoming 1940
U of Wisconsin, Dr. Farrar, 1946 into 1950s
Requires extra manipulations, tall hives
Is the additional labor worth the extra honey?
Most advantageous on mid-summer flows
2nd queen needs 5 to 7 weeks to make an optimal
impact
102. Question: if six weeks remain in nectar flow, will this make
a difference on early flows? Where can I get queens?
