During the year I harvest honey in small amounts whenever I run out of bottles to sell. I try to get 10 full medium frames from the hives which gives me 30 to 40 pounds of honey. I leave the partially full frames behind.
In the fall, however, I have to take all the supers off the hives. Currently there are 7 supers on the hives. I did not put supers on the two hives that I got from Goose Rock farms (Martha and Ethel). These nucs did not fill the deeps with honey so I never put supers on. I got these later in the Spring and they did not really do well. I hope they will make it through the winter. Connie, my weak hive, has no supers.
Fanny and Justine, the hives that I got from A & Z up in Connecticut are doing very very well and each has 3 mostly full supers. The unnamed hive that was a guest hive is doing well enough so that I put one super on her. I re-queened this hive and she is now doing very well and has recovered from the abuse that the owner gave her.
I figure that the 7 supers should give about 15 pounds each which should be 70 to 100 pounds of honey. Perhaps less since I robbed Justine September 3rd and she has not had time to refill the frames.
Soon, I will take off all the supers. This is work since I clean the bees off them by hand and the bees are not happy about me robbing them. This should be Indian Summer in late October. I might put it off until November, but I should not do it when the weather is cold. First, because it will chill the bees, and second, because cold honey does not flow, and I will have trouble spinning the frames and filtering the honey.
