Harvesting my backyard honey (and your chance to get a jar)

boing
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Beekeeping is a learning process and for many, a lifelong passion.

There’s really little to do or learn if one is just putting bees in a box, looking at them once a year, and is happy with a 1 gallon honey harvest.

Sadly, such a superficial approach seems to be a badge of pride among new small scale beekeepers these days.

Actually, I’m not even sure if that’s beekeeping.

It’s unfortunate to see such primitive and neglectful practices promoted by someone with such a wide readership.

Signed,

A hobbiest making around 100 lbs of honey per hive, increasing his colony count yearly, and keeping bees healthy, without synthetic chemicals, or “Organic” fumigants. This is done while not inflicting swarms upon my neighbors, not spreading disease to other beekeepers, and rarely wearing a bee suit.

(That’s beekeeping.)

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Not until you start a detailed blog so others can follow your advice and learn from you, it’s not!

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Then why was his honey last year so much lighter in colour? I’m genuinely curious, not trying to be a dick. This whole beekeeping thing fascinates me, it’s stuff like this that keeps me coming back to BB.

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Not until you start a detailed blog so others can follow your advice and learn from you, it’s not!

Blog it or it didn’t happen?

For that matter, who says I’m obligated to teach anyone?

There’s no end of online resources for those looking to learn, but the real limiting factor is the interest and ability of the new beekeeper. How does one teach management to those who have already decided that their bees are better off not being managed?

There are few key concepts I’ve published online because they don’t duplicate what’s already out there - but usually I prefer to share directly via email with those able to make good use of what I share. I’m not interested in seeing my own knowledge and labors cheapened as link-shared infotainment by an audience ill positioned to appreciate or make use of it.

Additionally, beekeeping is local - And such sharing is best done in person with folks in one’s own region.

I should clarify I have no personal beef with Mark, whose contributions I otherwise enjoy. My criticisms are primarily directed at the misguided movement he identifies with,

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appreciate the comments and feel like i just learned something.

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On the farm I grew up on, when we had a rooster, they did absolutely shit-all to keep dogs from killing the hens, but one nearly blinded five-year-old-me when it went for my eye and missed by a half inch. I’m going with devil’s work.

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Then why was his honey last year so much lighter in colour? I’m genuinely curious, not trying to be a dick.

No worries.

All outcomes in beekeeping are influenced by multiple factors, which simultaneously influence each other, leading to some very complicated interactions, and frequently unexpected outcomes.

And that is what keeps me “coming back”.

I don’t know anything about Mark’s last year’s harvest, other than it was reputedly lighter, but can speculate the following influences:

  1. Forage
  2. Type of comb harvested (brood vs honey)
  3. Age of comb, if brood comb (which it was this year)
  4. Pollen content, if brood comb (Which It was this year)
  5. Time of year harvested (Forage shifts throughout the season)
  6. Method of harvest
  7. Probably even other factors I’ve overlooked.

I’d suggest that #1 is the least significant factor, unless he’s changed regions. While I acknowledge shifting ecosystems due to climate change, a region’s plants don’t change that much in one year.

I suspect that Mark has a much better idea as to what he did differently, and probably has his own theories.

I keep 1 jar of my own honey from year to year, and can see the point at which it darkened slightly - and I have a pretty good idea which change in my own practices lead to this.

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As Mark is an admitted amateur/newbie at this, and he’s mentioned that he didn’t do anything differently this year, I’m wondering if it was a 2) or 3) situation. IE - if he had less bees last year, they might not have filled up the entire hive with brood comb? I’m speaking entirely out of my ass on this, as my entire knowledge of beekeeping is from the posts on this thread. :slight_smile:

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As Mark is an admitted amateur/newbie at this, and he’s mentioned that he didn’t do anything differently this year,

How many times have we all baked a cake or brewed a batch “Just like last time”, but still had things come out different?

If all things are the same, the outcome will be the same. If all things aren’t the same, the outcome will not be the same, whether or not we recognize all of the factors at play.

Part of mastery is recognizing the factors enough to influence outcomes if we choose.

if he had less bees last year, they might not have filled up the entire hive with brood comb?

That’s not a bad theory at all.

I would think that a colony, even unmanaged, should be able to expand it’s nest to 24 frames in a season - But I am speaking from my regional experiences, and can only speculate as to the dynamics in his area.

I like your theory in principle, and allow me to suggest a twist: The expansion, contraction, and movement of the brood nest meant that the comb was at one point used for brood - It may not be a case of the nest having occupied the entire 24 frames at on time.

That being said, a fixed hive of 24 frames is too small and is no appropriate for a population of dynamic size that grows as large as it can when it is able, and stores as much honey as it can, when it is able.

Contrast this to my own hives, which use roughly that size as a baseline, and triple in size when the bees need the space to store honey. Were I to keep the size static and small, the bees would soon be in a crunch and constantly scrambling to find room for both babies and honey in a space the barely has enough for either, much less both.

On a related note I’m actually a little puzzled by this “24” frames, given that he’s using a Lang, and Lang frames are used in sets of 10. Strange.

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Who cares? Mostly I blog so I can selfishly keep track of what the hell I am doing over time. If other people get benefits out of it, more power to 'em. :wink:

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Protection is their major purpose besides breeding. Doesn’t mean they’re good at either. Mostly they seem content to visit horrors upon the world.

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Yes, he does.

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