Historic: Apiary siting - 1928

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NickWallingford

BOP Club
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434
Tauranga
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Retired
And let's put this into context... Figures for the late 1920s and early 1930s are hard to come by, but as near as I can tell, there would have been about 100,000 hives in the country in 1928. Maybe not 10 times as many hives now, but not very far off.

A point I wanted to make was that the call for restrictions on the number of hives, the fear that other hives in the district will take away the possibility of producing a good crop, has been with the industry from the beginning.

At *some* point, over-crowding will cause problems, but it seems that beekeepers have felt that we were at that point throughout the industry's history.
 
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And let's put this into context... Figures for the late 1920s and early 1930s are hard to come by, but as near as I can tell, there would have been about 100,000 hives in the country in 1928. Maybe not 10 times as many hives now, but not very far off.

A point I wanted to make was that the call for restrictions on the number of hives, the fear that other hives in the district will take away the possibility of producing a good crop, has been with the industry from the beginning.

At *some* point, over-crowding will cause problems, but it seems that beekeepers have felt that we were at that point throughout the industry's history.
Airborne honey on their website have/had rough stats of honey production/hive numbers going back to early 80s, In all that time through all the different hive number fluctuations, the honey per hive has stayed around 25-33kg per hive.
 

yesbut

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Airborne honey on their website have/had rough stats of honey production/hive numbers going back to early 80s, In all that time through all the different hive number fluctuations, the honey per hive has stayed around 25-33kg per hive.
So does that confirm or deny overcrowding ?
 
349
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So does that confirm or deny overcrowding ?
Those hive numbers were down to 230,000 and up to about 870,000

Year
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
2018

Hive Nos
233,810
309,613
318,203
293,080
320,113
292,928
376,672
575,872
879,758

Honey Production
7,489 31kg/h
10,314 30kg/h
8,752 36kg/h
8,047 36kg/h
9,609 33kg/h
9,689 30kg/h
12,553 30kg/h
19,710 29kg/h
20,000 44kg/h
Looking at the numbers we haven't really changed much no matter what hives we have.
When this posts there is supposed to be a gap between xxkg/h figure and the 4 or 5 number production figure before it.
 

Mummzie

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where is the annual honey crop figure drawn from?

As hobby beekeeper, I do not declare my yield anywhere, yet my hives are included in the total hive count.
When do commercials declare their crop yield?
 
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All depends on how much honey is left on the hives. If hives are managed single brood box. And the number of locations bees go when following a flow.
As well as net return based on input/output.
 
349
449
Bay of Plenty
Experience
Commercial
where is the annual honey crop figure drawn from?

As hobby beekeeper, I do not declare my yield anywhere, yet my hives are included in the total hive count.
When do commercials declare their crop yield?
Hobbyist hives/honey only make up 1-2% of any crop and hive numbers so not relevant, this is a general rough guide as I mention in my first post. It will be based on honey sales local and international.
 

NickWallingford

BOP Club
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434
Tauranga
Experience
Retired
I have to question some of the numbers in the summary table provided by @Dennis Crowley - the production/hive numbers didn't look right. Try this one:

YearHivesCropKg/hive
1980233,8107,48932
1985309,61310,31433
1990318,2038,75228
1995293,0808,04727
2000320,1139,60930
2005292,9289,68933
2010376,67212,55333
2015575,87219,71034
2018879,75820,00023

It does indicate that the kg/hive has dropped somewhat over that time, but not nearly as much as I thought it might be, given the introduction of varroa into the equation in 2000.
 
349
449
Bay of Plenty
Experience
Commercial
I have to question some of the numbers in the summary table provided by @Dennis Crowley - the production/hive numbers didn't look right. Try this one:

YearHivesCropKg/hive
1980233,8107,48932
1985309,61310,31433
1990318,2038,75228
1995293,0808,04727
2000320,1139,60930
2005292,9289,68933
2010376,67212,55333
2015575,87219,71034
2018879,75820,00023

It does indicate that the kg/hive has dropped somewhat over that time, but not nearly as much as I thought it might be, given the introduction of varroa into the equation in 2000.
Thanks, the kg/h table was me on my calculator not from Airborne table.
I didn't sit School Cert Math's as Megan Brown(not her name) was going to show some of us boys her boobs at Marks swimming pool, as a 15yrs old boy they seemed more important than a math's exam.
 
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It's actually quite easy to overstock an area with hobbyists hives especially in urban environments as so much of these are non-productive. Urban honey production around Hastings has dropped dramatically. Because of natural variability and honey production it's really hard to give accurate figures but my gut feeling is that hives are producing well below 50% of what they were 10 years ago in these areas.
Varoa caused a significant increase in my honey production because of less competition from feral hives, unfortunately this has now been offset by a massive increase in managed hives (or mismanaged)..
There must be an awful lot of bad beekeepers in New Zealand because even in a bad year I normally get well above the national average and in a normal year would get close to double. I wasn't flash at maths but if I'm getting double someone is getting not very much.
 


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