Honey crop so far

[Alastair]

I'm in North Auckland. Working bees today that would normally have a box or two of harvestable honey on them by now. Boxes full of bees, but zero honey.

I had been thinking that last season was pretty crap, so this season would be good. But I got a nagging feeling this might be the worst season ever.

Just wondering how others are going?

 

[tristan]

i'm not in the field much. reports coming in are really mixed. some areas are great, others are really poor. silly thing is we had honey coming in early on and that dried up. not the worse i've seen.

 

[Dansar]

just spent the day in Karaka with my hives. Totally plugged up doubles, should have had supers on 3 weeks ago..

 

[Rob Atkinson]

All over the place at present,
Pasture hives are gaining just , 1/3 box probably.
Local bush -best hives will have a box , been rather slow and only has about a week left .
Coromandel yard best hive had a box last week ,most 1/3 to 1/2 and not much Manuka taste .
Awakino hives have done a box of bush fairly recently and been getting 1-2 more supers ,
Bush flower is late down there apart from Rata which is starting now about 4 weeks early .
Manuka is starting to flower and will be moving hives next , not that hopeful as the bush is peaking now and there is plenty of pasture as well .
Bee health is finally on the up with natural food and better weather

 

[Kiwi Imker]

Just been supering Coromandel hives.
2 weeks since they were dropped off, most averaging 1.5 FD boxes of fresh honey.
Some 2 boxes (above excluder) packed out, and the occasional few with only half a box.
Not overly much fun in the gales and frequent showers…mind you, didn’t get sunburned!
The bees are much happier than they were last month in the orchards though! 👍🏁🐝

 

[John B]

Our quite nice spring has been followed by continually grotty weather with only the occasional nice day so in general honey crops are non-existent. There is still a lot of potential if the weather settles. It can't be any worse than last year anyway.

 

[Alastair]

Is that bush or what John?

 

[John B]

It should have improved over the last few days and some pasturee areas have done something but generally it's pretty pathetic. Glorious day today so hopefully things are starting to move.

 

[Stephen Horsley]

Wellsford area, have a new hive that was bursting so placed a super with only waxed frames. Would be 60% full with most frames drawn out. Might be misleading though as I left a pretty grotty super from last year exposed as I was shufflig old boxes around. Got cleaned out in a few days so suspect that's why the new hive is going great.

 

[Alastair]

Feeling happy / relieved!

Just been to a site a little north of Albany and in a sudden reversal of fortune the kanuka is white, and nectar pouring into the hives as fast as the bees can carry it. Could not help but get my jeans and feet soaked with dripping fresh nectar. This is a month or so later than the normal time for this at this site. In addition, I have never seen such a heavy flow at this site.

What happens at this site is usually disconnected to the area an hour away where the bulk of my hives are so not sure what will be happening there but it is certainly a good omen, might get a harvest yet!

 

[yesbut]

Kanuka here is going very much better than last year.

 

[bighands]

Good kamahi flow down here with Rata just appearing on the hills

 

[southbee]

Same here, Kamahi is going good, but was late, some little bits of Rata appearing, but not much so far.

 

[CHCHPaul]

I’ve got boxes of harakeke and just supered up for dandelion and clover… though not because there is any quantity in the grass around chch, but off on holiday so had to put them on. Kaikōura has clover and manuka/kanuka in excess! Hives here will be going nuts.

 

[Alastair]

Sounds like it's the year for you South Islanders

 

[southbee]

Got the first few tonne of bush in drums. Went to a site yesterday that usually makes low grade multi manuka and the clover is already flowing there, which is quite early for us

 

[LQB Apiary]

Feeling happy / relieved!

Just been to a site a little north of Albany and in a sudden reversal of fortune the kanuka is white, and nectar pouring into the hives as fast as the bees can carry it. Could not help but get my jeans and feet soaked with dripping fresh nectar. This is a month or so later than the normal time for this at this site. In addition, I have never seen such a heavy flow at this site.

What happens at this site is usually disconnected to the area an hour away where the bulk of my hives are so not sure what will be happening there but it is certainly a good omen, might get a harvest yet!

My Pohutukawa is just properly flowering now. A month later than is usual also. Even the sparrows are having a go at it having followed the native birds
Nectar flowing this morning judging from their feeding activity

 

[southbee]

Rata flowering a bit for us now and most hives have at least a box of rata honey on them. Kamahi all finished but the clover appears to be doing well further inland.

 

[Alastair]

When I last looked at a few hives results were very disappointing I was expecting a crap honey season.

But, surprise surprise. Harvest is underway and although not awesome, way better than I would have believed a few weeks ago. Seems like the whole season has been late by around a month.

Site I went to today all boxes choca

 

[frazzledfozzle]

It’s been a big season in Nelson too @Alastair
some of our single box queen raising units have done 5 3/4 boxes and most have done three would have done more if we had put more boxes on.