For the past 5 years I've chosen the 4th of July weekend to harvest my spring / summer honey. I got set up today with my friend's electric extractor. Boy, has that simplified everything. I made the choice to put the stickies on the north side instead of back on the south side where they came from.
So, what's going on?
The north eyes was treated with hopguard a couple of weeks ago and it really knocked down the small hive beetle population. This has gotten stronger. I had had to brood boxes on it but now I reduce them down into one. I put the stickies on so that they would have some food.
The crepe myrtle bloom is not over yet so I'll check and see what's going on with them in a week. I put a queen excluder between the brood box and the super.
On the south side, I knew there was honey, but when I opened it up it was running over with small hive beetles. So I only took 6 frames. This is the smallest honey harvest I've had. I attributed to a couple of things. Everyone has said the nectar flow has been and even this year, that's one thing. I also attributed to my crazy, crazy spring and not staying on top of managing the bees.
I left the south - with one brood box, 1 heavy honey super and one light honey super. I did that because I wanted to move the queen excluder below the heavy honey super. I will need to check this box in a week to make sure I did not trapped the Queen in the honey super.
I treated both hives with 3 strips of hop guard. It's a little old and not quite as juicy as I would like, and this will be the second treatment on the north side. It successfully knocked down the small hive beetles there so I'm hoping the same will be true on the south hive.
I should go into the hive between June 7 and June 10th.
Total harvest this year right at 17 pounds. About half my normal harvest.
