Anyone taking off any honey. I usually take some off in late July but didn't get around to it until this week. Got about 240 lbs to add to the 240 or so I got with the first pull.

Bees aren't doing great though. Some hives are strong, some not.

I haven't pulled any yet. I may try to pull some Saturday but I don't know if I will make it or not.

I took some off the first of July. I plan to leave all the rest for the bees this year. At least two supers per hive. They have started collecting pollen and im not sure what its from unless its the queen ann lace I see in all the clearcuts around.??
Golden rod should be gettin close.But I dont like the flavor of it.

I learned a real tough lesson today. If you have 3 hives with 7 supers full in June, don't wait until mid August to pull the honey. I wound up with ONE full super, 5 more good frames and 4 partially full frames to extract. 3 1/2 gallons of honey is all I have to show for my second years honey production. I'm gonna have some folks who wanted honey that won't get any.

Fur. Its been about 30 years now that I was without bees. Untill this year. But I learned back then. Pull (ROB) honey as soon as the good honey flow is over. Some bees will eat large amounts of what they store between the flows. Of course you may have to feed them in july and august. Then leave all the fall crop(Which is Too strong for my taste) to the bees for the winter. You must have Italian bees.
I had to buy bees this year to get back in the business, and I did mamnage to pull one super. I only slung 7 frames and got 7 1/2 quarts. I hope to be ready next April.

All my bees are from feral mutt stock. They may be Italian lineage, that I don't know. I just know they came from a hive in a tree 20 years ago. Next spring, I'm gonna leave them one super to make it through the summer dearth with and I'm getting everything else. I figure, but don't know, that if they run short on food, they will cut back on brood rearing during the dearth, which is what I want them to do. I've got huge bee populations right now. They don't need a huge population now. They should just be starting to ramp up their numbers for the fall flow, which is just starting. I saw our first Goldenrod blooming last Sunday on my way to church.

Fall honey is nasty. I won't be robbing any of that mess

I had 5 hives when we came out of winter and I split several of them. I had problems with them swarming and lost all swarms except one that I found. I now have 12 full size hives and 3 nucs. I spread out all of the drawn comb that I have today after robbing the honey. I put one super on every hive and put a 5 frame super on my nucs. I have double deeps on 5 hives and single deeps on 5 hives. I know the hives that have the single deeps will definitely need the super full of fall honey to make it through the winter.

I got about 40 pounds, had about 15 good frames total off 2 hives. New packages started in March on drawn comb. Had hoped for more but they were slow to pack it in.

This was my first year with bees. Installed 4 packages in April and cut two from trees. All put in new boxes with no drawn cone.
I pulled 17 frames Sat and slung little over 5 gal of honey. I'm very happy with my first half year. I also left a super on each hive for the winter.
I put wet frames back on. Do you guys like golden rod honey? I hear it is dark and strong.

I've never tasted any, and I'm not going to, so that would be a big NO! That stuff looks and smells disgusting. It's almost black in color and smells like a wet dirty sock.

I pulled a frame from a winter dead out early this spring and scraped the good honey off it. There was some black honey in the middle of the frames and it was like roofing tar.

I like strong honey, like privet honey and kudzu honey but that's about as strong as I like it.

That's what I've been told but our senior beekeepers say the smell is gone after you process it.
One has customers call looking for the stuff.

The customer the guy has may like it or he may want it to help with his allergies. You may already know this but there are several differences between RAW honey and store bought processed honey. Raw honey contains a good bit of pollen that when eaten, is supposed to build the allergic reaction to that pollen.

I should have worded that different. I meant the smell is gone after you extract it. We only extract and bottle.

The honey I have extracted has as far as I can tell continued to smell the same now and later. and mabey if it has any change at all from heating it back up it got darker and stronger.
What Fur was saying is the same as what I have always been told. RAW honey. Not heat processed, builds up your resistance to having an allergic reaction to the type plants which it came from.
Pasturized, or heated process honey has had the good stuff so to speak sterilized out.
Fur if you ate honey from a dead out hive, from small hive beetles, you may have gotten some fermented honey. I heard it takes on a bad taste.

It wasn't from small hive beetles, it was from beekeeper error. I didn't have a vent in the inner cover on that hive. The bees got wet (from condensation) and froze.

I need to do that. I am running a solid top. 3/4" plywood for now. I need to build some telescoping tops before hunting season starts.