To harvest a surplus without losing colonies, manage each hive on a seasonal calendar: inspect the queen and split strong hives in spring, add supers for the early-summer flow, harvest only in late summer while leaving 60-90 lb for winter, treat for varroa mites in autumn, and in winter lift one side of each hive monthly to judge its weight. A light hive needs emergency feeding with sugar syrup, which spends the sweetener you are trying to produce.
Hive management for surplus harvest is the seasonal care of a bee colony to build more honey than it needs, and to leave it enough to survive the winter.
The Calendar Is The Management Plan
The sugar guide gives the year as follows.
| Season | Work |
|---|---|
| Spring | Inspect for queen health; prevent swarms by splitting strong hives; add supers |
| Early summer | Primary nectar flow: bees build honey stores |
| Late summer | Harvest surplus honey, never more than the bees can spare |
| Fall | Treat for varroa mites if present (oxalic acid or thymol); ensure adequate stores; reduce the entrance |
| Winter | Leave the bees alone; check weight monthly by hefting |
The guide’s rule for the harvest is that a hive needs 60-90 lb to survive winter, varying by climate. The hive can store more than it needs only if the colony is strong, so the spring and early-summer work is what makes a surplus.
Worked Example: What To Leave
- A hive that must keep 60-90 lb and gives you a 30-60 lb surplus has stored 90-150 lb in all by late summer.
- For 8-15 hives (the guide’s range for a community of 100), the honey that stays in the hives is 8 × 60 = 480 lb to 15 × 90 = 1,350 lb, which is more than the 200-500 lb harvested.
- If a hive is light in autumn, the shortfall is fed as sugar syrup. Every pound of sugar fed is a pound not available as sweetener.
What You Need
- A smoker, hive tool, veil and protective clothing
- Spare supers and frames for the nectar flow
- A way of weighing or hefting each hive
- Mite treatment if varroa is present
- A record for each hive: date, queen status, stores
The detail of the inspection itself is in Hive Inspections and Hive Management; the latter says inspections are a hard no below 12 degrees C, in rain, or in high wind, because chilled brood dies within minutes. Feeding is in Feeding Bees, and the forage year in Bee Forage Calendar.
Method: Run The Year
Step 1: In spring, check each queen and brood pattern, split any hive that is crowded, and add supers before the flow. Step 2: In summer, keep the supers on and ahead of the bees’ need for room. Step 3: In late summer, take capped honey frames from the supers only. Step 4: In autumn, treat for mites and compare each hive’s weight with 60-90 lb of stores. Step 5: In winter, heft the hive without opening it and feed only if it is light.
Common Mistakes
- Harvesting before the flow ends. The bees then replace what you took from their winter stores.
- Not hefting in winter. Starvation in late winter is silent.
- Treating on a schedule from another climate. The guide says winter need varies by climate.
Safety
Mite treatments are toxic, and this page gives no doses
The guide names oxalic acid and thymol for varroa control. Oxalic acid is corrosive and its fumes are harmful to lungs, eyes and skin, so use gloves, goggles and a respirator, and follow the product’s own instructions. This page does not give a concentration or amount; take them from a reliable beekeeping source. Hive inspections also risk stings (Honey Management).
What’s Next
- Learn next: Harvesting and Extraction — taking the honey
- Combine with: Scaling to Community Apiary — how many hives