Weekend Homestead

Steps along the journey.

  • About
  • Canoe
  • Chickens
    • Resources
  • Beekeeping
  • Gardening
  • Cooking

2015 Honey Harvest

October 5, 2015 By RDG

mason jars and plastic bottles filled with honey
A sampling of the 2015 honey harvest.

I am writing this article in an effort to document my harvest and to answer questions such as how much honey does one colony of bees produce?

Harvesting honey is a multi step process. Harvest time is one of the busiest times of the year and is the most work as well.

The other busy time is the spring when starting new packages. The hives must be checked each week. The feed that the new bees need must be checked.

How much honey from four hives?

I harvested 18 gallons of honey from my four hives. One of my hives was over wintered and three of the hives were started from packages in the spring. This works out to 4.5 gallons per hive.

A gallon of honey weighs 12 pounds. The total harvest in pounds was 216 pounds or 54 pounds per hive on average.

Of course, the average doesn’t really represent the reality. My strongest hive produced 3 full supers (about 9 gallons) while the weakest hive barely filled 1 super.

I keep bees primarily for the honey. I only have one more task to perform in the apiary this year. To prepare the honeybees for winter, I will add insulation to their all season inner cover.

Related Pages

  • Honey Harvest Step By Step
  • Installing New Packages of Honeybees
  • Overwintering Bee Hives

P.S.

Stay tuned to this space. I am preparing to offer a limited quantity of my raw wildflower honey for sale on this site for the first time in the near future. Update: honey gift boxes are now available. (Click here to go to the honey gift box product page.)

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: beekeeping Tagged With: 2015, bee, beekeeping, harvest, honey, honeybee

  • About
  • Canoe
  • Chickens
    • Resources
  • Beekeeping
  • Gardening
  • Cooking

Most Popular

  • How To Make Sun Tea 509 views
  • Chicken Nest Boxes With Outside Access 452 views
  • How Big Should A Chicken Door Be? 322 views
  • Three Ways To Make A Chicken Perch 205 views
  • How To Grill Corn On The Cob That Will Impress Your Friends 117 views
  • Chicken Coop 2.0 71 views
  • Reader Project: External Nesting Box 71 views
  • Using Vertical Space With A Square Foot Garden Trellis 68 views
  • Automatic Chicken Coop Door Conversion – Phase One 61 views
  • How Many Beans Per Square Foot? 50 views
  • About
  • Canoe
  • Chickens
    • Resources
  • Beekeeping
  • Gardening
  • Cooking

Copyright RDG © 2023