BEEKEEPING
From page 24
beginning of September,
established apiary of 20 good
leaving us with new young
swarm off of the queen.
strong hives, this second year
developing queens from the
The gum nectar flow will be
will be 240 kg plus 19 kg. at
beginning of October.
over four months, August,
R60 per kilogram, a total
These hives will only be up to return of R15 540.
September, October and
good strength by midNovember, a total of 120
In our third year we are left
days, with the honey cropped November, but good for the
with four good strong swarms
in the first week of
Don!t miss next month!s article on
December. Each swarm will
beekeeping which will cover how to
yield two super chambers of
honey with an average of 20
keep up the strength of your apiary
kg per hive, for a total of 400
kg. The value of this honey at by replacing the queens
R60 per kilogram will be
following spring and summer and 16 weak swarms because
R24 000, or a yield of 165
flow. The honey yield will be the queens of our first strong
grams of honey per day per
20 days of November at 165 hives are now three years old
hive.
grams per day for the four
and will only yield a poor
In our second year, we utilise
hives, equalling 19 kg of
return of about 80 grams per
the same 20 swarms in the
honey.
hive per day. 20% of these
same area for the same
old queens will die, leaving
The
remaining
16
hives
will
duration of 120 days.
13 weak swarms and four
have a lesser honey yield
But beekeepers are losing an
good strong swarms from the
because of the ageing of the
average of 20% of their
previous year's swarm off.
second year old queens.
swarms yearly because of the
These remaining 13 weak
The
average
yield
per
hive
natural swarm off of our
swarms will yield an average
per
day
will
be
about
120
African bees, so to our
of 80 grams of honey per day
grams,
a
total
from
the
16
calculations we can estimate
for 120 days. Our sums now
remaining
hives
being
240
kg
that four good second year
read 80 grams per day for
for
the
120
days.
Therefore
queens will swarm off at the
120 days from 13 hives
the total yield of the first
25
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equalling 125 kg, plus four
hives at 165 grams per day for
120 days, equalling 80kg,
giving a total at the end of the
third year of 205 kg which at
R60 per kg yields revenue of
R12 300, nearly half of the
R24 000 from the first year.
By year four these older
swarms will all die off because
the life span of a queen is
three years.
This exercise illustrates the
importance of keeping the
apiary up to strength by
replacing the queens, and
next month's article will cover
replacement of the queens.
Article by Peter Clark at 011
362-2904, author of Tales of
an African Beekeeper and
chairman for 2016 of Eastern
Highveld Beekeeper's
Association, assisted by
secretary Mike Alter at 011
965-6040.