Karen - Thanks for the detailed info!  It's great to hear how others manage their apiaries, number of hives, pollen and nectar sources and about the areas they are in.  It sounds like you have your hands full!  Is this your full time job?  Do you have help during the year?  Do you have your own honey house/processing facility?

I have a few hives on residential property (county not city) near the edge of town in the east bay CA area.  There are almond, walnut, eucalyptus, pepper, olive, loquat and a wide range of fruit trees along with blackberries, raspberries, 2 acres of strawberries and residential and community gardens including herbs within the flight range.  In addition there are a wide range of ground covers, flowering trees and other urban landscape plants and trees that are watered nearly all year to some degree.  Acres of wine grapes are just out the back yard.  Too bad they don't produce pollen or nectar! 

Our average rainfall is 14 inches.  Our rain are from mid Oct through May.  2012 we only got 9 inches and so far this year we have had only 3 inches.  Summer temps range from high 50s F to100s F.  Winter temps range from mid 30s F to high 50s F.  

Our main nectar flows are typically late Feb through the end of May (generally best of the year), mid June to July if you move to the surrounding foothills for some native bushes, and Oct to end of Nov for pepper trees and eucalyptus.  This last year I got around 50 lbs/hive.

The two years I've lived here I've had trouble keeping colonies strong all spring do to only what I can say is sudden queen loss, what could be viruses and likely due to my own management mistakes.  I monitor mites using alcohol wash and typically treat for mites two or three times during late June through mid Aug using formic acid strips.  I treated for mites last Dec with a wood bleach dribble but think it hammered them due to having brood in the hives even in Dec!  I generally feed 1:1 syrup from mid Jan through the end of Feb for stimulation of buildup, depending on colony condition during July and Aug just to supplement and lastly 2:1 syrup in Sept through Oct along with pollen supplement of my own preparation loosely following directions posted by Randy on Scientificbeekeeping.com. 

I also use drone cut-out frames for mite control from Jan through June, screened bottom boards from about April through the end of Sept, and empty screened shallow on top of the hive all year for ventilation and feeding.

Scott
Livermore, CA

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