On Sat, 3 Dec 2011 09:18:29 +0100, P-O Gustafsson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> ...a spell of queenlessness, just prior to the main honey flow... is also 
> a great way to reduce the amount of honey requiring extraction and 
> bottling.

>No Allen it will not at our latitudes.
>My season is about as short as yours, June and July. End of July it's
>finished and only a few thistles and other marginal nectar producers
>left. Think we talked about this before, but that's more than 10 years
>ago...

Yes, and I am always fascinated how your beekeeping  differs  from ours.

Although latitude is a big  factor, due to day  length, sun angle, etc.,   
maritime climates as I suspect you  experience (I could not find your town 
on Google Earth) are very different from the continental  climate we deal 
with.

I  notice  that we are very roughly as far south of you as Mike is 
south of me -- and roughly as far as you are from the Arctic Circle.

You: 60 degrees,
Me: 53, 
Mike: 44 degrees, 
Randy: 39 degrees

As a result, your summer days are longer.

As for the period of queenlessness just before the main flow, we are 
much less certain when our flow will  materialize, and that may be why  
what is a bad idea around here is a good idea where you are.

Sometimes our flow starts in late June, and sometimes we have very
little honey until August.  Sometimes we have nothing all August, but 
significant flows in September.  Other times, we have killer frosts in
 mid-June and another in early to late August.

As a result, our best strategy is to keep powerful hives from as early as 
we can until we see that the season has ended, then reduce the hives 
immediately to two boxes and feed, since when pulling honey, we have 
no idea whether supers we put on at that time will be full in a week with 
plugged broods below or  frost  will  hit and we will find the supers empty 
and the hives light within weeks.

There are many other differences in how we operate.
I believe you change combs far more that we do and I notice you do not 
seem to need top entrances in your EPS boxes whereas I found they 
were not working well for me until I drilled auger holes in them, and l
leave them open much of the time. (I am not producing honey or I would 
always keep the holes in supers plugged.))

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