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Date: | Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:59:06 -0500 |
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A short time back there were some posts on Bee-L concerning honey records. While reading in one
of Eva Crane’s books, I happened across an account of over 2100 pounds of honey in a year from
a single hive situated near Pretoria in South Africa between 20 March 1948 to 19 March 1949.
The hive was begun with a single queen in the lowest box beneath a queen excluder. Extra
queens were added in separate boxes with excluders below and above them. Six queens were
used to build up the colony’s population and hive until it reached 16 deep boxes. During the
main flow only 3 queens were present. A platform and ladder was built to access the top boxes,
and the entire setup was held in place with a system of stays.
Honey supers were removed 7 times throughout the year and replaced with supers containing
empty combs.
At the end of the period a total of 960 kg (2114 pounds) of honey had been produced.
Crane writes that before the flow, the colony was fed with pollen substitute in powder form and
raw egg mixed with sugar syrup in a boardman feeder.
Apparently, the story was written up in ‘Gleanings in Bee Culture’ at the time. The citation given
by Crane is:
Kotze, W.A.G. (1949) Ton of honey from one colony in one year. Glean. Bee Cult. 77(8): 487-490
Regards,
Dick Allen
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