Hello All,
In summer North Dakota is wall to wall honey plants. The beekeepers use
deep supers and 3-5 are filled. 200 pounds is an average. Many hives
produce higher production.
The Peace River area of Canada is similar.
Even a bad beekeeper can be successful in those areas.
Very few places on earth have had so dependable flows YEAR AFTER YEAR.
This year the crop in the Dakota's failed. Lack of moisture the reason
given me. First time for such a failure.
The boys are taking it hard but few commercial beekeepers from other states
are expressing sympathy. Our last big crop in Missouri was in 95 & 97 and
still did not reach the 200 pound average. I had 157 pound average in 95.
Although most hives in the Dakota's are on pallets the hives sit in a yard
during the honey production.
If I had to choose the best place in the U.S. to keep bees in summer for
honey production it would be north Dakota. Beside honey production the
honey comes off dry which eliminates the need to dry the supers before
extraction.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
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