On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 12:59 PM, Jack wrote

> "I also do the clasical cheating average of total of honey/colonies taken
> to honey production just for the fun of comparing to my coleagues."
>
> Ha ha! That's what I' m doing. Maybe we can call that the bragging average.
>
> But seriously, if one is evaluating the suitability of a certain
> location,does it make sense to include nucs and failing queens?These are
> management issues,not a measurement of honey production potential.
>

I love Bee-l because it makes me think from another person perspective.


As said, in our case, we take other measurements too (I talk in plural
because the company Apizur S.A. have more than one stakeholder, but when
talk in singular is because is my personal desition I am not willing to
trade with the partners).

We are not evaluating the honey potential of any site any longer. We only
have one honey production site available and harvest what ever it gives.
Yes it is a huge site that allows us to place 3000 hives in 10 apiaries
some 2km apart, but geographically is only one valley, with Valdivian
Temperate Rain Forest type of flora. The desition of moving total or part
of the hives we manage to that site is season and price dependant, but we
know we do not harvest the colonies that stay at the valley after november
(end of winter for SH).


As I try to produce the "best honey in the world"  because I and my family
eat it (a minimun part of it, really, but that is the spirit), we harvest
in such a way as to end with monofloral honey. Also as the mayor part of
our honey ends up in the european high tier bulk honey market, we are under
the regulation of the EU that obligues to certain traceability.

So yes we also do the number of colonies per each harvest by each apiary
(yes call me a maniatic of registering, but when you have each hive number
and keep some truck of them to fullfill the EU regulation, it is not that
dificult). We also use those numbers to have a transparent relation with
the land owner to where we take the hives for honey production and the
payment is relative to production (1 kg per hive if less than 20kg average,
1.5kg if between 20 and 30 kg, and 2 kg if beyond 30 kg per hive taken to
the mountain in average) but all given in Ulmo honey, the best but late
harvest and not available each year, so metrics are important in different
ways for us.

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