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Well, despite all the swarms, I harvested honey today. I ended up with three extracting supers, and one cut comb shallow. I did notice alot of bridge comb this year, has anyone else noticed that in their hives? I also had brood in one medium that was not expected, and two that were not capped. That gave me a super for three of my hives to have for winter with one that I may have to feed. So, all in all, not a bad year.

I have not noticed any significant bridge comb! I have noticed that they have not capped the frames as much as I would have liked.

I had all capped in what I took. I had three medium boxes that I left. One fully capped, but had brood in the bottom of the frames on about 9 of 10. Two that came off of a mistake hive. I opened up the brood nest too much, and ended up with a two queen hive, that swarmed two or three times, and they did not fill up the brood areas quick enough to cap them. That leaves three of my hives with a good winter supply though.

I have one hive that so far has produced 5 shallows and one medium of honey. They are a trapout from last year and a combination that I did not want to feed last winter. They are located on a knoll in the edge of a field that gets the first sunlight of the day and stays sunny until later in the afternoon. There is a very large hedge row protecting them from the North wind. I had a fairly large turnip patch in this field that I let bloom out and the blooms lasted all winter. I am leaning toward Location, Location, Location determines the value of a bee hive. RB