The main flow and the dearth

The main flow is the only stretch of the year when a colony reliably makes more honey than it needs, typically running four to six weeks from mid-May into late June or early July depending on local bloom. This is the surplus you actually harvest; everything before it mostly went into building comb and rearing brood.

Then, often abruptly, the flow ends and a summer dearth sets in, four to eight weeks with little nectar available, the leanest stretch of the active season.

The dearth is not just quiet, it is dangerous in a specific way: with little coming in from outside, bees look harder at what other colonies are storing, and exposed honey or syrup during this period can trigger robbing severe enough to collapse a weaker hive within hours. Plan your harvest and your vigilance around this hinge point, not the calendar.