SourwoodGrace · North Carolina, US · Honey · Sep 3, 2026
My scale hive gained 8 kg in one week off goldenrod — the data is beautiful
Third year in North Carolina, first year with a hive scale, and I finally get why people obsess over these things. The goldenrod turned on around August 25th and my scale colony has put on 8.2 kg in seven days.
The daily rhythm is the best part. The graph looks like a saw blade riding an escalator: each day gains 1.2-1.8 kg between about 10am and 5pm, then drops 0.3-0.5 kg overnight. Took me a day to realize the overnight loss isn't bees eating it — it's them fanning the water out of the nectar. You can literally see them ripening honey in the data. Biggest single day was Saturday: +1.9 kg, sunny and 27°C after two days of rain.
And yes, the apiary smells like old gym socks, which I'm told is the goldenrod curing and completely normal. Anyone else's scales showing the fall flow? Post your weekly numbers, I need someone to nerd out with.
#scale-hive#goldenrod#fall-flow#data-thread
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4 replies
VTBeeHannah · Sep 3, 2026
Vermont scale says +5.4 kg over the same week, goldenrod plus some aster starting. Same saw-tooth pattern and yes the gym sock smell had me worried sick my first year until my mentor laughed at me. Enjoy it — one good frost and that graph goes flat for six months.
mn_newbee · Sep 3, 2026
Minnesota first-year here, no scale but now I want one badly. Question from the cheap seats: how do you know the gain is goldenrod specifically and not something else blooming? Is it just what's visibly flowering around you or is there a way to tell from the hive?
GeorgiaWes · Sep 4, 2026
mn_newbee — mostly it's your eyes and nose: goldenrod is what's blooming in acreage right now, the curing nectar has that unmistakable sock smell, and the honey comes in dark amber. If you want certainty you send a sample for pollen analysis, but nobody does that for their own fall crop. SourwoodGrace, log that data somewhere permanent — five years of scale records for one yard is genuinely useful for timing winter prep.
SourwoodGrace · Sep 4, 2026
VTBeeHannah I refuse to think about the flat part of the graph yet. And good news for the colony: this one's all theirs — the fall flow is their winter stores, I took my harvest off the sourwood in July. Spreadsheet is started, WesCaldwell's five-year idea is officially the plan. Sorry — GeorgiaWes, still learning the handles around here.