Starting a Beekeeping Project

[GardenRN]

I found something else I can do in a backyard, while I'm waiting for the housing market to turn around a bit so I can sell my house and grab a bigger piece of land. Bees! It'll help the garden, help honey bee populations, and the honey and wax to boot. We (meaning I) have been reading, reading, watching videos, reading.....and taking in all I can find about beekeeping. Built a top bar hive today, and now just have to get a few pieces of equipment like a smoker and suit before spring. Then when spring comes, the bees. Can't wait to get started! Except for the whole getting stung here and there thing....

[PunkRotten]

Sounds like a good idea. I may give it a go in the future too. Sounds like a lot of fun plus you get all the benefits you named above.

[GardenRN]

I just hope I can convince the kids it's a good idea to leave it alone. I think once they see or know that there's bees in it they'll happily stay away. Then again, a bee sting can teach a valuable lesson! I learned it a few times.....and since nobody here is allergic to the venom, I don't see where it's such a big deal.

[cynthia_h]

Be very careful. Allergies can develop with exposures. My first one or two bee stings as a kid were pretty much no problem. The third, on the tip of the middle toe of my left foot at age 8, made my whole left leg swell up.

That's when the doctor told me directly, rather than telling my mother (as if I weren't there in the examining room), "Make sure you aren't ever stung by a bee again. If you are, it could be...very serious."

I wasn't stupid, either then or now. "Very serious" was doctor-speak for "fatal."

Not saying this will happen to your kids, just that it could happen.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[GardenRN]

I'm aware, just don't always live by the "fear the worst" motto.....you know what I mean.

[rainbowgardener]

I'm aware, just don't always live by the "fear the worst" motto.....you know what I mean.

I absolutely agree about not letting fear run your life, keep you from doing things and not living by "fear the worst." Seems a slightly odd statement though from someone who has food, water, and bullets stockpiled...

Re the bees, my church got a beehive in spring 2011. It has been wonderful and we have gotten an amazing amount of beautiful honey from one hive as well as having all the busy little pollinators. I live five blocks from the church and my garden has had way more bees in it, since the hive went in.

However, our hive is now infested with some kind of little mites? tiny beetles? We are considering what to do about it, since the treatment is harsh chemicals and we do all organic gardening. We may end up letting the hive die and starting over next spring. Even in a very diverse organic garden, it seems that it is harder to keep bee hives going these days.

But I think that is an argument that people should be keeping bees, even though it can be discouraging, not that they shouldn't.

[GardenRN]

I'm aware, just don't always live by the "fear the worst" motto.....you know what I mean.

I absolutely agree about not letting fear run your life, keep you from doing things and not living by "fear the worst." Seems a slightly odd statement though from someone who has food, water, and bullets stockpiled...

Lol, I was thinking it as I was typing it. But that's not out of fear, it's more preparedness. And should someone get stung and suddenly go into anaphylaxis, I'll be prepared with the epipen in the house and EMT training.

Those mites may be Varroa mites? I have read about them a bit in researching keeping bees. They seem to be the biggest problem. Are they little black ones?

Out of curiosity RG, what kind of hive are you/ they keeping? One of the reasons I decided to build a top bar hive is that it is less susceptible to those mites because of the horizontal design as opposed to the verticle stacking of Langstroth hives. Also, since the langstroth hives use an artificial comb starter that is an unnatural size for the bees, it leave more room in the chambers where the larva are growing for the mites to grow. If you want a little more in-depth info PM me.....don't wanna put everyone else to sleep. But I actually read into this quite a bit.

[rainbowgardener]

I believe it is the langstroth style hive. I haven't really been involved with it except to eat the honey, so I'm not sure about the pest, except the people that have been talking about them have called them beetles. I don't think it is the Varroa mites, we know about those.

[cynthia_h]

And should someone get stung and suddenly go into anaphylaxis, I'll be prepared with the epipen in the house and EMT training.

When I looked into acquiring an EpiPen kit, it was no good for me. In addition to being allergic to bee stings, I'm anaphylactically allergic to the benzo-alcohol family of preservatives. The EpiPen kit used, yep, benzalkonium chloride or another member of this family of preservatives, so using it would have further intensified whatever anaphylactic state I "achieved" from the bee sting.

Cynthia

[rainbowgardener]

In case it matters, the acreage at the church is all gardened strictly organically. However since I live five blocks away and I'm pretty sure the church bees come to my yard (since so many more bees showed up after the church put the hive in), I know in those five blocks the bees are travelling over are many not-organic yards, a big street, some shops, etc. So they are still city bees, with a lot of potential to be exposed to different chemicals and pests.

[GardenRN]

In case it matters, the acreage at the church is all gardened strictly organically. However since I live five blocks away and I'm pretty sure the church bees come to my yard (since so many more bees showed up after the church put the hive in), I know in those five blocks the bees are travelling over are many not-organic yards, a big street, some shops, etc. So they are still city bees, with a lot of potential to be exposed to different chemicals and pests.

Hmmm, that hadn't crossed my mind. And I know that bees travel up to 2 miles (although usually not more than one) away from the hive to collect pollen and nectar. That's a large are for them to get into a lot of stuff! I wonder how much it really effects the honey. I just got a mental image of an industrial apiary with the hives in an enclosure feeding them only high fructose corn syrup lol. Wouldn't surprise me.

[Ohio Tiller]

I'm aware, just don't always live by the "fear the worst" motto.....you know what I mean.

I absolutely agree about not letting fear run your life, keep you from doing things and not living by "fear the worst." Seems a slightly odd statement though from someone who has food, water, and bullets stockpiled...

There is a big diffrence in being scared and prepared! The wise man knows there are things out there to be scared of but the prepeared man does not need to fear them!

[ElizabethB]

I know this is an old thread but I have to put my 2 cents in. Bees are generally very non aggressive. If you do not swat at them they will work side by side with you and never sting. I was a child the last time I was stung by a bee (wasp are another issue). Mother always fussed at us for runnig around outside bare footed. We ignored her warnings and ended up getting stung by bees while running and playing in clover.

As a landscape contractor I often worked with bees swarming aroound my head. I left them alone and they left me alone.

Several years ago I was visiting my parents, We were sitting on the patio. 50' from the patio there was a covered area that Dad used for outdoor cooking and his other projects. There was an incubator on a table that he had used for raising quail. The incubator was almost invisible under a swarm of bees. At first Dad said he would let them be and harvest the honey. He thought a little more and realized that the hive would destroy is incubator. I grabbed some duct tape and aluminum foil and proceeded to seal off all of the openngs and cracks on the incubator. There were HUNDREDS of bees swarming around me. I moved slowely, made no sudden movements and was not stung once. My Mom was almost histerical thinking that I would be stung to death.

Big dummy that I am - I should have called my County Agent. They have bee keepers that will collect swarms. Know better for next time. Wish I lived in the country. I would love to raise bees and chickens.

Since I am not employed I have been thinking about working with a bee keeper next summer. Something new to do and something to learn. I will be lucky to get minimum wage but will enjoy the experience.

[Ohio Tiller]

Swarming bees will not sting I have waded right into the middle of them and have never been stung.

[Ozark Lady]

Last July, I went and bought 2 hives of bees from a friend.

I had read and studied for months while he built up and split hives. Finally, he was ready to sell.

I brought them home in a Suburban... Yikes! It was over 100 degrees so the mail houses would not ship. I had to go get them and plan to travel home in the cool of evening.

I was also trained in beekeeping, I spent the entire afternoon, inspecting hives, and equipment and learning about bees. I enjoyed it, but was a bit nervous about it.

I got the bees home well, and without incident. Late at night we are out there setting up bee hives!

I let them settle for a week, just watching them, then I had to work up the nerve to open the hives and take a look. I had to know if they needed anything or doing okay.

I got the hive open, smoker went out, I was roasting in the garb, and a goat jumped into the garden, where the bees and I were. Just what I needed was a goat bugging the bees. Okay, stop, pray, breath, I can do this... as my knees shook. I ran the goat back over the fence. Fired the smoker back up, and returned to the open hive. I looked and looked, yep there were bees in there. I was too dumb to really know what I was looking at.

Long story short, it got easier with practice.
But, I am a slow learner, the bees were looking good, so I added a box...
But, one hive had few bees, it was a more recent split. So, I decided to feed that hive, since they didn't have enough workers in my opinion to grow well.

A few days later, I went to check hives, and the strong hive was dead...
Dead as a door nail! The weak hive, was wimpy, but alive.

What???

I opened both and looked... and a light went off... they were out of food.
I searched both hives, no food. Lots of pollen, and the weak one had brood. Not even bugs in there, there was no food!

So, I successfully starved the big strong hive, in July. It was a drought, and it just never occurred to me that there was no flowers in drought...

I quickly fed the wimps, and daily I could see them get stronger.
Then they started building up in numbers.

Today, that hive is great, no honey for me yet. But they have lots sealed up for them.

I am still feeding them, just to be safe!

I got stung one time, a bee landed on me while I was milking, it was on my back, I couldn't see, so I swatted.... Yikes!

I never got stung opening hives, moving frames, feeding them, and they walked all over my fingers, my arms, etc.

Bees are not Killer Bees usually. They are pretty patient with you.

First warning is they buzz and get right in front of your nose...
I always listen to first warning.

But, anyone going to get bees, get two hives. If I had only one and killed it, I wouldn't have had one to learn on. And I would have called it a failure and never got bees again.

Also, look for capped honey, if none is capped... FEED THE BEES!