Starting a Beekeeping Project

[ElizabethB]

Ozark - thanks for sharing your story. I had a mental image of your trepidation and the goat getting in the way.

[GardenRN]

Ozark, that's what I see my experience being like lol. Thanks for that experience! I'll keep it in mind as I venture into this bee bit.

[Ozark Lady]

I have three Langstroth hives.

I had hive beetles the first time that I opened the hives.

They were the missing bugs that was my clue that the hive starved to death.

Hubby and I like to go watch the bees coming and going, and interact with them, without getting into the hive. I do open it from time to time just to look around and see if I see food, pollen, brood and/or the hive building up queen and drone cells preparing to swarm.

I plan to order a product called Beatle Jail, it goes across the front of the hive and traps the beetles before they get in there to mess up your honey.

On You Tube there were several videos of dealing with pests in hives. One used tea tree oil, another used powdered sugar... both of those are less toxic than most chemicals.

Lesson #2. Don't bring old frames inside your home, with pollen etc. on them.
When the hive died, I rescued the frames so wax moths wouldn't eat all the wax up. I brought them inside, cut the wax off the frames and bagged it all up, to be able to give them back to the bees later. They were so nicely put away in little zip lock bags, and arranged in larger zip lock bags!

I didn't look into the box again for awhile. Suddenly, I had moths all over my house, they were all over my windows... inside!

I finally tracked them to the box of... what had been bags of wax.
Apparently there were eggs in there, and they hatched, ate the pollen and wax, and grew up... I had cocoons of moths in corners here and there and moths flying all around! What a mess! There were even maggot looking things all inside the box, baby moths I guess?

If you bring used wax inside, either melt it immediately, or freeze it immediately, unless you like a house full of moths and cocoons!

I like my bees, but it has been an interesting learning curve for me.

I still have to double check anything, not used daily, I will find cocoons in some of the oddest places!

[MObeek]

To Ozark Lady,

You might try looking into regressing your bees if you haven't already. You can do that by eliminating the use of foundation or using smaller size foundation. Here's a link that talks about regression. http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnaturalcell.htm

I started raising bees last Spring and used the Warre hive with top bars instead of frames and foundation. Plus I bought a package of bees that were already regressed and raised organically. I know I should have bought 2 packages but they are expensive. So I figured if my bees die, I'll just have to resort to catching swarms to repopulate my hive. So far, they are still alive and well. But winter is not over yet either.

[Ozark Lady]

Thanks for the link, I scanned over it, I will have to look closer and study it.

Bees are doing well, on warm days I see them returning with pollen in their leg sacks. They are pretty friendly ladies.

I, now have a mentor. A lady in Canada who plans to call me weekly to teach me about bees and their care. We will run into her being zone 3 and me being zone 7 though, that just makes a big difference. Also, she lives in farmland and I live in the Ozark forests. That too will make a difference, but I will love learning anyhow.

I joined a bee forum it was for the Warre hives, so I learned about them first, but decided to go with the Langstrom hive.

I do not use full sheets of foundation, I use half or less sheets and allow the bees to build their own foundation for the lower half. Best of both worlds was my idea, quick storage for them, and then room to build their own.

Those foundation sheets are a real pain in the neck to put into frames!

[MObeek]

And aren't foundations a little bit costly also?

You can actually use your Langstroth like a Warre hive. Some Warreors use top bars, some full frames without foundations and some half-frames. Here's a beek who uses half frames to encourage his bees to build straight combs and also be able to inspect the combs easily. http://milkwood.net/2011/05/04/urban-be ... arre-hive/

I don't intend to do a lot of manipulation so I opted for the top bars. And since I have some view windows in 3 of the hive boxes, I get to peek in more often without bothering them too much.

[MObeek]

One more suggestion. You might want to try joining www.beesource.com/forums and learn from other beeks. I'm actually a member of 3 beekeeping forums and I have learned a lot from interacting with other beeks and reading past posts. There are a lot of very experienced and smart beeks out there, both national and international.

[imafan26]

There are ways to manage varoa mites and hive beetles organically. Some methods do spoil the honey, but it will save the bees. The hive beetles spoil the honey no matter what you do.

If nothing is done, the hive is usually doomed anyway. When the bees stress they will swarm.

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/sustainag/n ... os-bee.pdf

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/entomology/api ... 20copy.pdf

[Ozark Lady]

Here is the bee forum that I am a member of... I haven't been there in a very long time, but I signed in just fine.

http://www.biobees.com/forum/index.php

I still like the idea of the beetle jail.

I haven't seen any varroa mites. The man I got my bees from said they are not an issue here.

[applestar]

I don't have bees but I remember last year, there was a huge number of lost colonies in NJ because it was such an anomalously warm winter that the bees stayed too active in their boxes and used up their reserves of honey/winter food.

An online news article said that the bee keepers that realized this and fed their bees didn't sustain the warm winter temperature related losses.

It was rather warm through January this winter too, though maybe not as much overall as last year when we hardy had freezing temps.

[MObeek]

To Imafan26: very good links. Thanks.

To Ozark Lady: I am also a member of Biobees but they mostly deal with TBH's. There are a few beeks using Langstroth hives in there but using Warre hive method. Beesource.com and Beemaster.com have a lot more beeks using Langstroth hives the traditional way.

I have not done any kind of treatment on my bees so far. I know SHB's are in there but, one day, I also noticed my bees getting rid of larva so I know they know how to handle those bad boys. I did cover the ground with cedar shavings and sprayed garlic/onion tea all over the ground to break the life cycle of SHB larva. The only treatment I have been doing is adding some HoneyBee Healthy supplement to their sugar syrup when I feed them. Plus, since they are regressed, Varoa mites are cut down to a bare minimum. Although I haven't actually seen one on the bees nor noticed any deformed wing syndrome.

I bought my bees from this company and am very pleased with how their bees thrive. http://www.wolfcreekbees.com/philosophy.htm

[ElizabethB]

A little off the subject - Ozark - I love your use of language and your ability to tell a tale I often become frustrated at the lack of language skills found on the internet. Thank you. I always enjoy reading your post for the excellent use of language even if the topic does not apply to me. Were you an English/language teacher in another life?

[Ozark Lady]

Well, thanks, Elizabeth,

I actually hate English and writing compositions. And don't get me started on trying to interpret what Shakespeare meant! But, I do like to talk!

I have to write a testimony for church, I am on the 4th rewrite and I have already heard that it still has issues, I just haven't picked it up to try again! So, thanks very much for the compliment. Let's see: I was disorganized, not explicit and left folks wondering what I meant... and the list goes on.
I did fine on spelling, and not so fine at verb/subject agreement...

It is 57F so I am going to go check on the bees, I believe it is even warm enough to open the lid and sneak a peek.

Besides, I want to be outside! So nice out!

[Lucius_Junius]

But Shakespeare understood bees so well!

"For so work the honey-bees, creatures that by a rule in nature teach the act of order to a peopled kingdom."

I'm happy to see this post, because I just registered yesterday as a beekeeper with my Department of Agriculture. After researching various hives and methods and having come across the Abbé Émile Warré's book on bee-keeping, L'apiculture pour tous, I've decided on going with a Warré-style hive that I can build by myself. The only modifications I'm making is adding windows to the boxes so that I can observe what's happening inside without having to take the hive apart.

I'm going to start with two hives, and can't wait for the bees to arrive in May.

On other note, as to bees flying around over two miles and gathering their goodies from non-organic yards. If you're worried about honey quality, you may consider the case of the plethora of rooftop beekeepers in London, England, including the young man featured in this article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... 19/food.g2

While they're not operating "organically," reviewers are often surprised by the high-quality honey produced by urban bee-keepers. If quality is your concern, I wouldn't worry too much about bees dipping nectar from non-organically grown flowers. But then again, who knows? Has there been some science done on nectar produced from organically vs. non-organically grown flowers?

If anyone is interested in plans for building a Warré hive, please don't hesitate to ask here or message me! There are links available to Warré's book in English online, and plenty of instructions on building his hive and pursuing his methods.

[Ozark Lady]

I did sneak a peek at the bees, but I didn't suit up therefore I didn't get into the bottom box.

I was advised to put a second box on the hive, without frames, and use this box to feed the bees in, so that ants were not a problem for the bees and there would be no robbing and I wouldn't be feeding wasps.

Don't laugh, I got a chicken waterer, that goes on a jar. I then got a pint canning jar, filled it with sugar water, added marbles to the base and had a diy bee feeder with marbles to prevent drowning. Those marbles are tricky to get in there before the base fills with sugar water. I think I will silicone them on the base permanently...

As the hive started building, I did add 4 frames to this box, it is a 10 frame box, the spare room is becoming bee comb, and the frames are not drawn.

Boy, I might as well have a Warre hive! They have built their own comb up into my food box. I guess they didn't understand this was a cafeteria, and lounging room!

When I am properly suited up and hooded, I will have my work cut out for me in getting frames apart and the new bee made comb fastened into a frame. It is lovely, but it is also unreinforced and could break easily, when I have to remove the top box to get to the lower box.

There was nothing stored in the new comb, but it is full sized, almost large enough to completely fill a frame.

I could see the bees below, and they are working on a solid 8 frames and were very busy and lots of them. Many more than the last time I looked.

My hubby tends the bees more often than I do.