Anybody have bees?

[Ohio Tiller]

I took the last honey off my hives I am going to take this year. I shaved and spun out all the combs I had taken this year and ended up with 65 pounds. The fun part for me to to watch them come get the combs and what honey is left when I put it out for them.
[img]https://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j176/Johnfor3/65poundsofhoney.jpg[/img]

[rainbowgardener]

Wonderful! I don't have a hive, but my Quaker Meeting (church) does. We've done honey extraction a couple times now since we have had the hive. Our honey comes out very clear and pale. Yours is so dark. What makes the difference?

[Ohio Tiller]

Wonderful! I don't have a hive, but my Quaker Meeting (church) does. We've done honey extraction a couple times now since we have had the hive. Our honey comes out very clear and pale. Yours is so dark. What makes the difference?

Mine is lighter than the pic shows but it is all about the types of flowers they get it from. Best honey I ever ate was from a set we put in an old apple orchard.
I miss that set we had to pull it because his grand son moved in and would not stay away from them and got stung to many times. He needed a real good old fashion butt busting!
Clover honey is the lightest in color and is very light and mild in flavor. This honey has apple trees pear trees peach trees and every thing the blooms in the garden in it plus allot of clover.

[rainbowgardener]

No fruit trees in the area, though there's one crabapple in the spring and a pretty young pear tree. Lots of clover since the Meeting has an acre of lawn with tons of clover in it that we don't mow any oftener than we have to and tons of wildflowers and herbs. I live five blocks from the Meeting and I know those bees come to my yard, because I have so many more bees now than before the Meeting got the hive.

[jal_ut]

Yes, I have bees. I had 28 colonies this year. It was a light year. I was kinda expecting about twice the amount of honey, but won't complain since we got some. There was a period during July when they were not bringing in anything. It was hot and dry with no rain and the flowers didn't have any nectar in them.

We just finished up with the extracting last week. I got a new spinner this year. It was nice.

[Ohio Tiller]

Last week while putting a new roof on my house I hear a low buzzing that was getting louder and louder! I finally found the source of the sound when I looked up in the top of the tree next door and saw a swarm piling in to it. They were about 12 feet off the ground and I already had the ladder out so I grabbed a trash can and snagged me some free bees. I had a super ready to go so I just dumped them in and it was like a wave of bees flooding into it. I checked on them yesterday and they looked like they like their new home. I put about a pound of honey out in front of them Saturday and it was gone Sunday by 1 o’clock. This hive will go out to a friend of mine that lives near hay fields.
[img]https://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j176/Johnfor3/shinglesgone.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j176/Johnfor3/downsized_0613001401.jpg[/img]

[applestar]

I don't/can't keep them where I live, but I just wanted to say I'm seeing a lot of honey bees now. I have a lot of wildflowers that I really should cut the flowers off before they go to seed (that's how I ended up with so much in the first place) but the bees love them so much. I'll also have to be careful when I do go to cut them.

I'm so relieved to see them since they were so scarce in spring and during the hot dry summer.

[jal_ut]

Don't you just love it when you find a nice prime swarm? Here is one I caught in a bucket and I have just dumped in on a hive.

[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/swarm6_10_2011.jpg[/img]

[Ohio Tiller]

Don't you just love it when you find a nice prime swarm? Here is one I caught in a bucket and I have just dumped in on a hive.

[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/swarm6_10_2011.jpg[/img]

Yep thats my second one I caught the first one I was not ready and they had to live in a trash can for a couple weeks. I hung a couple of combs from the top of the can and they had it all built up in just 2 weeks. They did not like being moved from the can as much! They did finally settle into the supper but I had to leave the can out there for weeks because they kept wanting to go back to it. Should have seen the women at Wal-Mart screaming when I just gently scooped them up bare handed and slid them in the tash can. I thought this old woman was going to pass out!

[estorms]

I want to get some bees, but I'm waiting to see how my neighbor does with his. Last year, a bear destroyed his hive and ate most of the bees. This year he has sent for another batch and has all the supplies to put up an electric fence. He knows that a bears fur is too coarse and thick for them to get an electric shock, but he plans to hang bacon on the fence hopeing the bear will put his wet nose on it and get a jolt. Our local game warden claims this works.

[valley]

A few years back when I kept bees, a friend who is a bee keeper, came by with a buddy, also a bee keeper.
We were standing by a hive of mine and I popped of the top of the supper, you have noticed how your bees are not bothered by you and you don't have to ware a helmut or smoke. They , these guys, ran off about twenty feet, my friend said " go away for a couple weeks and come back and try that.

It's great how they learn to accept you.

Haven't had bees for a few years but cleared the snow from a bee keepers drive when he wanted to come up to his mountain place, when he tried to pay me for it, I said " Na, bring up a hive when the weather warms up. Looking forward to having them again.

[Ozark Lady]

I hope that the beekeeper remembers!

[valley]

We are planing to set the hive at the high desert ranch, wonder if others have bees out there and how they do. Not sure how far bees travel, heard different things. I may have to feed them at times.

richard