Anyone here a beekeeper?

[johnsonian09]

Just curious if anyone here happens to keep bees, I’ve read a bunch of books on it and took the plunge, installed my first nuke last week.

[birdshot]

I had bees when I was a teen. Dad gave the hives away when I left for the Navy. I had five hives. I would borrow gear when robbing the hive or opening it up to check on the bees. My bees were Hungarians and they were very tame. The beekeeper that helped me get started was very helpful and generous with his time and gear. I've been wanting to get back into bees for a while now. Hope you enjoy yours like I did mine.

[farmbif]

I had kept bees for years when I lived in florida. all of my boxes were home made and I still have about a half gallon of honey comb and honey and a big block of bees wax

[cwtebay]

I keep bees, but also have an apiarist that keeps roughly 80 hives on my place.

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[ascast]

yes, sort of. It has become very difficult to get them to winter over. Used to be just lots of food, wind block, watch for early hot spring -good to go. Now there is a lot of stuff going on that will kill them off in winter.
I advise you to school up on that aspect more than I have. I grew up with bees. Then they all died off. I got some nucs about 15 years ago. They died. Same with a couple others I got. At $150 a nuc it is not profitable or fun.
That said, a sister got a nuc and they made it two years. That's just down the road- so it can be done.
Bears can also be troublesome as can skunks.
school up, join a club, use the net have fun

[trebor44]

Like it or not, check your local ordinances or permit requirements. They are part of the agricultural food chain!

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I am not a bee keeper, but my best friend is. He has kept bees for all the 30 years I've known him and heard 100s of bee stories. Bee keeping seems to be one of those things best learned by having a mentor...the potential problems that only experienced eyes can see, would be an invaluable asset, especially in these days of CCD.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

yes, sort of. It has become very difficult to get them to winter over. Used to be just lots of food, wind block, watch for early hot spring -good to go. Now there is a lot of stuff going on that will kill them off in winter.
I advise you to school up on that aspect more than I have. I grew up with bees. Then they all died off. I got some nucs about 15 years ago. They died. Same with a couple others I got. At $150 a nuc it is not profitable or fun.
That said, a sister got a nuc and they made it two years. That's just down the road- so it can be done.
Bears can also be troublesome as can skunks.
school up, join a club, use the net have fun

It was about 12 or 15 years ago, when my buddies bees would die off over the Minnesota winter, where they never did before. Now he buys bees every spring. Mostly uses them for veggie farm pollination, but he also sells honey. He use to reserve a certain amount of honey for the bees to survive the winter, but now pulls it all off and sells it, to help cover the cost of buying new bees in the spring.

[farmerjim]

I have 5 hives in my back yard. 3 of the hives were bought, and 2 were trapped.

[cwtebay]

It was about 12 or 15 years ago, when my buddies bees would die off over the Minnesota winter, where they never did before. Now he buys bees every spring. Mostly uses them for veggie farm pollination, but he also sells honey. He use to reserve a certain amount of honey for the bees to survive the winter, but now pulls it all off and sells it, to help cover the cost of buying new bees in the spring.

So he lets his hives starve to death over the winter?

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[JonB_in_Glencoe]

So he lets his hives starve to death over the winter?

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nope

[jakharath]

We are on our 2nd year of beekeeping to get an Ag exemption on taxes. Currently have three hives in production (started with 1 last year, have started 2 more hives last month) Nucs cost us $371 each, but that is a hybrid mite and heat resistant bee. Between buying bees, bee boxes (new and used), bee suits and all of the other stuff, we have about $2400 spent so far. We pulled a 6 frames of honey from the established hive and netted about 16 pounds of honey.

By year 6 will have to have 9 hives in production to get the Ag exemption. Once I have the Ag exemption, we can convert over to a wildlife exemption and will no longer need the bees. Will keep some of the bees, but probably not all 9 hives.

For the first year I just wore tennis shoes when working on bees and never had any issues. We were in a hurry one day inspecting and I just pulled an entire super up instead of pulling frame by frame. Some of the super frames were connected to the brood frames below (bee wax is strong), ended up upsetting the bees. The little buggers figured out that they could crawl up inside the elastic around my ankles. Did I mention that the bees were pissed? Got stung a bunch. Went back out a week later (wearing rubber boots with the elastic good and tight at the bottom) and took our time with the bees and didn't have any issues.

We have Beeweaver bees and from what I gather, they have some "africanized" bee in the mix because they are mite resistant. Mites can kill a colony.

Oh, my bees do not like the weedeater. At all. I have a bee suit on when I'm on the tractor mowing (shredding/bushhogging/roto-cycling) just to be safe but I stay about 10' away from the hives.

Overall, it's been interesting.

[Big Tom]

Wife has two hives in the backyard (about 50 ft away from our deck) and this is the second year. They survived the winter and so far, so good. They very rarely show up on the deck and we put a few privacy panels towards the neighbors, so the bees have to go up and cannot fly a straight line to the other houses. No complaints from the neighbors at all. I would not harvest any honey in the first year, so they have enough to survive next winter.

[Joby]

I kept 2 or 3 hives for about 8 or so years. Usually Italian girls. They seem to be the friendliest and produce fine.
More than enough for heavy home use and sell some as well as give as gifts or such.
Very interesting the flavors and colors through out the season.
A fee years ago we had a invasive insect outbreak here in eastern PA (spotted lantern fly).
The bees made a very dark red and unique flavor honey from their exposing of different tree saps and excretions
Also some winters and bears can be a problem as well as other issues.

[TheGrimReaper]

I had 2 hives in the past. Even caught a swarm. I'm going to get back into it

[Dave W.]

Growing up my dad was a beekeeper in Wyoming. He had 3800 hives, we bottled honey in 55 gallon barrels and sold it by the semi load. After getting out of the service and moving to Arizona I had a couple hundred hives, it was a large hobby. Raised queens for a while. Several years later a fellow wanted them worse than I did, so I sold them.

I would recommend you get at least 2 hives, that way you can compare one to the other. If a person only has one hive, the do not know if it is doing good or poorly.

[ttd444]

my dad (RIP) had 4 hives. he got them in the late '80s. i forget what his name is, but he has an 18 wheeler flat bed and he takes the bees to farmers and apple orchards. he will take to an orchard for a week or two and then he takes the bees to a different field or orchard. the bees pollinate and they make honey.

[popper]

Daughter had hives last yr, died off so she moved them and is trying again. Either mites, poison or drought got them.