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Austin

Austin

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Joined
May 1, 2020
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1
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3,277
Loc
St.Louis, MO
Who does it? ... post up pics

This will be my first year with bees, should be getting two 5 frame nucs of Italians in a week. I just ordered hives and equipment from Amazon.

From what I understand, this should be plenty for this year:
81f4rErrQhL._AC_SL1500_.jpg


Opted for wax dipped, non paint type.

The guy I'm buying from says I need a full suit, do I really? I was just planing on a jacket, hood and cloves.
 
I’m a Nancy when it comes to swarmy stingy creatures, so I tend to leave them alone.

However... this evening the man eater was woofing at something on the front screen door. When I looked at what he was upset about I found a bee on the door. Our neighbor behind us has bees. When I find a bee in a place where it may get harmed I will relocate it to a safer location (if it doesn’t take off when I approach)
 
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I'm on my second year of beekeeping. That should be enough woodenware to get you started. See if you can find a group of beekeepers in your area that you can get advice from.

I only have a jacket with veil and gloves. Bees can sting through denim, but that hasn't happened to me very often, but it has happened.

If you can find a mentor, someone that has some (years) of experience. Beekeeping is not just a box of bees that you place in your backyard and forget about. They require some attention to avoid bad results.

Post up any questions you have and I will try to help out.

Where are you located?

My apiary that is about to be expanded to double this size from swarm catches.
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We wanted to, but the bears kind of ruined it. We'd have to run electric to it for a fence. Just wasn't worth the effort.
 
Nice. My dad was a bee keeper, had bees in North America and Africa when we lived there. From the time I was in 6th grade in the mid 80s until he died in 1999 he had 80-100 hives. We would take them to the almonds every year in the spring and we had different locations we would keep 20 or so hives at the rest of the year. We would give the property owners some honey in payment and most of the places had fairly big gardens so the property owners were happy with better crops. He made all his own boxes since he had a sawmill and everything else necessary, my sister and I were his cheap labor. We always had the full white coveralls with hat/net and gloves for when we were working a hive on a cold day or it was a mean hive. If the weather was good and the hive was a mellow one we wouldn't even wear any protection, just a little smoke was all.
 
Subscribed.
Have the boxes and frames. Keep meaning to try and catch a swarm. There are bee keepers in my area, several actually. Maybe I should stop being such a fucking hermit and go knock on a door or 2.
 
Look for an apiary club to join or find your local commercial bee keeper and talk to them. A lot of times the commercial bee keepers sell nucs and bee keeping supplies to the hobbyist as part of their business. Most of them also love to get more people into bee keeping and will love to have someone to tag along and learn.
 
3rd year into it. Be prepared to feed them sugar water. Are you going to place both of the nucs in that hive? Also don't be surprised if they die out. They split the hives, throw in a strange to them queen, most times with no brood.

I say yes on the full suit, don't think you can be like the youtubers and do it without. Be careful of strong soap.
If you smell bananas while working them, get out of the hive, they are pissed off.

I would not have both brood chambers and a honey super on at first. Too much room can be bad, just like too little. Just take the bees and give them one deep. Mix in your foundation and let them draw it out.
 
Mowing around them can be a little iffy. Stay out of their flight path and wear non bright colored clothes. As said avoid strong soaps or cologne when working them. We would usually wear a veil when running the weedeater right at the front of their hives, didn't really worry about them otherwise as long as you don't bump their hive. Be aware of their flight path when placing your hives, putting them right by your fence facing into neighbors yard might not make a happy neighbor.
 
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We're going to get a hive setup this year. I've got a lot to learn.
In the pictures posted, what are the boxes/tubs on top of and strapped to the hive? Weight?
 
woods said:
We wanted to, but the bears kind of ruined it. We'd have to run electric to it for a fence. Just wasn't worth the effort.
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Get a solar fence charger. My brother has bees in the field nowhere near power and just has a cheap solar electric fence. Works great unless he forgets to turn it back on.
 
I just weedeat around mine. Then you use some roundup. I go ahead and suit up, but they don't like me.
Keep them low to the ground, especially in the future,when you start stacking supers on.
 
Wheelin66bronco said:
Isn't roundup one of the highest items on the list for reasons bee numbers are falling worldwide?
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More from the pesticides. Just my two cents. There is hive beetles and mites that can kill out a hive also.
 
My dad has done it for about 40 years.

If you can, setup your bee hive near a natural water source. This will make the honey very light/golden. The easier it is for the bees to get water, the better. At our old house there was no natural water/some swamp-fuck water. The honey looked like used motor oil. At the new house the bees are 30ft from a running stream. The honey is SUPER nice now. Sure people go on and on about the flowers and pollen, etc but make sure that water situation is in order. If worse comes to worse, I've seen people use a dog bowl as a water source. The key is the bees have to be able to stand on the shore and drink the water so a 5 gal bucket ain't gonna work.

The real work is during the winter when you gotta keep feeding them sugar water. When you at the grocery store/whatever, if you see bulk sugar on sale, begin stock piling. Either way, he basically goes down a few times a week and the bees will go through a mason jar of sugar water in the winter multiple times a week. This is how you feed them as substitute for their honey (because, you know, our punk asses stole it all).

We don't have bears and except for punk ass kids like, twice in the past 25 years, no mammal has gotten into the bee hives.

The key is to keep growing. You can lose 1-3 hives over the winter. Expect to lose at least one per winter. Keeping an extra unused hive assembled and nearby (like 100-200ft away) is actually super handy for catching a swarm from your current set of hives. Sometimes your hive will split and its 5000x easier to just catch that swarm right there. At anytime my dad will have 4-7 hives. Oh on the winter situation, he lives in NC, not the mountains. IT gets cold here but not super bad like up north or the mountains. So if that ballparks you. In the winter, definitely get some insulation going. I don't know about heaters as my dad has never used them.

When the hive is open, if you see a drone, squish his ass. He a freeloader and doesn't do anything now.

Prepare for bee poop on all your cars now. My mom hates it and in the summer her blue car becomes dotted with yellow bee shit. Drives her crazy.

Overall it is a good hobby and fortunately one you can leave for a week if needed. But always gotta keep on top of them.
 
i started in 2013 and learn something every day! There are so many factors that affect what the bees do, and so many opinions on why they do it, that it is easy to become overwhelmed and confused...

a couple of high-points and answers, then i will come back later for more info:

Put your 5-frame nuc in the center of a deep hive body and feed them syrup and pollen patty for at least the first week to help them get started and drawing out comb on the new frames. Feed syrup on top of your inner cover with an empty hive body around it and the telescoping cover on top. if your inner cover has a notch in it, close the notch with painters tape or duct tape, or foam...or something similar. i cut a strip of pollen patty about 1.5" wide and put it on top of the frame with the queen to the front of the opening in the inner cover.

I mow around my hives at night with a push mower. this time of year they don't bother me. when it is hot and dry, i wear my bee suit because they are trying to defend their hives to protect the honey.

Find a mentor to go and help. I have a guy helping me this year and he has learned so much just from watching and helping. In one week, we hatched queens, made some splits, expanded a colony from nuc to a 10 frame deep, caught two swarms, and moves two a hive to his house. Things that i didn't experience for years he was at least exposed to in the first few months of getting into beekeeping.

I agree, no Roundup around the hives. in my mind, better safe than sorry.

Good luck!
Matt
 
Austin said:
Who does it? ... post up pics

This will be my first year with bees, should be getting two 5 frame nucs of Italians in a week. I just ordered hives and equipment from Amazon.

From what I understand, this should be plenty for this year:


Opted for wax dipped, non paint type.

The guy I'm buying from says I need a full suit, do I really? I was just planing on a jacket, hood and cloves.
Click to expand...
Few things....

1 - do not expand the hive too quickly. You'll invite moths and eventually the hive will weaken and potentially die. BTDT. Don't add a Super until the existing Super has 8 of 10 frames FULL. Expanding too fast also makes it harder for the bees to control the temperature inside the hive.

2 - Be prepared to spend a few hours assembling the hive. The excessive wax will need to be cleaned from all of the dovetails or assembly is a huge pain. Use a good amount of non-toxic wood glue during assembly.

3 - Plant clover and pollen rich plants. When my crimson clover bloomed, it would vibrate thousands of bees.

4 - monitor for ants and other creatures. If bad, put the feet of you stand in oil... motor or vegetable should work.

5 - Get a mentor.

6 - Don't expect to harvest year 1. You might... but you might also need to do some math on the amount of honey you could collect vs. the amount they'll need to get through the first winter... Some keepers around here harvest in the spring...

7 - be careful with sugar water... too much and the honey become sugar syrup. The Apiary who provided my last two NUC's recommended pollen pads instead.
 
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Speaking of winter feeding, you can place a 10lb bag of sugar in the hive for them to eat on.
 
Wheelin66bronco said:
Subscribed.
We're going to get a hive setup this year. I've got a lot to learn.
In the pictures posted, what are the boxes/tubs on top of and strapped to the hive? Weight?
Click to expand...
those are nucs. they will go away. just had mine there after i moved my bees into their larger hive. some bees were still in it. they moved themselves in with the others.
they are what you get your bees come in. basically a small hive.
they are 5 frames in there. brood and honey frames, so you get a good start on the hives.
you should start hives in the spring.
so your bees can make enough so they can survive the winter if you live up north.
starting hives later in the season will lower their chances of success over the winter.

don't buy 5lbs of bees with a separate queen.
buy established nucs.
 
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