Just wanting to post something positive.... The present situation has spurred me to get back into beekeeping. It was the right time of year so I went ahead and got 3 hives going.
Thanks! They were a bit pricey but so far I am happy with them. I am hoping the plastic will cut down on bugs and avoid rot. They were easy to put together and 1 less project for me to worry about..god knows with school age kids, business, and backyard homestead the to do list is long these days.
I started bee keeping this year ,,, 1st time. But , I ended up taking a job out of town,, and my bees came in today ,, so my buddy took them over to his place to keep them till I get settled back home. I figure they'll just have to stay there and maybe I'll move them to my place next year ,,, we'll see how it works out. It may even be I bought my buddy 2 hives to go along with his. Oh well ,,, sometimes I just take on a project at the wrong time. Good luck with your hives this year Catallus.
Sure! I learned from an old friend of mine who has been beekeeping for years. There are lots of ways to do it depending upon your climate but the mechanics are the same in terms of hive management. I haven't kept bees in several years so had to rebuy a lot of the equipment which I will list below. I am by no means an expert... animal husbandry is just something I am pretty good at. Bees are pretty low maintenance after you initially get them setup. Step 1 ---> Reserve some Nucs Nucs are basically small hives (usually 5 frame) that are sold by beekeepers during swarming season. They split their larger hives by bringing in another queen and then sell the split off bees to other beekeepers. I found the guy I bought bees from on craigslist this time. I paid a small deposit about a month ago and the rest in person today when I picked them up. They can be packaged using long wax file boxes and screening so can be transported in a car if needed. Step 2 ---> Hive Management Equipment 3 Hive Boxes and 30 Frames with foundations and Tops ---> These are what the bees will build lay eggs and store honey in. 9 Supers --> Boxes you will use to produce honey in. 3 Excluders ---> Keeps queen out of honey production area. 3 Stands ---> Plastic, Wood, Or Concrete Blocks with Planks Smoker --> Produces smoke to calm bees down when handling Sugar Water Feeders --> Use to supplement hives Misc Beekeeping Tools---> Buy a cheap kit on Amazon 1 Bee Jacket 1 Pair Carhardt Work Gloves Step 3 ---> Honey Production Equipment 1 Honey Extractor ---> Hand cranked or electric tub that you spin to pull the honey off the combs Misc Tools ---> There are simple kits than you can buy for the few tools needed so I won't list them all here. 5 Gallon Food Grade Bucket and Spout Mesh Strainer Mason Jars for Every Day Use Step 4 ---> Mite and Disease Prevention 1 Container Oxalic Acid --> Mite Prevention That's It! I recommend doing a search and seeing if there are any local beekeeping associations if you don't already know someone who does it. 99% of the time it is easy...but during that 1% it is worth having someone to call. It can be particularly stressful if the hive swarms (queen leaves hive) in urban environments. Ex.--> I had a hive swarm to inside my shop when the door blew open one day when I was out of town.
Great thread, y'all! I'm working on a sanctuary hive at the moment. That's just a hive box that exists solely to provide shelter for the bees, to let them build their numbers back up naturally. I won't be collecting any honey from it. I'll just make sure another box is nearby when the first bunch gets large enough to swarm. Five years ago, when I had a batch of honey mead to bottle, the bees came by the dozen, gleaning what they could, and never bothering anyone. Then the bee population crashed, and I didn't see a bee for three years. Last year, I saw two in my garden. So there's a hive around here somewhere, and I want to make sure they feel right at home.
I captured a swarm yesterday, was in one of my pear trees. Was nice and sunny yesterday, mid 70s. So I was very glad that it wasn't today, high 40s and rainy. Got out my feeder to put on later. Thought about getting my camera to document it, but just went ahead and got a bucket, dropped 'em into it and dumped 'em into a hive body. I found a swarm about a week and a half ago - it was real cold that day, they didn't survive. Dead bees are not a pretty sight. Good luck with your newbies or is that new bees?
Years ago my Dad got into Bee keeping. He got a call about a swarm in the side of a house. I got roped into helping because of my carpentry background. It was interesting,, we figured out what area the bees were in , I cut the siding along a stud , pried the siding off , and used a shop vac to capture the bees , we had a box connected to the shop vac hose before the shop vac housing that captured the bees ,, then scraped out the hive and honey into 5 gallon buckets. We left the hole in the house for a week,, we made sure we left quite a few bees behind to gather the honey left in the wall of the house. We came back a week or so later to put this siding back on , and I was amazed at how well the bees had cleaned up the leftover honey. I did not know the bees would do that,, but they did a far better job of it than I could have. That was the only swarm I have ever seen,,, congrats on capturing your swarm Wild Trapper ,, hope they do well for you.
I bought 2 Hives this year ,, I put them out at a friends house ,, he has more property , and I've been working out of town , but with my 2 hives and his we had 7 hives . Well , his wife called me today to see if I was in town , and said the bees were swarming , I said I'll be there as quick as I could ,, about 30 minutes later I was there . We ended up catching 3 swarms ,, saved 2 of them , and unfortunately , killed 1 swarm capturing them . We checked the existing hives and we think we have a queen in each of them ,, so we think we've got a queen in the captured hives , so now we have 9 hives ,, if they survive . Turns out , the Bee association we bought our hives from said ,, just about everyone that bought bees from them this year is having them swarm . Just wondering if anyone else is having problems with their bees swarming this year ???
I only had the one hive that wintered over, big bunch of mean bees in it. Early, too cold, I caught one swarm that was to far gone to save, bunch of dead bees is all I got from that. Later, warmer weather, I saw one in one of my pear trees, caught it in a bucket and dumped into a 8 frame hive body. Far as I can tell, they are doing fine, fed 'em some sugar water cuz it was still kinda cold and rainy, but now just letting them do what they do naturally. Will be snooping around in there - see what they're doing soon. Gonna put a screened bottom board under them soon as it warms up enough to work them. Actually I was kinda surprised the bees swarmed twice so early. Spring here (Southern Ohio) has been colder and wetter than is idea for bee activity.
Went in and checked my bees today ,, opened them up , they've gotten busy , a lot more active since last week , 1 hive seemed a little weak ,, but today they were all working pretty good today , got a lot more active in a week . . They're filling up the frames with nectar ,, my 1st year at this ,,, with a little luck , I might learn something . Probably gonna have to add another Super to at least 1 of them in about a week or so . Good luck to you all on your Hives . Let me know if you start getting any mites , or anything else that could damage the hive , it might help to see if it's a country wide , or just certain areas , just trying to learn as much as possible ,,
Nicely done as always @TnAndy ... what glue do u use on the joints? Hiw long do u let the hives and bodies cure before u use them?
Glue is Titebond 3.....waterproof, exterior glue. I don't know that there is a cure time....I mean I let the joints dry overnight, belt sand the tips of the fingerjoints flush, then couple coats of paint. Right now, they are stacked overhead so I can grab one and go when needed.
Andy, looks like you are using poplar for those hive bodies and supers. I've tried using different kinds of wood that I've milled, but it's kind of hard to work, say black locust or oak, in any kind of project like that especially using finger joints. I ended up just buying hives off one of the bee supply houses, as buying board lumber from the local lumber yards ends up only costing a buck or two less than buying them all cut out. Cherry works a little easier, but is only slightly lighter, so weight does become an issue working with certain types of wood. If I could get some red cedar - now that would be nice, but expensive. So, it's either the pine type or forget about it for me. And, I use only 8 frame boxes as that is what I started out with on my first bees I bought, (a nuc). Oh, and I've found Titebond III works the best as well. It seems I've tried other glues with not so good results or too fast of a dry time.
WT, I saw my own lumber and have a lot of poplar, so that is what I use. Don't save a heck of a lot over commercial stuff, but I have a fairly decent shop and look for excuses to use it.
I found a nest of honey bees in an old tree this week,, they're going in at the base of the tree , not sure how high up in the tree they go ,, not sure I could ever get to , or find the queen ,,, anyone have any experience in capturing bees in a setting like this ?? These bees are on a lot beside a lot I'm building on. The lot is for sale, and I'm expecting the lot to probably sell pretty quick,, and if that happens,, they will most likely be cutting this tree down which will most likely end up killing this hive. Anyone have any ideas on this. Being this late in the season,, how could you capture these bees , set them up in a hive , and have them build their combs in the frames to be able to survive the winter ?? I hate to see them go to waste ,, but I'd hate to screw up and kill the hive myself . What would you do ??
