Bee keeping

Are there any posts on here about bee keeping ?? I'm sure there has to bee,,lol,,,,but with my limited 'puter experience,,,I've not been able to find anything. I'm going to start gathering my starter kit for the springtime bee season. Im going to build the shelter for my hives to sit under. I'll probably pick up a beginners guide for bee keeping soon , but I like hearing personal tips and tricks from the masters. If you were a beginner , would you start out with more than 1 hive ?? What kind of spacing should you have between hives ?? Do you have any recommendations for a better than normal hive startup kit ?? I've seen those hives that somehow drain automatically into your jars in the hive , are these worth messing with ?? Just looking for a few tips,,,thanks,,

 

Oh wow,,,,your a 'puter genius,,,,thanks ,,,that'll keep me busy.

 

See if you can partner with some who knows what they are doing for the first couple of years while you learn. That's what I'm doing with the queen bee next door. I provide the money, she teaches me how and we split the honey. She makes her's into creamed honey and it sells for $6 a half cup at the farmers market she attends. It's a win-win for both of us.

 

If you can find an old copy of Roots "ABCs and XYZs of Beekeeping " I would suggest perusing it. Lots of good, although dated material for the novice and advanced.

 

Thanks for all of your help,,,,Asia off Grid sent me plenty of info . It'll probably keep me busy for a while. I guess I'll let y'all know how things are going next year .

 

Yes, also check on youtube, so many different beekeeping videos on there, you'll never have time to watch 'em all.

I've had bees a while, lost them last winter but got a new start this spring. I've also found books online about beekeeping plus try your state ag extension service and any local beekeeper clubs for local help. Someone on those might even get you started with a swarm - free bees - as I think of them, although they cost someone somewhere the loss of some bees.

 

This is a good idea. Plus check and see if there are local classes. I know one of our monkeys took a bee keeping class. The good thing about connecting with locals people is they usually know the local issues you may have with beekeeping.

 

I will be doing this. There is a Bee Keepers club locally that actually gives a few classes prior to the start of the Bee season , I guess you could call it that , and I'm going to log in those dates and try to make it. I'm sure there's some much needed info to be gathered there .

 

All I can say is don't piss them off and African bees are not the only ones that are unfriendly.
My father raised bees great honey and a bit of running when they got annoyed. a lot different when they were just buzzing around,

 

@SB21, two of the single best beekeeping websites I have ever visited, are:

1. Michael Bush's Bush Farm's Website
2. David Cushman's Beekeeping Website

Michael Bush offers a yearly Bee Camp that you can attend. Alternatively, and as a cheaper method of learning from him, you can serve an apprenticeship with Mr. Bush, at his home / farm.

Mr. Cushman, sadly, passed away a number of years back, in 2011. But, his site fortunately, continues to be maintained by a friend of his.

I hope those two additional resources help you.

But, not all bees are aggressive. While the bees from Thailand tend to be more aggressive, the bees from Vietnam tend to be fairly passive. I once dropped three frames of bees on the ground. Of three people present, not one of us received a single sting.

 

Man AOG , that's a lot of info there. I don't know if I'll ever be able read all of the info you've sent me. But I'll surely start flipping thru it so at least when I get started , somebody might at least think I look like I know what I'm doing,,,,,,,,,,,,thanks for all of this info.

 

Those are usually referred to, as a "hot hive" (from what reading I've done). I found a good article on this very thing, a while ago, and made sure to save it. The Word document I've attached should help solve that nasty little problem.

 

I converted it to PDF, as well. Thanks for the file.

 

PDF copy of the 1910 edition of the ABCs and XYZs of Beekeeping >>>>>Library-Beekeeping (copy of book is 3/4 down the column)

link for Beekeeping 2 >>>>Library-Beekeeping 2
link for Bee Journal (American) >>>>Library-Bee Journal (American)
link for Bee Journal (British) >>>>Library-Bee Journal (British)

 

New swarm yesterday. Grand daughter saw a lot of bees flying around a tree, came and told me about it. I grabbed some equipment and soon had them boxed in a mix-match of a hive body. Really need to do some upgrades to that soon as I know they will stay in the box and they have a laying queen.

I had done a walkaway split earlier and they are doing fine, but have been so busy with other projects and rain, rain and more rain, I wasn't paying close enough attention to the hives I do have, so ya get some swarms anyway. Or, maybe they just showed up at my place. Sooner think they were my own bees swarming.

 

I missed my opportunity to get my hives going this year , to many projects going . Hopefully next year .

 

Hmmmm

 

I read about this a few weeks ago . What worries me about that is ,, can we trust the vaccination for the bees ? Or will it be another massive test with unknown outcomes . There has been a yuge lack of trust generated by our .gov , alphabet agency's ,, FDA , scientist , with their global warming crap ,, etc,etc.
I'm not sure they're going to give a crap about our opinions either way .