Alright, I have decided on a Langstroth style hive, IF, and it is a large IF, I can manage the costs of bee keeping at all. It has been mentioned that it is an expensive hobby. Way too many things require way too much of my money already. (including large medical bills for both daughter and wife) , so what would I need to do the job properly? For the health of the bees, primarily, and secondly for any honey and wax produced. Also, how is it done? I have no experience at this, I am a blank slate. how is it harvested, what is the process, what is required? Lead me through the process, if you will.
If you must purchase all your equipment, hives, bees from scratch it will cost more than $500. Maybe closer to $750. There are ways to do it for less, including making your own hive, baiting a hive to catch a swarm, and buying used equipment that doesn't harbor disease (like a smoker or veil but not a used hive). Get some books on bee keeping from the library. If you decide to do treatments and feed supplements, that will add to the cost. My friend just lost a hive he had been treating for 5 years. Another friend lost one with no treatments after 3 years.
Let's just say that those in SA are most common to kill off or run off the folks that prove the PTB wrong. Case in point. The man who imported the African bees, at the order of his boss, was later hounded by the Military as being the cause. If you are not aware of the area then you will be gone before you know it. As to Emile Warre, he developed a hive for his area and time. His system was right for his time. If you are trying to head to some kind of sick raciest point as to other's nations then you best change course,"Emile Warre doesn't provoke a vitriol response" . AS before learn about bees, come back in 3 years, since you do not seem to care about what experiened people who are wlling to help have to say, and let us know how a few seasons has worked out for you.
Find someone in your area that keeps bees, Work with them. Figure with no more than two hive bodies for the first year. In your area the bees need to have a small enough area to be able to stay warm in the winter. Purchase full wax foundation for your new hive. Products | Kelley Beekeeping To start you really need to have a Smoker, Bee veil, White Coveralls, Leather gloves. The rest can come later. It may be too late this year to have a hive but you can start learning. I would purchase a package of bees and a queen. This gives you a start with proven DNA. Let me know what you are going to build and I may be able to help on some of the extras. TRADE?
BTW, if you go Full Boat on your first hive you will spend less than $200. The expense starts to build when you start selling honey. After all you will be producing a food product for general consumation and you need to take care of your customers and your bees. Even the less expensive plastic extractor cost about $200 and the stainless is a GRAND! But the values is in the work that you save your bees in making new comb for never forget that it takes 6 pounds of honey to make one pound of wax. Always keep the ratios in mind but first is your bees health. NTL that can all come later.
Say kellory, PM me your address and I'll send a hopefully new Frame in sections so you can see what to look forward too. I say hopefully for I have yet to go to the "Tween" space to check new stock but I do have some old pieces that have been in the weather for about 20 years. A set of Racoons robbed my last hive and destroyed it. So no disease. Any foundation I have will have to wait till fall for I figure it will melt if sent now. My foundation sheets are from my hives and disease free. I sent about 50 lb of wax to Walter Kelly and they process what you send and return it, or did anyway. You must keep all cappings clean and in a airtight container to stop moths etc. After all wax is a food to them.
It’s National Pollinator Week, Save Our Bees, Save Our Seed | Seed Broadcast We have lost too many bee hives and mostly to an influx of foreign disease and insects that our Eu based bees can not protect agains nor do other Bees. I have noted a marked decline in Bumble Bees. In my area Bumble Bees nest in the ground and dig in any thing but solid rock, yet they die from man made pesticides. So take a look at this and let's do what we can. HK That means celebrating an essential partner in our work to build healthy, organic seed systems that support biodiversity and provide high-quality seed. The focus on pollinators this week is a helpful reminder that the dramatic and ongoing decline in pollinators – both commercially managed as well as native species – threatens not just the viability of organic seed producers but food security itself, since most of the food crops we eat everyday require pollination. Since the mid-1950s, the number of commercially managed honey bee hives in the U.S. has declined by nearly 50%. Yet, in the same timeframe, the amount of U.S. crop acreage requiring bee pollination has nearly doubled.
I have noticed a dramatic increase in all bee/wasps this year. I think this is mostly due to excellent weather and the fact the I'm more alert to the buzzing to see if it's one of my honey bees. The one I really dislike is the bald faced hornet. I've seen them in the hoop house & once around the bee hive. The honeysuckle and blueberries were covered in bumble bees and now those bushes are covered in berries. I have at least a mile buffer in all directions that is pesticide free so that is a huge plus.
The higher up you are the better. This protects from wind drift as well as run off. This fact of being on the top of the highest place in the county is why I think I have seen more Red Ants. Now if the horned toads would come back! I saw a Dove doing breakfast feast in the middle of one of our recovering Red Ant Nest entrance.
Could you give a little more info? Is it raw? Was it extracted or crushed? I ask because it looks thicker & darker than the honey I received from being a bee landlord. If I get to harvest my own honey, it'll be raw & crushed, I think.
Depends how high you heat & how long you hold it at that heat. From wikipedia: Pasteurized honey is honey that has been heated in a pasteurization process which requires temperatures of 161 °F (72 °C) or higher. Pasteurization destroys yeast cells. It also liquefies any microcrystals in the honey, which delays the onset of visible crystallization. However, excessive heat exposure also results in product deterioration, as it increases the level of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF)[citation needed] and reduces enzyme (e.g. diastase) activity. Heat also affects appearance (darkens the natural honey color), taste, and fragrance.[59] ... Filtered honey is honey of any type that has been filtered to the extent that all or most of the fine particles, pollen grains, air bubbles, or other materials normally found in suspension, have been removed.[62] The process typically heats honey to 150–170 °F (66–77 °C) to more easily pass through the filter.[63] Filtered honey is very clear and will not crystallize as quickly,[63] making it preferred by the supermarket trade.[64]
My take on Raw Honey is that it can be filtered using cheese cloth. It should never be at a temperature above what can be found in a "Hive" about 120 degrees F. Which is the only way I have ever collected honey. When honey comes from the beehive, it contains an estimated 600 components including small amounts of a wide range of vitamins, enzymes and other nutrients. Example. Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5) Thiamin (Vitamin B1) Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) Niacin (Vitamin B3) Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5) Vitamin B6 Vitamin C It is these components that give honey its antioxidant, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Which is why Honey has been used to treat burns. A note on this NEVER give Raw Honey to young children, bees go where the flowers are and that can also mean that they collect bacteria such as Salmonella. Any of various rod-shaped bacteria of the genus Salmonella, many of which are pathogenic, causing food poisoning, typhoid, and paratyphoid fever in humans and other infectious diseases in domestic animals. A hand cranked centrifuge is best as it saves the Comb but removes honey and pollen in a senseable manner. Never harvest Honey that has not been capped by the bees, yet another reason to have moveable frames as a way to know exactly what you are harvesting.
