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There was an excellent discussion last year by melodywise about her first year as a bee keeper which you can find here. The bee keeping season is starting up again soon so I figured that it’s time for another. First off, I’d like to thank melodywise for last years thread which inspired me (and I believe others as well) to try their hand at backyard beekeeping this year. Recommended Reading: Beekeeping for Dummies – This title gets recommended often and for good reason. It’s a very simple book with easy to understand step-by-step instructions on performing most beekeeping tasks. If you read nothing else, I recommend you read this. The BeeSource forums – A lot of knowledgeable beekeeping people post here. The members range from total beginners to people who have entire beekeeping empires that have been in the family for generations. Most questions posted here will be answered quickly and with a wide range of thoughts and ideas. Beekeeping supplies…suppliers: If you’re lucky you’ll have a local beekeeping shop for emergency supplies and crazy beekeepers to chat with. However, you may be better served by ordering online for major non-emergency purchases. Betterbee.com – This is where I purchased my beginners kit and they have most of the supplies that you’d need as a keeper. Dadant.com – I believe this is the most popular place to order beekeeping supplies online. They have an extensive catalog that ranges from cheap, entry level equipment to the high end, extremely expensive hardware. If you can’t find something, you can probably find it here. What you need to get started: I recommend purchasing a beginners kit to start off. Something similar to this or this. You can expand your hive later, as it grows, but these will get you most of what you need to get your new hive setup and established. Now the fun part – Picking your bees!: There are actually many different breeds of bees, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. However, not all breeds are readily available in all areas. To start I recommend you find a local beekeeper who sells package bees and ask them what they recommend. You can always change the makeup of your hive later by requeening. Also, bees can be purchased in two ways. Either as a 3 pound box of bees or as a nuc. A nuc is a box of bees with a few frames already filled in. Installing nucs is easier as you simply transfer the frames from the nuc box to your hive then shake your bees into the hive. Your hive will start out stronger and should start producing faster as it already has the beginning of its colony going. However, nucs are not always available in which case you’re left with the literal, box of bees. For info on how to install a box of bees and general hive setup, I recommend this video. However, I don’t recommend working with bees without at least a basic veil. And there you go – (almost) all you need to know about starting your first colony of bees. Feel free to fire away with any questions or if you’re a fellow beekeeper, please feel free to offer any insight or suggestions for us new to backyard beekeeping. Honey Harvesting. Yay! Actually getting the honey can be really messy. Or so I'm told. The best and easiest method for extracting honey is to use a honey extractor. However, extractors are expensive. Unless you're keeping more than a few hives your best bet is to make contact with your local beekeeper club or store and beg, borrow or steal a honey extractor. If you don't have access to a club or store you can always build your own but then you have to store the thing except for the few times you'll actually use it. Other non-extractor options include the Mash and Wait and the Stick a Jar Upside Down on Another Jar and Wait method. IRC info for questions, answers and general beekeeping mayhem Server: irc.synirc.org Channel: #bees TouchyMcFeely fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Mar 23, 2010 |
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Mar 5, 2009 16:28
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madlilnerd posted:I have a question- are you worried about the various mystery bee diseases going around? An article very recently yeilded these scary statistics: Yes and no. It varies state to state and country to country, but at least here in Utah you have to register your hive with the Utah Dept. of Agriculture which includes a once a year random inspection. The registration is cheap, something like $10 for up to 5 hives, and in my opinion absolutely necessary. The article you linked points out that the problem is a large number of unregistered hives. If these hives go untreated they can potentially spread disease and parasites to otherwise uninfected hives. There's also a new trend (at least here in the US) to breed "survivor stock." These are hives that weren't treated for a particular parasite or disease and were able to fend it off naturally, while other failing hives weren't. The idea is to breed the bees so that they have a natural immunity where other hives don't. It's a bit of a toss up at this point whether it's working or not but the idea seems sound enough.
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Mar 5, 2009 19:48
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CuddleChunks posted:My parents had some hives for a while and it was pretty neat to get fresh honey and raw honeycomb from them. I'm actually just keeping a hive for the sake of keeping the hive. I do a bit of gardening so I hope to see better returns from my veggies this year. The honey will certainly be nice but they'll produce WAY more than I will use. Looks like my neighbors are going to be getting little honey care packages this year. Blue Footed Booby posted:This could either work or end up with hilarious unintended consequences. There was some experiment where some Russians tried to domesticate foxes for fur farming purposes, and as they were bred for temperament they developed floppy ears and sort of border collie coloration. The bees could turn green, change size, or produce honey that melts through steel. Anybody's guess. Hah, that's awesome. There's actually a new Russian strain of bee introduced here in the US just a few years ago. They're supposed to be much more mite tolerant and much more winter hardy than what we've had here until now. This first hive I'm doing are going to be Italians but I'm thinking really hard about requeening them with a russian and seeing how that works out.
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Mar 6, 2009 14:53
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Yay for bees!
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^^^You bastardAshcans posted:The thread title is 'backyard' beekeeping, but realistically how much space do you need? I live in the city so I'm pretty sure I can't participate in this, but I thought that I could at least ask. How much space does a hive need, in terms of not having them freak out at my neighbours? As long as there aren't any laws or regulations against keeping a hive, your paranoid neighbors can go screw themselves. With the exception of Africanized bees, they aren't an aggressive bug and you won't get stung unless it's a life and death situation (for them). As far as space, I've read of people with hives on the balcony of their highrise in downtown areas. There are even beekeepers in New York City of all places. Really, you can keep bees anywhere you have the space and there is some sort of vegetation.
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Mar 6, 2009 18:17
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Crazy Armed Pilot posted:Drones dont lay eggs, they are the male bees. I think they said look for a queen that starts to lay drones. It would look something like this: I don't believe that is right either. An over abundance of drones is self defeating as they're lazy assholes who don't do anything but eat and breed. Drones develop from infertile eggs and an overabundance of drones may indicate that the queen has left or died and a worker bee is now laying eggs. When I looked into the topic, the only way to identify africanized bees is through their aggressive behavior. Otherwise, they are identical to non-africanized honey bees. To the general question of mating: The only way a hive can become africanized is if the queen mates with enough africanized bees. During the mating flight the queen will leave the hive and mate with any and all drones she can find that aren't from her hive. At worst you'll end up with a half africanized hive that may show stronger signs of aggression. The best way to "fix" the problem is to requeen the hive. The new queen will go out on her mating flight, hopefully mate with non-africanized bees, and your hive should be back to normal in a matter of weeks. This could be a problem if you're in an area with a dense population of africanized bees but if that is the case there is always the option of purchasing an already mated queen. TouchyMcFeely fucked around with this message at 04:51 on Mar 8, 2009 |
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Mar 8, 2009 04:48
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Freaklife posted:Where in Utah are you? The only place I've seen people with hives have been rural areas like Grantsville. I live in Ogden. It's very much a suburb but I have 1/3 of an acre that I'm turning into my own little suburban farmstead. Regarding extracting - the crazy bee shop near me lets you rent an extractor for a weekend for a pretty reasonable price. If you would rather make your own, the USDA put up plans a few years ago that look pretty sound. Additionally, someone brought back plans on a home built extractor from africa.
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Mar 10, 2009 15:37
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Crazy Armed Pilot posted:Its refreshing to see that this group of people at least recognizes that and there is more than one way to do it. Oh don't worry. I've read some pretty intense arguments between beekeepers who know the "correct" way to do something and short of a correction by god, they'll never change their mind. That said, I painted anything exposed to weather and the top and bottom edges of the supers. I figure the paint is just to protect the wood and you don't want the bees having to deal with it. Quick question - I've seen discussion that nitrile gloves are awesome for beekeeping because they're thin but rip/pierce proof. Does anyone know if it's a specific type of nitrile glove that is resistant to piercing or is it all nitrile gloves that have that ability? The specific gloves mentioned are these but would something like this work just as well? TouchyMcFeely fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Mar 16, 2009 |
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Mar 16, 2009 19:30
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Slung Blade posted:I've used some like the cheap ones when I was working on my truck with a neighbour, I found they ripped quite easily. I've got these gloves but the problem is you can't feel what you're doing. I've read a few opinions saying that the lack of feeling can result in accidentally squishing bees which can cause the hive to get aggressive. I'm not really that worried about getting stung but it would be nice to have a little extra protection without those large, bulky leather gloves.
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Mar 16, 2009 20:47
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I'm going to start working on my hive this weekend, today possibly. The weather has finally gotten nice and hopefully will stay that way.
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Mar 21, 2009 13:49
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KillerChicken posted:I love bees. Today we've been busy straining honey, it's been messy but fun. Since we hadn't done it before we tried a few methods and stumbled onto this site with a pretty simple way to collect honey That's pretty neat, thanks for the link. I'll add it to the OP. But where the devil do you live that you're harvesting honey already? I'm damned jealous.
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Mar 23, 2009 02:26
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Armacham posted:We have a pretty tiny backyard, with a lot of neighbors (townhome community) How feasible would this be for me Perfectly feasible as long as there are no restrictions on owning a hive and you register your hive with the local governing body. There was a great discussion over on the BetterBee forums about a guy who had a crazy neighbor spraying his hive with insecticide from over a wall common to their backyards. The lady called the cops to report the beekeeper and the hive and when the cops showed up, they fined the lady and told the beekeeper that he could sue her for destruction of property. Turns out in a lot of places you can't knowingly spray certain pesticides within a certain radius of a beehive and there are laws in place to protect beekeepers and their hives.
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Mar 25, 2009 17:30
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drat. I don't get my box of angry bees until the 18th. Regarding what to feed and when - this page seems to be pretty helpful on that subject.
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Apr 2, 2009 14:48
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tuckfard posted:Random question: does anyone have any experience of keeping bees and also having children? Neither is an issue for me at the moment but I was always curious if there were any concerns. No real concerns beyond the same concerns adults have as far as I know. Crazy, since you're starting a hive fresh this year, are you doing any medicating with the new hive? I'll be picking up my box of bees next weekend and wasn't sure if I should have medication on hand before they arrive or not. Also, any updates? You've had your hive installed for what, like a week now? Done any inspections, how was the install process, anything other rookies should know before they make the jump?
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Apr 12, 2009 15:37
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I ran across something interesting regarding cell sizes. Some folks are claiming that wild bees build much smaller cells than the typical size found on pressed foundation. The argument is that the larger sized cells result in larger bees but it also promotes mite infestation. These guys (I've also come across posts of theirs on the Beesource forums) are the folks making the claim. They recommend using foundationless frames and allowing the bees to return to their natural cell size. I have 1 piece plastic frames and am thinking about cutting out the foundation and giving the foundation free framing a shot. I have enough frames that I could experiment with a single deep to see how it works out. If things go horribly wrong I can swap out the foundation free frames with the normal plastic ones. Hopefully I won't kill my colony doing it this way but I think it's worth the risk to avoid using any harsh chemicals.
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Apr 15, 2009 01:51
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And I get to go pick mine up tomorrow so nyah! Although I probably won't have any pictures since all of my friends are giant sissies and don't want to go. I did get my hive all setup today and fenced in to keep my dogs out. All I need now are bees and I should be good to go. edit: oh, and it turns out Harbor Freight has those pierce resistant nitrile gloves. So if you're interested in getting some here ya' go. TouchyMcFeely fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Apr 17, 2009 |
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Apr 17, 2009 19:05
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Picture time! I didn't get any shots of the warehouse where they were distributing the boxes but jesus christ, I have never seen or heard so many bees before. It was awesome and terrifying.  Click here for the full 2000x1500 image. I noticed the bees on the outside of the box but didn't have a way to brush them off. Sure, what's an hour drive on the highway with bees loose in the car? They all stayed put until about 10 minutes from home but then only 2 or 3 were hanging out on the rear window.  Click here for the full 1800x1350 image.  Click here for the full 2000x1500 image. Here is the installed queen. The little black bit hanging from the bottom is a hollow plastic tube with wax. I had to push that in when I took the queen out of the larger box.  Click here for the full 1500x1125 image. The tin can is full of sugar water to feed the colony while they're in the box. I had to remove the queen then quickly put the can back on the hole to prevent the entire box from swarming on the queen.  Click here for the full 1500x1125 image. So how do you get the bees into the hive? You turn the box upside down and shake!  Click here for the full 1125x1500 image. There's still plenty of bees in the box but they all made their way to the hive after a few hours. So there ya' go. Not the best pictures but it's a bit difficult to snap shots, work the bees and not piss your pants all at the same time. TouchyMcFeely fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Apr 19, 2009 |
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Apr 19, 2009 19:14
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Ashcans posted:Just to be clear, you didn't get stung during any of this process? Including the up-ending-bees-into-hive part? What were you wearing in terms of gear? Nope, not a single sting. As far as gear, I was wearing a jacket with built-in veil and nitrile gloves. Nothing too spectacular or out of the ordinary. The bees really were easy to install although they did make a hell of a lot of noise when they hit the top of the frames. I actually took some video but don't know where to host to share. They're more geared towards my friends/family who think I'm insane but you get a pretty decent idea of what an active hive sounds like.
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Apr 20, 2009 15:49
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Maximusi posted:How loud is the sound of the bee hive? I'm getting my Russian bees on saturday, so I'll try to post some pictures of when I install them. When you first install them it's pretty friggin' loud. It was actually kind of neat early yesterday morning. I didn't see any bees anywhere so I went and stuck my head next to the hive. I could hear a low buzzing so I knew they were still in there and once the sun hit their hive they started coming out and taking off.
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Apr 20, 2009 23:10
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Time wise you should still be OK. Your biggest problem will probably be finding a beekeeper that has starter boxes or nuc available. Can't hurt to find out though.
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Apr 22, 2009 23:08
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100 Years, thanks for the heads up. I'll let you know if I need to get in contact with them. Are they in Utah by chance? Max, I noticed the same thing. I only have a small reducer though. I ended up leaving it on for a day or two but just decided to remove it. The reducer is there to help protect the hive while they have low numbers but if there's nothing for other bees to steal then I'm not sure how important it is.
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Apr 26, 2009 03:12
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Time for an update! I went into the hive last Wednesday to see if the Queen had gotten out of her box. She had just like she was supposed to and I saw my first signs of comb being drawn in my foundationless frames. Yay! However, I discovered today that I made a bit of a mistake. I forgot to put the 10th frame inside the deep when I took out the queen box. I also found that the bees are making bur comb in the gap between the two frames where the 10th frame should be. I also discovered that I don't like top feeders (but I'm also still a giant pussy and cringe every the bees increase in volume so that could be why). The top feeder draws all the bees to the area where I'm trying to work. There's a huge mass of them all over the top of the deep, the bottom of the inside cover and the bottom of the top feeder itself. It's a huge (and intimidating) biomass of bees that are all making the trek to the food right through where I want to be. On top of that the weather today is miserable with a warning of snow this afternoon and evening. All the bees were in the hive and they weren't really in the mood to be monkeyed around with either.
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Apr 26, 2009 16:41
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I checked on the queen ~4 days after the hive was installed. I've read that during the warmer part of the day is the best time to work the hive. Most of the bees will be out and about and they're less likely to be grumpy due to the cold weather. I would think that once the colony is established enough and the weather is nice enough there won't be as many bees hanging out near the hive since a good portion of the workers will be out gathering pollen. Whether that turns out to be the case or not, only time will tell.
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Apr 26, 2009 23:41
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Maximusi posted:I'm really worried because I just inspected the hive today and I couldn't find the queen anywhere, even though she's marked. I saw a lot of cells with clear liquid in them, some bright orange, but no capped cells (honey?). And I took the queen cage out and there wasn't anyone in there, so she definitely got out, I just have no idea where she is. She's most likely in there somewhere. If she had left I think you'd have a mostly empty hive and if she had died you'd be able to spot drone cells all over the place from a laying worker. If you're cetain she's missing though you'll want to requeen ASAP before your colony completely dies. Beautiful pictures Walrusman! Just and FYI, the reason why your veil strings are so long is so you can tie them under your arms, like so. You may know that already from your class but I couldn't figure it out until I came across those instructions.
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May 1, 2009 04:08
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3 hives all at once? Not too shabby. I'd actually read a couple of people recommend starting with more than 1 hive. The thinking was that it gives you a chance to compare if one hive is weaker than the other. I'm also guessing that it gives you twice the chance to survive a screw up which may be the more important part. So for everyone who's already started, how are things going? Having any troubles, run into any snags? Anybody still feeding, adding equipment or anything like that? On my hive, I noticed the bees had stopped using the sugar water and had actually begun drawing comb in the entrance to the top feeder. Only 4 of the 10 frames had any comb on them and none of them were full but I went ahead and pulled the feeder anyway. That was a few weeks ago and I haven't touched the hive since but I'm headed back in today to see how things are progressing.
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May 27, 2009 14:20
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I wouldn't worry too much about having a balanced diet. As long as it flowers, they can use it. Also keep in mind that bees will travel something like up to 2 miles looking for blossoms to harvest. Sounds like a good plan though!
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May 28, 2009 02:37
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I'm expecting August as my first harvest as well. I actually need to get my second deep on the hive but haven't been able to due to something like 2 weeks of rain and chilly weather. I'm getting concerned that my hive is going to swarm but I've got a big mess to clean up in there and I don't want to expose them to the nasty weather for too long.
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Jun 11, 2009 13:52
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Man, the weather has been absolutely poo poo the last few weeks. I don't remember if I mentioned it or not but I made an "oopsie" after installing the hive. When I went to take the queen's box out, I forgot to put in the 10th frame. Long story short, the bees ended up making comb cockeyed that spanned 3 frames (I'm trying a foundationless frame). Unfortunately along that section of messed up hive was where they were doing all their work and the queen was laying so I had to wait for them to fill in the rest of the hive before I could get in there and fix the mess I had created. Last week I finally had a nice day to do the clean up work. While working in the hive I couldn't locate the queen and the comb that I pulled out looked a lot like a laying worker. And of course it started raining again so I had to button everything up and pray I was wrong. After a week of traveling and lovely weather and I can say, happily, that my queen is still laying and the hive has recovered from my mess up pretty well. Finally got to put the second deep on so hopefully things will really start picking up. drat I was nervous for a while there.
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Jun 19, 2009 17:46
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Haven't seen much aggression from my hive but I'm starting to think my bees may be a little  .Went into the hive again today and on 2 of the top deeps they started building comb from the bottom up. With nothing supporting it, I'm a bit concerned that it's going to get warm and fall over making a hell of a mess.
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Jun 30, 2009 19:59
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Simkin posted:My bees seem to be that wild, independant type: heheh...I wouldn't feel too bad. My bees are doing the same. I had a hell of a time getting the frames out of the top deep because they had combed them to the frames below. I'm hoping that they'll knock it off as the hive expands, but who knows.
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Jun 30, 2009 20:48
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Got my first super installed the other day. So I'm pretty stoked about that. I don't think I'll get much of a harvest out of them this year but I don't care about the honey all that much. On a different note, I was quite pleasantly surprised when I went to mow my lawn and found that quite a lot of bees were working the clover I planted last year and earlier this year. My neighbors probably hate it but I love the idea of having a clover field for my front lawn. idolmind86 posted:I was thinking about keeping bees but I have kind of a dumb question. I wouldn't worry about it. I have 2 dogs and just setup a welded wire fence around the hive to keep them out. The bees shouldn't give a rip about animals being in the same area as long as they're not messing with the hive itself. They're too busy working their asses off so you can steal from them.
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Jul 18, 2009 13:49
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Man, at least one of my bees is getting cranky. I was out clearing some tall weeds around the hive and one of the bees did not like me there one bit. Kept diving at my head and sounded all kinds of angry. I ended up backing off since I was just out there in a shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops but I didn't think I'd have to get geared up (at least in a veil) to work around the hive without going into it.
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Jul 26, 2009 16:06
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melodywise posted:TouchyMcFeely, I'm so happy you got a hive! I haven't ever tried foundationless but I'd like to for the comb honey aspect. I'm sorry about your bees not building properly; have you put a popsicle stick horizontally in the upper groove of the frame, to give them a little guidance on what to build on? Also, I run with 9 frames personally, it makes it easier to pull frames out once they propolis the poo poo out of everything. Just keep them tightly bunched in the middle of the box. Ah, glad you finally found the thread! Unfortunately, I haven't been able to locate the queen since I started. I'm pretty sure she's still in there somewhere but I wasn't able to spot her before the hive got largish. I haven't been in the area of the hive since the little bastard was bombing me. I might get in there to check the progress of the first super but I've been trying to leave them alone as much as possible. I know Africanized have been spotted in St. George but they aren't as far north as SLC yet so I should be good in that regard. Quick question for you since you're here and some folks are getting towards harvesting time: How did you harvest last year? Did you rent a honey extractor from the crazy people in SLC or did you do something with what you had around your house?
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Jul 30, 2009 18:21
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Lee Knight is where I got my colony from this year. Hrm...so which color Subaru do you guys drive? And nthing the Jones people are weird. I went down there just to check things out and ended up buying a few things but good lord was I creeped out. I also think I may be in the same boat as Maximusi. I went into my hive over the weekend and they haven't touched the first super yet. It's been on for about 2 weeks or so and there isn't any drawn comb on it. I also went into the top deep but couldn't find any indication of the queen. All 10 frames are absolutely loaded with honey but no larva to be found. I'm contemplating requeening (maybe with a russian! I hear they come with tiny hats!) but I'm concerned that it's too late in the season and too hot to ship. I think I'll go into the bottom deep this upcoming weekend and see if I can find any signs of her majesty. edit: Is anyone here register on beesource? If you are, send me a Friend invite or whatever they're called. I'm registered as Micah.
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Aug 6, 2009 04:11
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Where do you live that you're just picking up a hive now? For most of us, our season is over already and for a few of us, we get no honey this year. 
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Sep 21, 2009 15:12
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walrusman posted:ung I'd also recommend making homemade honey butter. *Mix heavy whipping cream in a mixer for an hour on low-medium low. *Drain and squeeze the butter milk out of the butter. *Put as much butter and honey into a container as you want to make honey butter and liquify it in the microwave. *Mix it up good and proper and there you'll have yourself some excellent honey butter. I should actually go out and check my hive again. It's been over a month now and they very well may have filled in some of the super. I certainly hope so. I'm jealous of all you honey gatherers
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Sep 21, 2009 19:20
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Socratic Moron posted:The Big Island of Hawaii. Many beekeepers get multiple harvests a year here. From what I'm told, because I live in an Ohia Lehua forest, when they bloom, I can't have enough supers. Yup, that'd do it all right. Good luck with your new hive and be sure to keep us posted while we're all socked in with snow!
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Sep 21, 2009 19:22
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Socratic Moron posted:I popped open my top super today and at least three of the frames are completely filled with capped honey. Woo! That tells me my bottom super is probably chock full as well. As soon as my veils and other equipment get here, I want to harvest. Some questions though: 1. The easiest way to harvest your honey is to rent a honey extractor but doing so for a single hive might be a bit much. Your best bet is probably to do like Melodywise posted earlier in the thread. Get yourself a large, fine mesh strainer and drop your chunks of honey filled wax in it. You can heat the wax with a lamp or leave it out in the sun to help move things along but you'll probably end up having to do a bit of squeezing to get it all out. 2. Take 'em out and return them whenever you like. If you're going for high output you'll want another set of frames to drop in immediately after taking the full ones out. Otherwise, simply return the frames whenever you like. 3. Leave it raw. The only step beyond the strainer that you might do is to pour the honey through cheesecloth as a final strain to get anything out that might have slipped through the strainer. 4. Everything in the supers are yours to take. There are stores of honey in the deep for the bees to live on. However, I would recommend getting a second deep ASAP so that your hive doesn't swarm and split due to a lack of room. What was recommended to me was 2 deeps and 3-4 supers. You can also use deeps as supers but they get pretty difficult to work with because (as you found out) they're heavy as hell. Great pictures and I'm glad to see things are going well with your new hive!
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Sep 25, 2009 14:06
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Well crap. According to weather.com it snowed in my neck of Utah yesterday and I haven't done anything to winterize my hive. For folks who get snow (screw you Hawaii!) what's your plan for the coming season?
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Oct 2, 2009 00:37
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Ishamael posted:We did an early Christmas with my wife's side of the family, and they actually got me some Beekeeping books! I put them on my wish list as an afterthought, but I got Beekeeping for Dummies and Barefoot Beekeeping. Nice! For what it's worth, if you're planning on keeping a hive next year, now is the time to start prepping. If you go over to the Beesource forums they're already talking about purchasing and shipping for the 2010 season. You'll also find that the bees are actually fairly cheap. It's all the other stuff that's expensive. So if cost may be an issue, start slowing building up your supplies in prep for the 2010 season. Hope to see some posts and pictures from you next year and if you've got any questions, send away.
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Dec 7, 2009 16:18
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:06 |
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Per posted:I want to keep bees sometime in the future. However, my work schedule will have a cycle of me being away from home for 5-6 weeks followed by being home for the same amount of time (sailor). Is this at all compatible with bee-keeping? In my (mostly) newb opinion, I'd say yes you could. I think the toughest part would be the initial setup as the hive is getting established but I would think it's doable. I would think you could do something like where you do most of the hive expansions just prior to your leaving and immediately after your arrival. So you get your hive, then just before you leave add the second deep (if not earlier). Get back from sea, add your first super. Chances are you'll need to add a second and possibly third super prior to your next departure. etc. You could also try putting the whole hive together at once and letting them sort it all out. Nobody seems to recommend doing so but I've never run across why. Honestly, the bees will take care of themselves once the hive is in place. They've been making honey for long enough that they can pretty much do it all on their own. We are all a bunch of slave driving thieves after all.
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Dec 10, 2009 07:00
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