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My parents had some hives for a while and it was pretty neat to get fresh honey and raw honeycomb from them.  Yay for bees!
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Mar 6, 2009 06:21
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 13:55 |
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TouchyMcFeely posted: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. Your garden will be pollinated, your neighbor's garden will be pollinated, the neighbor's neighbor's garden will be pollinated all thanks to our hardworking little friends. You're in for a treat when it comes time to sending out gifts because those bees are going to be making honey for you. Ridiculous amounts of honey. Asstons of honey. *Bathtubs* of honey. Over the years my parents had their hives they would take the honey to a local beekeeper for processing and then come home with jars and jars and tubs of honey. "This year we got 150 pounds!" Hahah, no poo poo it was amazing. They'd store it in a big plastic tub and when it was time to pour it into smaller jars would have to throw the thing into the hot tub to decrystallize it. I still have a quart jar of honey from their bees kicking around and they're down to a mere twenty or thirty pounds of honey. One side benefit of raising bees is that you can finally feel comfortable putting out all that bee-related hooked rug artwork and bee-themed home decorating items that you've been keeping in the closet.  As a practical suggestion I would urge folks who are looking to get into this to look around their town and see if there is already a beekeeper group. Usually it's staffed by older folks and they are incredibly knowledgeable about how to successfully raise a hive, fend off predators (gently caress you wasps!) and will have the equipment to help process the honey that you get. Some general informational links: National Honey Board: http://www.honey.com/ American Beekeeping Federation: http://www.abfnet.org/ Beginning Beekeeping: http://www.badbeekeeping.com/howtobee.htm University of Florida's Apis Website: http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/sanford/apis/beginner.htm For the ladies, if you are lucky enough you may be able to compete and become this year's Honey Queen: http://www.goldenbeeinc.com/honey_queen_2005.htm There's even a national Honey Queen for when you want to go pro.
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Mar 6, 2009 17:10
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Wreckus posted:What do you do if your bees become Africanized? 
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Mar 6, 2009 23:04
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TouchyMcFeely posted: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.  spog posted:So, if I have room for a pair of hives on my roof...I still need something else to actually get honey in a jar? Your initial product will be a board with a great big honeycomb on it where the ends are sealed up against the elements with that lovely beeswax. When you buy fresh honeycomb in the store they have shaved off the top and bottom of the comb a bit so you have the open cells of honey ready for you to dig into like a hungry bear. For homebrew extraction you could probably even warm things up a bit and just tilt the honeycomb over a bowl and let gravity do its work. You may want to pass it through a tight metal mesh a second time to strain out any bits of non-honey but that should get you something to spread on crepes or whatever. Warning: Honey is basically just sugar so don't become a huge fat gently caress of a bear with all your deliciousness coming out of your hives.  Also note that raccoons will steal your honey because they are nature's bastards.
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Mar 10, 2009 01:36
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