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I would like to say that I saw last years thread and that is the sole reason that I took a beekeeping class and have a beehive that needs to be assembled. I am SO raising bees! I have too much with school for this week, and then finals, but after that its hive building time! Lots of pics will follow. Crazy Armed Pilot
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Mar 6, 2009 17:23
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Ashcans 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? Disclaimer: I have never actually raised bees yet. As I understand it you don't need much room. They actually raise bees on the tops of buildings in NYC. They really wont bother people like wasps or hornets will because they are not attracted to your bbq. The best way to keep neighbors from freaking out is to hide the hive and make sure they have water on your property. Most complaints stem from bees stealing water from a neighbors hot tub/pool/leaking faucet. Also have a barrier in front of the hive entrance that makes the bees fly up. If they get up above head height they wont drop back down until they are at their destination. Crazy Armed Pilot
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Mar 6, 2009 18:07
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In my beekeeping class the instructor talked about some places that actually work Africanized bees because that's all they have. Just keep them calm. Its apparently not too hard and they don't attack people like Americans think, but when they do decide they don't like you... well you get what the TV shows tell you.
Crazy Armed Pilot
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Mar 7, 2009 00:57
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SWNomad posted:Update on the whole Africanization Issue: 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:  Note: The cells that have a little bulge are drone cells. Crazy Armed Pilot
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Mar 8, 2009 03:12
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I am in the process of building my hive! Here are some pics to get you slackers motivated. The stuff (some assembly required)  The westerns going together:  Glue and nail:  Deeps with two coats of primer:  Frames (some more assembly required):  They go together like this. Black foundation helps stupid noobs see the larva:  Two deeps worth of frames:  Now I have a question, am I supposed to prime/paint the bottom, inner cover, and cover too?  If you find this interesting, this poo poo isn't hard. Its not too late to start, I am getting early bees, and they are coming in 2-3 weeks. Get off your fat rear end and get bees! Crazy Armed Pilot
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Mar 16, 2009 06:25
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The inner cover is not even, so there is one side that has more space. to keep the "bee space" I think the side with less room should be down. Is that correct?Eaglehound posted:Remember: 'Ask 3 beekeeps - get 4 answers'. Its refreshing to see that this group of people at least recognizes that and there is more than one way to do it. In Search and Rescue I have to constantly watch instructors because they will have their way, and no other way could be right, which confuses the hell out of students. Crazy Armed Pilot
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Mar 16, 2009 16:42
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Touchy, there is a broad range of nitrile gloves. My lab has three or four different kinds because students are whiny bitches and have to have the thick/thin/purple/textured/special gloves or the world will end since someone complained about our latex gloves and OMG death. Anyway, there is a very broad range in the gloves, and I would say that any lab/exam glove will allow you to feel better than the leather ones. At that buy expensive ones, they will be thicker and better. The thin ones are a barrier and not much more, they rip, crack, and are lovely. Also keep them in a cool dark place and they will last much longer. They do go bad so buy some fresh ones. I will take a look when I go back to the floor to see what we have for a recommendation. My two deeps are done, and I am going to paint the westerns and other misc. components later this week so more pictures to come. Crazy Armed Pilot
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Mar 16, 2009 22:25
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Here is some more motivation for you all. Here are my two completed deeps:  Both full of frames:  The rest of the stuff I need to paint with one coat of primer: (I had forgot that the bottom board and telescoping cover needed some paint too)  I just need to give a special shout out to melodywise for her thread that sparked my interest in this. Crazy Armed Pilot
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Mar 17, 2009 05:33
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moana posted:Hey Crazy Armed Pilot, maybe I missed it in this thread - where did you get all of this stuff (including your bees), and how much did it all cost? Keep us updated, I'm very interested in bees! Okay, so I am getting my bees from someone local. I am getting a nucleolus hive, so I take this guy a deep and 5 frames and he raises nuc's. When a hive is ready, he will remove all the frames (minus the feeder) from a six frame nuc (so 5 frames of bees) and put it in my box. It should already have a queen and all be good to go. He will keep it a few more days and then check on it to make sure every thing is good, then I go pick it up and bring it home. He was offering a good deal of "about $65 bucks" to the bee school people so that's where I am getting my bees. My stuff came from Ruhl bee in Portland, but there are other places around too. Ruhl bee seemed to be the cheapest place. Everything needed set me back about $200. That didn't include a smoker or net because theirs were really expensive, and I could make a net hat thing, and the smokers at a different place where half the price. I also went a little bigger on my setup than they recommended. I am essentially ripping off how melodywise did hers. They recommended one deep and one western, but I am getting early bees and I want honey dammit. So my set up: 2 Deeps - 13.25/ea <- This is where the bees live 2 Western Supers - 10.25/ea <- This is where the bees put honey 2 Deep frame packs - 11.35/ea <- These are what the comb goes in 2 Super frame packs - 11.35/ea 2 Deep foundation - 12.00/10 <- This is what the bees build comb on 2 Super foundation - 9.35/10 1 Inner cover - 9.75/ea <- This is a cover on top with a small home 1 Telescoping cover - 22.00/ea <- This goes over the inner cover 1 Bottom board - 9.00/ea <- This is what it all sits on 1 Queen Excluder - 7.25/ea <- This keeps the queen in the deeps 1 Maxant hive tool - 11.95/ea <- This is the magic wand that makes bees make honey Once I get the rest of this stuff painted, I can get some pictures to show you all what this stuff is. In fact I think I will go put on a coat of primer now instead of studying for finals  Edited to try and fix formatting, but I am giving up. Crazy Armed Pilot Crazy Armed Pilot fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Mar 17, 2009 |
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Mar 17, 2009 17:33
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Well we spent the evening building all of Walrusmans kit, but I forgot the cable to upload the pictures. I will have to do that tomorrow when I get back out to work. Is anyone else here working getting hives ready? Crazy Armed Pilot
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Mar 20, 2009 08:57
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Okay, I was intending to add these to my prior post the next morning. Since I screwed around so long I will just make a new one. In review Walrusman came down Thursday night and we had a blitz build of his hive. We built everything starting around 7pm in about 4 hours. The only thing left was paint. Building boxes:  Working on frames:  poo poo there are a lot of frames, call for backup:  Last frames:  Now for a little tutorial, this is the base or bottom board:  Next you put on the first deep:  Then another deep (when the bees have seven-eight of the 10 frames full:  Once you have two full deeps and want to add a super, you first put on a queen excluder:  Then your super (in this case a western):  And another super:  The top goes on top of whatever the last box you added, the first step is the inner cover:  Then the telescoping cover:  And that's Walrusmans beehive (minus paint):  Edited because spell check wants a queen exploder and not excluder. Crazy Armed Pilot Crazy Armed Pilot fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Mar 24, 2009 |
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Mar 24, 2009 18:08
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Tips for covert hives: Make sure they have water on YOUR property. In our class most of the bee related complainants that beekeepers received were related to bees getting water from elsewhere. If you don't put out water your neighbor will have thousands of bees around his leaky faucet, pool, hot tub, etc. Make sure that within a couple of feet of the entrance to the hive there is an obstacle 6-8 feet high. Bees will leave the hive and tend not to climb until they have to. If you have an obstacle they will climb up above peoples heads and wont drop back down until they are home. This will move your superhighway of bees up higher where they wont bother neighbors. Make sure your hives are not in view from the street or others. People could be 10 feet from a hive and usually the first sign of it is that they see it. If they don't see it, they wont know about it. Paint it to match your house, camouflage it with plants that also act as your 6-8 foot wall. Crazy Armed Pilot
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Mar 25, 2009 19:04
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Zquargon posted:Keep us posted how this works out for you. I am also in Tucson and am considering starting my own hive next year when I have a backyard... stupid apartments... Its easy to find a place for hives. I am not going to keep mine at my house (rental, and will be moving half way through the summer to another rental). Ask around, someone with a garden would love to have your bees in their yard. I was complaining about not being able to keep bees at my place and I had two of the chemistry professors on my floor competing against one another to get to have the bees on their property. Crazy Armed Pilot
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Mar 27, 2009 05:26
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walrusman posted:So what's the updated scoop on when we get to go out to Silverton and pick up these bees? Can we take the little truck or we going to have to put them in the passenger compartment of one of our cars? Your too drat lazy to call me?  Well they are supposed to be ready around the 1st. I am kind of planning on either taking my hive to him on Sunday or Tuesday. I am going to take it in my car, but when he calls to pick them up, I am planning on taking the pickup truck. I imagine I can pick yours up too and drop it off on the way back to Corvallis. This reminds me through that I have not bought our smokers or hats yet. I think I have the stuff to make a hat so I need to get off my rear end and do that or fork out the   to buy one.Are you going to have any time to hit the Bee store in Eugene on a weekday before Wednesday? I would tomorrow, but I am going skiing and will be in Eugene before they open, and after they close tomorrow. Crazy Armed Pilot Crazy Armed Pilot fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Mar 27, 2009 |
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Mar 27, 2009 06:30
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Okay, how do you all feed your bees. I have been told to use inverted sugar only, and then today at the bee store they said use whatever sugar was cheap, kind didn't matter. My bees are going to need to build out a bunch of comb, and I have a top mounted feeder to keep them rolling in sugar water. How do you feed your bees this time of the year? Crazy Armed Pilot
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Mar 31, 2009 20:37
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I am hella excited! I go to pick up my bees TOMORROW. Pictures to follow soon (I hope). ETA: Okay, my guy is so unorgonized, he actually wants my box so he can put them in next week, but this is what he emailed me: Bee Guy posted:give me a call XXX XXX XXXX. You can bring your equipment and ill install the nucs for you. Crazy Armed Pilot Crazy Armed Pilot fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Apr 2, 2009 |
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Apr 2, 2009 05:56
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walrusman posted:hope the jugs don't rupture in my car. Just put the bees in there they will clean it up 
Crazy Armed Pilot
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Apr 3, 2009 23:33
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walrusman posted:Post those pics of us dressed up like idiots. But I look like an idiot... hedgiejugglr  walrusman  CAP/walrusman  ETA: Anyone want that boat in the background, he tried to sell one of his five that we saw to walrusman and I, but we declined. Crazy Armed Pilot Crazy Armed Pilot fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Apr 4, 2009 |
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Apr 4, 2009 01:45
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I had some honey ice cream yesterday after my run. OH MY GOD, I want my drat box of angry bees! This summer at work is going to rule, liquid nitrogen honey ice cream! Crazy Armed Pilot
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Apr 6, 2009 17:56
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TouchyMcFeely posted:Crazy, since you're starting a hive fresh this year, are you doing any medicating with the new hive? The advice to me was not to. I am starting to get pissed, this fucker hasn't called me to pick up my box-o-angry-bees yet  Walrusman, I am going to have to send you over there to see wtf is going on. Crazy Armed Pilot
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Apr 17, 2009 05:55
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drat, the glory whore I am wanted to be the first to post bee-pictures  I need to drive to my bee-dealer and beat his rear end. Where the gently caress are my bees!!!! (I had store bought honey on my pancakes this morning, so I am a little depressed.) Crazy Armed Pilot
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Apr 19, 2009 21:15
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Well I have my bees out where they will be for the summer. I watched them yesterday bringing in loads of pollen. I am still feeding them, and plan to continue to do so until I put on my super. I have no pictures because all my friends are giant pussies and don't want to get near the hive. The bee guy said that the bees were not doing well with the feeder, but I think he didn't refill it. I filled it with probably a gallon and a half of of sugar syrup, and 3 days later its over half gone. I am going to have to make more in the next day or so. My bees have started comb on all 10 frames, and have fully built out 7 or 8 and have about 5 or 6 full of brood or honey. I am waiting for them to fill up 8 before I throw the second deep on. Now I am just waiting for warm weather, they don't like to go out when its cool. Crazy Armed Pilot
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Apr 27, 2009 22:41
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I had to make up another batch of syrup for the bees yesterday. I was at the store and saw a 2 gallon gas can. I cleaned it out with soap and water, then mixed up my syrup in several batches as I don't have a huge pot to make it in and filled that sucker up. I have to drive to my hive and its a great way to transport and store syrup without spilling it all over the place. It also has the added benefit of screwing over anyone that try's to steal my gas again; put that poo poo in your tank.
Crazy Armed Pilot
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Apr 28, 2009 20:36
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imaginaryfriend posted:Overall, how much money do you think you've spent/will spend? (Taking into account the materials to build the box, the bees themselves, syrup, gloves, etc.) Since no one else has posted, I will re-post the list from earlier and make some additions to it: 2 Deeps - 13.25/ea <- This is where the bees live 2 Western Supers - 10.25/ea <- This is where the bees put honey 2 Deep frame packs - 11.35/ea <- These are what the comb goes in 2 Super frame packs - 11.35/ea 2 Deep foundation - 12.00/10 <- This is what the bees build comb on 2 Super foundation - 9.35/10 1 Inner cover - 9.75/ea <- This is a cover on top with a small home 1 Telescoping cover - 22.00/ea <- This goes over the inner cover 1 Bottom board - 9.00/ea <- This is what it all sits on 1 Queen Excluder - 7.25/ea <- This keeps the queen in the deeps 1 Maxant hive tool - 11.95/ea <- This is the magic wand that makes bees make honey The bees were $65 The bee hat was $27.50 The smoker was $14.95ish Crazy Armed Pilot
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Apr 29, 2009 22:06
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Well I have been absent for a while. Graduating, not finding a job and thus getting into graduate school, then starting a company and trying to do both has taken up anything even resembling free time. Sorry I do not have pictures yet, but I hope to have some up soon. I put my bees out the same time Walrusman did, and we have mirrored each other pretty closely within a few days. I fed them as much syrup as they could eat until I put my first super on. At first it was about a gallon a week, but by the time I put on my second deep, they were doing a gallon in two or three days. They filled eight frames of the second deep up in 10 days, so I removed the syrup, and put on the excluder and my first super. Progress slowed greatly from that point on. My super has been on for about three weeks, and they have only built it out about 50% (more in the middle, less on the outsides) and there are 5-10 cells on each one that they have started to put honey in. I was generally disappointed, but opened the hive up yesterday to inspect and ended up removing the super to look below... Oh poo poo. They have been busy, packing it all in down there. I hope they finish shoving it into every nook and cranny so they can start putting some up top, where I can have it! So far, all in all, I think I have done pretty good for having no clue as to what I am doing. I am combating an infestation of earwigs (disgusting little bugs). From what I have read through, they do not harm the bees and only reside in the cracks where the bees can not get (when I opened the hive and some fell down on the landing pad the bees jumped on them like white on rice, killed them and threw them off). They mainly live in the crack around the edge of the inner cover and telescoping cover. Their presence can indicate too much humidity in the hive, and I saw a recommendation to prop the cover open a little more to allow increased ventilation. I did that last night, and we will see how that effects their populations. Other than earwigs the only other issues is the bees build bridge comb everywhere in the deeps. I checked and the bee space is right, but they still do it. It makes me not want to pull the frames out because gooey wax and brood seem to spill everywhere as it damages all the surrounding cells on the frames. Anyway, I got my first taste of honey last night, and BOY WAS IT GOOD! Crazy Armed Pilot
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Jun 23, 2009 19:28
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