Bees and my time

[shaper]

I haven't been on the forum lately, my time has been diverted to a new hobby. For several years I have wanted to have some bees on the place. So about this time last year I joined the local bee club. Bought a hive and put it in place. Then they tell me I needed two of them to make comparisons between the two. OK, I bought another hive, ordered two packages of bees and put them in the hives. All is good and I brought them through the winter without losing any of them. After that it is all a blur. I now have 6 hives on the stand and another one being built in the shop. Then there are the spare supers and spare frames and the spare foundations that I have to keep on hand for each hive. Reloading, smelting, scrounging lead, no time. Got to check the bees. Had two swarms this month, lost one caught one. And please don't tell my wife how much these things cost. Haven't seen any honey yet but that is ok. Don't get me wrong, I'm having a blast with these little critters. It's like the day I found some lead for free, I just have to find more. So I'll be back when the critters go to sleep. Do bees sleep? Back to the book again.

[bullet maker 57]

Better you than me. I am allergic to the little critters.

[prsman23]

How much time does having one give take up a week. The girlfriend and I bought a hive and have bees coming. She is worried about the time commitment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[nagantguy]

Congratulations on your new hobby, I'm fascinated by bee keeping, they say it's the first thing man domesticated even before the dog, don't know cause I wasn't there. We've been wanting some, for honey wax and the gardening benefit, three hoses down , in my neck of the woods is about 3 quarters of a mile has bees and the large alpaca /chicken farm across the street started with one hive and now have 6, we are not lazy but I see the time involved with wood getting farming, kids shooting casting work and bathroom remodeling it won't be this year.

[Baja_Traveler]

Here's my brother and I under the pomegranate tree harvesting our hive a few years ago. It's been replaced with a new one, and moved up the hill since then. We lost it last year with an invasion of wax moths, and even after cleaning out the hive, we cannot get a swarm to stay. So it will go into a bonfire and the brother is building a new one. I'm amazed at what they charge for hive bodies, so we build our own on the table saw. We're pretty hands off on our hive, don't bother it at all until it comes time for the harvest.

167888

[OS OK]

Brother and I were shortcutting through a big field one day when we came across a single hive, as we headed for the shade of an oak tree I thought…"hey, lets rob that hive for some big chunks of honeycomb…whatcha say?" Brother, at first was having no part of it, finally agreed, but ''You do it, OK?" Sure, piece of cake I said, just have to be calm, those darn bees won't bother you, you big 'chicken!'. As Brother stood by and watched I had one tray out about 1/2 way when a bee landed partially in Brothers nostril…he panicked, started 'swatting and snorting' and before I could get that tray back in and put the lid back on top we got 'tore-up'. Those little suckers sure stick together in a fight! After that, every time he would see a group of hives he'd smack me and call me an 'idiot!' I still laugh when I think of that summer morning back in 1963.

OS OK

[joesig]

How much time does having one give take up a week. The girlfriend and I bought a hive and have bees coming. She is worried about the time commitment.

More in the beginning but still not too bad. Twenty minutes a week per hive? I am doing my best to the hands off/let nature do its thing approach and just check that they aren't getting crowded and ready to swarm. That will vary depending on breed and honey flow. In the summer it is closer to 15 min/hive every 2-3 weeks.

Now, processing the honey is something else.

[rockrat]

Would love to have a hive on my place. Friend gave me a hive. Reality set in a short time later, reminding me that I am allergic to the sting. Took him back his hive.
Love to stand by my apple tree, when it is blooming, and listen/watch them little buggers go at their rounds. I don't bother them, they don't bother me.

[Blackwater]

OS OK, I can sort'a identify with your story. I used to love to shoot down wasp nests with my BB gun. Had to hit it just right to get it to cut the little point of attachment to wherever it was. The bigger the nest (some were nearly 1' square!), the bigger the challenge, and the more "big boy courage" I had to muster up to commence the attack. I found out that I could get pretty close by moving slowly, and this helped my aim, of course. But it ALSO made escape more difficult and less likely, too! Needless to say, I learned how far I needed to get away to be "safe" from their swarming when I shot it down, or missed that and just made them mad, strictly by trial and error, and error included getting stung, usually.

The learning process for getting wasp nests for fish bait was pretty painful, even if it WAS full of adventure and daring. I guess you could say I wasn't too bright as a kid! But I sure did have a lot of fun, adventure and occasionally even learned something along the way. Being innocent of results can be a painful experience!

[shaper]

How much time does having one give take up a week. The girlfriend and I bought a hive and have bees coming. She is worried about the time commitment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The best advice is to find a neighbor, relative, bee club member, someone to come to your house and look in your box of bees while you are there. Take a note book with you. They will be able to tell you what to do, what to look for, and when to do it.
It isn't hard to keep bees, you just need to know what to do.

[TreeKiller]

Here's my brother and I under the pomegranate tree harvesting our hive a few years ago. It's been replaced with a new one, and moved up the hill since then. We lost it last year with an invasion of wax moths, and even after cleaning out the hive, we cannot get a swarm to stay. So it will go into a bonfire and the brother is building a new one. I'm amazed at what they charge for hive bodies, so we build our own on the table saw. We're pretty hands off on our hive, don't bother it at all until it comes time for the harvest.

167888
Wax moths did not kill the hives. Properly was Varroa Mites. Did you treat for them? Did you put them on wax foundation or plastic? If wax you should be able to cut the old foundation out and replace it. If plastic pressure wash the frames to get all the old drawn comb off and re wax. Clean up the hive body's and they should be ok to use again.
Dan

[Alstep]

I started bee keeping about 5 years ago. Long story short, my first jar of honey cost me $1400. And that's putting all the hives together myself. Tools, smoker, suit, extractor, frames, foundation, etc, all adds up quickly. Lost some hives, some survived the winter, some didn't, mites always an issue, it goes on & on. Had a good harvest last July, then early Sept, they ate all the honey I left them and didn't produce any more, so they starved & left. Package of bees is $130 this year. That's it, I'm done! I've got enough honey to last us for years, gave a lot of it away to friends & neighbors. It's an interesting hobby, but a lot of work to do it right. Good luck!

[Bo1]

I worked my hive today. I am a first time beekeeper, and learning from books and joined the local bee club (although I don't attend very often) I saved a starving swarm from a neighbors tree this past late winter, and put them in a hive I built. The bees were probably down to 1500 in numbers, maybe less. I live in Louisiana, and with all of the spring flooding, I had to move the hive 3 times. The last time over a quarter of a mile from its original location. 2 out of the 3 times I moved them, water was already halfway in the hive. These bees have had defied unsurmountable odds, and survived. Today, I worked them a little and moved some frames around to encourage them to build out more on the plasticell frames. I had to remove some comb because of the "double comb" they were trying to build. The bees were easy to work with today, and are probably up to 12-15k strong. It is very rewarding to help these bees, and very interesting working with them. I ordered 4 NUC's last December, and have built more hive bodies, and am waiting on a call this week to go pick them up. I can say that I am enjoying my new hobby, and don't mind making a little time once every week or two to work with them for 15 minutes.

[Bookworm]

I had bees several years ago, wan to do it again. I lost every hive eventually. The last 4 just disappeared....dwindled to nothing.
I have been reading about the bees disappearing, the latest theory is that the workers leave to forage, get into some pesticide-laden stuff (nicinitoids (sp?) being the suspected culprit) and just "forget" whence they came.
They cannot find their way home. With the workers not bringing any food in, the rest just starve. I've lost 4 hives that way.

I'll try again in a year or so....

[starmac]

It seems to me the real money in bees is renting them out, but that isn't a backyard beekeepers game.

A funny story about wasps, bee or wasp stings never really bothered me. Cleaning up under the bleachers at the football field I noticed there were quite a few large red wasp nest, so the next highschool game, I had a long stick and got to stirring them wasps up, seems like all of them went up instead of coming down after me, at least I don't remember getting stung. I had plenty of folks whooping, hollering, jumping, slapping and running for a little bit. Finally a big old gal looked between her legs and started hollering, look dat white boy, look that white boy, glad my feet were fast that night, as I think the whole stand cleared out and gave me a run for the money. lol