Apiary Farmers please sound off. : )

[Just Duke]

Apiary Farmers please sound off. : )

[jnovotny]

Apiary is that a cross between a fairy and an ape? Just joshing but seriously what is a apiery framer?

[Just Duke]

Apiary is that a cross between a fairy and an ape? Just joshing but seriously what is a apiery framer?

https://www.google.com/search?q=apie...hrome&ie=UTF-8

[starmac]

Ninth grade word for bee keeping. lol

[jnovotny]

That explains it never made it to the ninth grade!

[TreeKiller]

YELL!!!!!! YES
Now what?

[chrisw]

hooya!

[Philngruvy]

I had bees in Florida many years ago and I had a terrible time with fire ants invading the hives totally destroying them. Now I am in North Carolina and I think I may try it again. I love honey on my peanut butter sandwichs.

[Blacksmith]

Duke
What do you want to know? I have explored the option but don't have a good location. I have read A. Root's ABC of Bee Culture and have a friend who wins ribbons at the county fair every year.

Here is a resource:
http://bees.library.cornell.edu/b/bees/

[farmerjim]

I have 4 abandoned hives on my pace. The bees won't go to the squash 20 feet from the hives. The local wild bees take care of my pollination.

[randyrat]

When I'm processing beeswax you would think I was a Apiary, there are many honeybees around me. People stop by once in a while during the process, they go nuts with all the bees around us. They don't bother me at all, I love bees. I have too many irons in the fire to worry about my own Supers though.

[chrisw]

Anyone in SWVA want to start or work out a lease or pollination contract or something so I can keep some hives on your land?

thanks!
Chris

[gwpercle]

I have 2 questions concerning bees: 1) In my back yard is a hollow tree that bees live in. The hole through whichthey come and go is about 2 inches off the ground. Grass is starting to grow up around it and now partialy blocks the opening. Should I pull some of the grass for them or are they okay with the grass and will trim it themselves if it gets in thier way?
2) Twice now ants have built nests near the base of the tree, each time I sprinkled a product called Amdro fire ant bait granules around the nest. The ants eat it and die..is this okay to do ? I don't want to hurt the bee's and I don't think the bees are eating it.
I like the bees, they are nice and friendly..all these years none of us have ever been stung. Sometimes they will bump into you if you are standing by the hole but they just fly on. In the garden when picking vegtables or fruit they just move to another spot while you pick. What they really like are oue citrus trees and basil plants. My wife plants basil just for the bees..no telling what the honey taste like ..lemon, lime,satsuma and basil ? Bees...YES. Fire ants...NO

[JeffinNZ]

Would love to be but SWMBO won't let me have a hive at home. Kiera standing on a bee today and getting stung didn't help my cause.

[starmac]

I'm sure it is, but I have never seen honey bees that close to the ground, all the bee trees I have ever found, the knot hole they used was several feet off the ground.

[krag35]

I have 2 Mason Bee hives in my back yard. I don't care for honey, and am allergic to bees, the Mason Bees are less aggressive and pollinate my stuff, so I cater to them.

[reloader28]

I've sure thought about it.
Thats just what I need, another hobby.

[Beekeeper]

What does anyone want to know about beekeeping>
Did it as a hobby and comercially for aver 20 years.

First lesson:
Get stung and see if you have an allergic reaction.
If you do do not keep bees.

Any beekeeper that tells you he doesn't get stung Lies.
What else do you want to know?


beekeeper

[gwpercle]

I'm sure it is, but I have never seen honey bees that close to the ground, all the bee trees I have ever found, the knot hole they used was several feet off the ground.

I have never seen them that close to the ground either. I have looked but not seen a hole higher. Nor have I seen the bees flying into the upper parts/limbs of the tree. krag35 mentioned Mason bees...so I gaggled them and they could be...the discription said they are solitary and didn't live in hives but it also said there are 300 species in the Northern hemisphere...so God only knows what they are. The nest photo's they had looked like the ones the carpenter bees make . These guys may not be honey bees but they go to each flower and do a good job pollinating and are not at all aggressive. I thought all bees were honey bees.



Beekeeper, what kind of bees do you think I have ?
gary
I just read there are 20,000 species of bees in all...I had no idea there were so many different kinds

Today I found out what kind of bees I've got, they are
Halictus ( Seladonia ) Confusus... also known as confusing sweat bees,
at least thats the best the boy's at Louisiana State University bug department could come up with. They are not honey or mason bees. These are very common, eusocial and live in or near the ground, are not aggressive, are resistent to mites and diseases that wipe out honey bees. I learned more about bees today than I ever need to know.
gary...no beekeeper

[chrisw]

What does anyone want to know about beekeeping>
Did it as a hobby and comercially for aver 20 years.

First lesson:
Get stung and see if you have an allergic reaction.
If you do do not keep bees.

Any beekeeper that tells you he doesn't get stung Lies.
What else do you want to know?


beekeeper

LMAO- I get stung often, but I don't worry about every piece of protection part, um, actually most of the time. And perhaps more, I have some hot hives from local black feral bees I've caught.

that said- I know 2 beekeepers who are allergic, and one has 10 hives of pretty hot bees, and he makes sure he totally suits up, doing everything right, every time and hasn't been stung in over 10 years.

of course, I keep an epi-pen close most of the time, cause an allergy can happen at any time- you can be stung 2000 times and the 2001st you could develop an allergy. But more likely is a helper or new beekeeper that might need the epi-pen. Insurance is a good thing!