Does anyone on the forums have apiaries?
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I've been keeping bees since the early 90's. It's fascinating to watch them, harbingers of the changing seasons, give you the first hints of what is yet to come in the natural world around us. My girls have already found the goldenrod, even though I don't see any in bloom quite yet. Same in late winter, as they make their first flights of the new year, scoping out the skunk cabbage and crocus blooms, flying in, laden with pollen to feed their brood.
I suggest that you see if your local ag school has a "beekeeping short course". These are usually two or three-day intensive classes over a weekend, and are worth their weight in gold. Also, join your local beekeepers club ASAP. They will help you with everything and anything. Friendly folks, beekeepers. Some of the smoke pipes, too.
I suggest that you see if your local ag school has a "beekeeping short course". These are usually two or three-day intensive classes over a weekend, and are worth their weight in gold. Also, join your local beekeepers club ASAP. They will help you with everything and anything. Friendly folks, beekeepers. Some of the smoke pipes, too.
Natenice1:
I am a bee-fancier and have, over the years, accumulated a fair-sized library on apiary science, but do not yet have any hives. May I recommend that you check to see if your state has a bee-keepers' association (you might Google ____________ (your state's name) State Bee-keepers' Association, and see what comes up. Each year at the State Fair in my state the bee-keepers have a large display in the Agriculture/Horticulture Building, and there they also offer sign-up for an annual class which they hold for beginners.
Bees are fascinating and necessary creatures, and I feel that they would be well-worth the investment in time, hives, bees, and equipment required. Further, as you note, you receive honey in exchange for your efforts!
Once they are up-and-running please post images of your hives, as I would love to see them.
Good Luck, and Good Smoking!
I am a bee-fancier and have, over the years, accumulated a fair-sized library on apiary science, but do not yet have any hives. May I recommend that you check to see if your state has a bee-keepers' association (you might Google ____________ (your state's name) State Bee-keepers' Association, and see what comes up. Each year at the State Fair in my state the bee-keepers have a large display in the Agriculture/Horticulture Building, and there they also offer sign-up for an annual class which they hold for beginners.
Bees are fascinating and necessary creatures, and I feel that they would be well-worth the investment in time, hives, bees, and equipment required. Further, as you note, you receive honey in exchange for your efforts!
Once they are up-and-running please post images of your hives, as I would love to see them.
Good Luck, and Good Smoking!
Always wanted to do that, but the lay of the land is such that there's recall no place to put any hives.
To hell with bees I kill every one I see ... After I run from them waving my hands around and screaming like a school girl. I do however love honey.
I seldom get stung, but after a while, you don't mind, anyways. You learn what not to wear (bright colors and scent of any kind), when not to "work" the hive without a full suit (you can work them naked when the nectar is flowing) and you learn to work with them, not against them.
Of course, not many non-beekeepers can differentiate between honeybees and wasps. Outside of the hive, honeybees are quite docile and almost never sting people, unless stepped on or otherwise harassed. I like putting a droplet of honey on the tip of my finger and picking up a honeybee from a flower. They will sit quietly on your finger until they've eaten all the honey.
Of course, not many non-beekeepers can differentiate between honeybees and wasps. Outside of the hive, honeybees are quite docile and almost never sting people, unless stepped on or otherwise harassed. I like putting a droplet of honey on the tip of my finger and picking up a honeybee from a flower. They will sit quietly on your finger until they've eaten all the honey.
I'm not a bee guy but my wife's dad had bees, and I had a good friend (now deceased) who kept bees.
I was particularly moved by my friend's description of finding the little worker bees (these are little
females as we know) having lived out their lives and died, lying on the ground with their tiny wings
tattered from all the exertions, the mark of a busy and productive life. I am concerned for bees in
general, both for their critical role in pollinating our food crops, and for themselves as a species. They
are important little creatures and deserve our support and respect.
I was particularly moved by my friend's description of finding the little worker bees (these are little
females as we know) having lived out their lives and died, lying on the ground with their tiny wings
tattered from all the exertions, the mark of a busy and productive life. I am concerned for bees in
general, both for their critical role in pollinating our food crops, and for themselves as a species. They
are important little creatures and deserve our support and respect.
Newburgh, NY 12 miles north of the USMA at West Point, it is funny an avid amateur radio operator I am and on a local Tuesday night net, I knew the guy local but never knew about The Hudson Valley Beekeepers Association! They hold classes, sell supplies and some members offer their services as pest control for removing colonies! WOW
Let's remember that here in North America, the honey bee (apis mellifera) is an invasive species. Yes, it has become essential to food production, with some 30% of our crops dependent on them for pollination, but they still are not native.
Whenever the local population of honeybees drops off, I am astounded by the proliferation of other pollinators. All manner of non-apis bees, thriving in the absence of the voracious honeybee.
EDIT: Give those folks at The Hudson Valley Beekeepers Association a call. They will love to help you out. Just be warned, beekeepers can be an enthusiastic and eccentric bunch.
Whenever the local population of honeybees drops off, I am astounded by the proliferation of other pollinators. All manner of non-apis bees, thriving in the absence of the voracious honeybee.
EDIT: Give those folks at The Hudson Valley Beekeepers Association a call. They will love to help you out. Just be warned, beekeepers can be an enthusiastic and eccentric bunch.
Down here in Texas we got the "killer bees " does that become a problem with them breeding with your bees
One of a bee-keeper's indispensable tools is the bee-smoker (a can with a nozzle, and to which is attached a hand-operated bellows) which is used to calm the bees while working the hives. Typically these are fueled with pine needles, punky wood, straw, hay, leaves, or scraps of natural fabric such as burlap which are placed inside of the can and then ignited. As the bellows is worked, gentle puffs of smoke emerge which are directed toward the bees.
Sounds rather reminiscent of pipe-smoking, doesn't it? I wonder if tobacco smoke would have a similarly soporific effect on bees? If so, then a pipe-smoking bee-keeper might calm his bees AND himself!
Sounds rather reminiscent of pipe-smoking, doesn't it? I wonder if tobacco smoke would have a similarly soporific effect on bees? If so, then a pipe-smoking bee-keeper might calm his bees AND himself!
Yup.
Africanized honeybees are a real problem, but their spread has been limited by careful policing and cold winters. Africanized bees are fantastic foragers, though and produce a lot of honey. They will only sting when they sense that their hive is in danger, since stinging kills the bee. They are just a lot more paranoid and stupid than the Euros, I guess, so mass suicide by stinging seems to be OK with them.
EDIT: Smoke and bees: Smoke makes bees think that their hive is on fire, so they gorge themselves on honey, preparing to start a new hive from scratch. A bee full of honey is slow and sated. Honey will retain the flavor of the smoke, so if you like Borkum Riff Honey, have at it.
Africanized honeybees are a real problem, but their spread has been limited by careful policing and cold winters. Africanized bees are fantastic foragers, though and produce a lot of honey. They will only sting when they sense that their hive is in danger, since stinging kills the bee. They are just a lot more paranoid and stupid than the Euros, I guess, so mass suicide by stinging seems to be OK with them.
EDIT: Smoke and bees: Smoke makes bees think that their hive is on fire, so they gorge themselves on honey, preparing to start a new hive from scratch. A bee full of honey is slow and sated. Honey will retain the flavor of the smoke, so if you like Borkum Riff Honey, have at it.
Woodsroad as much as amateur radio operators, plenty of eccentricities I think because most people just don't know or want to know when someone new comes in it's just the excitement that someone actually wants to learn by participating in conversation and physically doing it rather than watching a You Tube video and being a self proclaimed expert! It's all good though I welcome anyone's opinion. :D
I am replacing eccentricities with enthusiasm, that's better!
I am replacing eccentricities with enthusiasm, that's better!
I keep bees of the solitary variety. Since I have been unemployed for the last two years I have had plenty of extra time on my hands to tend to my vegetable garden. Solitary bees are more efficient pollinators and are less likely to sting my small children, not to mention myself who is deathly allergic to bees. I started with a few nesting blocks a few years ago as an experiment with my daughter and now we have a wall of nesting blocks by the garden. We harvest the pupa in the fall and store them until spring when my garden is about to go full bloom.
I have never raised bees but planted two plants (have no idea what they are) that bloom with beautiful flowers and have grown over 7 feet in 7 years. When these plants bloom the bees are busy at work. I am fortunate enough that these are located in front of the patio where I do most of my pipe smoking. With all of the walking through to get in and out of the house and traffic during the weekend I am the only one in my family that has been stung in the 10 yrs since I planted them. One of the bees happened to be in a towel that I was folding and he got me. Otherwise they could care less that we were there. I sometimes smoke and just watch them work, buzzing from flower to flower. It's quite hypnotic actually.
Three years ago, when I started keeping the old family farm, I contacted our local beekeeper organization (co-op) to see if anyone wanted to put bees on my land. I had a local guy come out and set three hives on the property. I don't have to do anything, and we get a sizable amount of honey without having to mess with getting any of the equipment or the bees. It beats me having to invest money or time in learning the critters, and I get a lifetime supply of honey. IMO, very worth it.
I kept bees when in high school, on our family farm. Loved it. When I went off to college, I sort of neglected my hives and my Father told me if I wasn't going to care for them properly I would have to sell them. Being young and dumb, I had my priorities wrong, sold them. Always wanted to get back into it, but haven't yet. I'll retire in 6 years....... its on my list!!
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