New Venture

I'm a fan of bugs, I'm a fan of honey - getting a bee hive was only logical.

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That looks beautiful! How long generally is the wait from colony startup to harvesting honey?

I'm a complete newbie to this apiary stuff so I couldn't tell you with any certainty. I think it would depend on what time of year and your location as to how long until you take your first harvest. I picked up the hive in early May and it was pretty full then. I added another deep(big box for brood and food stores) that basically doubled the size of the hive since. They've already drawn out all the foundation on that one as well. I reckon the next step is to throw some supers(shallow boxes for the honey I'm going to take) on top and see what happens.

Nice! I've always been curious about beekeeping. I'm just a bit jealous that you're getting to live my pipe dream. Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to 1) bring up this topic to my wife, and 2) put this curiosity into an actual plan. I'd like to have something similar to one of these:
http://www.beehacker.com/wp/wp-conte...12/05/hive.png

Awesome! My mom had two hives in the back yard before she passed away. I don't know how much the hives produced, but I do know that she was always giving us honey.

Im getting into apiculture as well….got a spot picked out in the backyard that will house 2 hives and everything. My uncle and Vet Tech teacher both have hives, and my uncle got over 150lbs of honey last year...

@Eric Allan–observation hives usually only hold 4 frames of bees, so if you keep them in one of them for too long they swarm away. You usually have to split them off fairly quickly.

@John1982–what kind of hive management are you using?? Treatment free?? Excluder or not?? And what strain you using?? I'm thinking of trying either Carniolans or Cordovans...

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Originally Posted by Mephibosheth1

@John1982–what kind of hive management are you using?? Treatment free?? Excluder or not?? And what strain you using?? I'm thinking of trying either Carniolans or Cordovans...

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I'm basically just adding boxes so the hive can grow. I'm hoping to split the hive eventually. I probably will use an excluder, plan on getting some advice from Dadant when I go later this week to pickup a couple supers. It just seems more convenient come harvest time to not have to deal with brood and stuff. I'm not a big fan of proactive treatment but it seems to be what most folks do with bees. They say you lose about 1/3 of your hives each year even with treatment so I just don't know. It's a learning process for me so I'll probably just let this hive go natural and keep an eye on things - pick up some useful info along the way. These are an Italian strain - pretty much what folks around here have the most success with I'm told.

Very nice…you should get on Beesource.com…there's a very knowledgeable base of beekeepers on there (even some of the 'leaders' in the field post regularly). Look me up if you're on there…my username is the same as it is here

It'd be awesome to see inspection pics of your hive as it progresses…good luck to you and your little ladies :)

I'm super jealous! I have wanted a bee hive and honey for quite awhile. Unfortunately my yard isnt big enough and my neighbor's are all too close. :( Please make sure you post lots of pics and stuff! And if you ever get too much honey....;);)

Just give them lots of honey (or brew them some mead) and they'll probably forgive you….

You'd be surprised how many urban beekeepers there are

I'm fitting 2 hives in the backyard, in addition to the Falconry Mews and the swimming pool, so I'm sure you can do it too Doolittle :gj:

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Originally Posted by Mephibosheth1

Just give them lots of honey (or brew them some mead) and they'll probably forgive you….

You'd be surprised how many urban beekeepers there are

I'm fitting 2 hives in the backyard, in addition to the Falconry Mews and the swimming pool, so I'm sure you can do it too Doolittle :gj:

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I want to see the mews when it's done! One of my childhood friend's dad was a falconer and he'd take us hunting sometimes - amazing stuff.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Awesome! My mom had two hives in the back yard before she passed away. I don't know how much the hives produced, but I do know that she was always giving us honey.

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Apiculture is much more popular than I expected. I learned my father's father kept bees when he was living too. When I went to pickup my hive there were at least 30 other folks there doing the same thing. Apparently, one hive can produce several hundred pounds of honey in a season - so many factors involved though, it could also produce zilch.

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Originally Posted by Eric Alan

Nice! I've always been curious about beekeeping. I'm just a bit jealous that you're getting to live my pipe dream. Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to 1) bring up this topic to my wife, and 2) put this curiosity into an actual plan. I'd like to have something similar to one of these:
http://www.beehacker.com/wp/wp-conte...12/05/hive.png

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I've never seen one of those, pretty cool!

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Originally Posted by DooLittle

I'm super jealous! I have wanted a bee hive and honey for quite awhile. Unfortunately my yard isnt big enough and my neighbor's are all too close. :( Please make sure you post lots of pics and stuff! And if you ever get too much honey....;);)

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I've been told bees tend to fly level once they get going so if you put a privacy fence around your hive they should be high flyers and not a nuisance to your neighbors. Hives are kind of like snake/rat racks in that they use a small footprint, packing a lot of action in a little space.

surprisingly I was just speaking to Aaron Pauling about this very same subject last night! he's been doing it for years and seems very knowledgeable on the subject. hit him up if you have any questions being a new beek. He even has 3 hives of africanized bees lol.

This is really cool. Beekeeping has always interested me too.

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Nice to see someone else in the hobby! By that, I don't mean I'm currently in, but, I was in charge of taking care of three beehives at a nature preserve for three years. And while researching in Peru, I helped to take out two wild hives.

Keep us updated!


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How's the bees coming along?

Had some family over today and got a few pics while I messed with the bees so thought I'd update. Overall, I tend to neglect my hive and let them do their own thing. With so much rain this year we never got a strong nectar flow and they were looking on the barren side all summer. I was going to feed them today but it seems the last month has been dry enough; the fall flowers have been able to provide plenty of nectar. They hive has basically tripled in size since my last check a couple weeks ago and I ended up with 3 jars of honey just from the burr comb I had to remove.

Looking for the queen on one of my brood frames:http://i839.photobucket.com/albums/z...psayut3whz.jpg

There she is, always easy to spot this big gal:http://i839.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps45rbjs0o.jpg

Inspecting some fresh drawn comb. You can also see some of the burr on the wall of the top deep sitting on the table and what was left after I removed some from the top of the bottom frames. It was a mess but I enjoy playing with my bees so it was a good time cleaning them up - tastes good too:http://i839.photobucket.com/albums/z...psvhd7rmzq.jpg

Bees capping off some honey, had several frames full of this liquid gold:http://i839.photobucket.com/albums/z...psxj2i4u28.jpg

Very interesting, I enjoyed your post and thread.

Glad to see the Ladies doing well. Here in NYC I'm not able to keep any animals, so I had to leave my dreams of apiculture back in Cali. One of the things I can't wait to get back to when I finally get back out there :P

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Originally Posted by Mephibosheth1

Glad to see the Ladies doing well. Here in NYC I'm not able to keep any animals, so I had to leave my dreams of apiculture back in Cali. One of the things I can't wait to get back to when I finally get back out there :P

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It's more fun that I ever expected and nothing quite like honey fresh from the hive. As an added bonus, my brother-in-law got his first hive this year. Should make life easier with each of us having a second location to bring splits!

You gonna make some mead?? One of my friends here in NY had some...it's super good

With me living in SA and an elementary school next door......this is out of the question.
One day though.
Looks good. :gj::gj:

@Pit yeah bees are a bit of a hot-button topic around other people...sorry you're so close to a school :rage:

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Originally Posted by Mephibosheth1

You gonna make some mead?? One of my friends here in NY had some...it's super good

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Looked into that a while ago and I think you need cooler temps to do it right. I don't run central air so the house averages 80F in the warmer months.