Keeping bees

+1 except for the home.

I have been thinking about building a hive or two, and then getting bees for next season; I can't afford to get started before then.

I have been doing research, and the only problem I have found so far would be location. I live in the woods. I have very little open space that gets full sun, the one section I have is a pipeline, and bees would not be welcome there by the pipeline men.

I have a small sunny location in the back yard, but they would only be about 20 ft from my backdoor. I get dappled sunlight where my garden is, it gets about 10 hours of south and westerly sunlight. The only problem with that is its in the garden.

I have 20 acres of woodland, but research says they need to be in full sun. Would it be possible to put them in the woods where they could get dappled sunlight and have a good water source? Also would they find my garden that would be about a 1/4 of an acre from them?

I don't want to waste my money on a venture that will not help my garden situation. What are your thoughts on this? Thanks in advance.

Cajunsmoke14 wrote:I have been thinking about building a hive or two, and then getting bees for next season; I can't afford to get started before then.

I have a small sunny location in the back yard, but they would only be about 20 ft from my backdoor. I get dappled sunlight where my garden is, it gets about 10 hours of south and westerly sunlight. The only problem with that is its in the garden.

I have 20 acres of woodland, but research says they need to be in full sun. Would it be possible to put them in the woods where they could get dappled sunlight and have a good water source? Also would they find my garden that would be about a 1/4 of an acre from them?

I perceive that part of the problem is that most beekeeping information is written for the North and you are from the South. Ignore that thing about full sun. Full sun in the summertime is going to stress the bees something awful! Yes, put them in dappled light, so they don't have to bake.

If you can put them under deciduous tree, it would be good, because then they can have winter sunshine, when it will help them. Also plan your spot to give them the most possible shelter from the wind in the winter.

And don't worry about them reaching your garden to pollinate it - they don't have to walk to the garden. In the heat of summer, a close water source is far more important than the distance from the garden. They will use more than a gallon a day per hive when the temperatures get into the upper 90s.

BTW, I strongly recommend that new beekeepers start with 2 hives for many reasons, which will become apparent over time. Also be sure that you build your equipment in standard dimensions. It's easy to build boxes, tops and bottoms, but I've found it much easier to buy frames. Although I resisted plastic for a long time in my own beekeeping, I am now fully sold on Pierco frames, which include frame and foundation both in one molding. The bees accept them better than the old plastic ones, and they don't get brittle like the early plastic equipment.

Thanks for the information. I was planning on building the actual hives and purchasing the plastic frames and foundations. I think I will begin building hives, continuing to research and planning to get bees next spring.

Thanks again.... 

Urban Farm magazine, May/June 2014, pages 16-19, "How to Handle a Swarm."

sanderson wrote:Urban Farm magazine, May/June 2014, pages 16-19, "How to Handle a Swarm."

wish I had a swarm or two to handle.

Fresno Co. has a list of bee keepers that will remove bees from unwanted areas. Just a thought for someone to let it been known that they have empty, ready hives for relocation. Make sense? Need more coffee.

I still have no bees.  I did see three different kinds of butterfly today though.

But no bees in the garden, period.

This is going to be a rough year for cucurbits.

Or you will get carpal tunnel from using the paint brushes like I do!   

Whilst putting on honey supers today I got a bee in my bonnet. Let's just say it did not end well.
 

For you or the bee?   

boffer wrote:For you or the bee?   

Both of us. She nailed me on the right eyebrow. I may have to take a sick day tomorrow. I'm already getting the prize fighter look after about an hour.
  

  

  

Is that a normal response to a bee sting for you?

boffer wrote:Is that a normal response to a bee sting for you?

I get a typical normal venom response but this is the first time I have gotten a sting on the face. I think stings there typically swells significantly due to the highly vascular area.  Dunno, we shall see. Clearly I need to replace some of the elastic on my veil.

Facial stings tend to move slowly down the face . This time tomorrow Camp may well look like a sumo wrestler in her face & neck as well as having car tyre inner tube sized lips .

About 12 years ago  Alison got stung on her filtrum ( the bit under her nose ) it came up like balloon , for three days she had a size 24" collar and lips like petals ..  bicycle petals . Kind of looked like she'd had five rounds with TYSON & lost every one .

 The day I got zapped fiver times on my face through the veil when a strong gust of wind put it flat against my face whilst playing with an interesting hive ( didn't wear a peaked/ brimmed hat under the veil in those days ) my face just closed up for four days .

Evidently I looked like a big livid red black & blue bruised  pumpkin with pencil lines where my eyebrows were .

Oooook, so any advice on speeding up the whole reaction process? I'm thinking a heating pad...

camprn wrote:

sanderson wrote:Urban Farm magazine, May/June 2014, pages 16-19, "How to Handle a Swarm."

wish I had a swarm or two to handle.

I have two bait boxes set up about five feet high (bees like to be higher than ground level), and one caught a swarm.

We've had two swarm calls; one was gone before we got there, and the other was too high to get. I think our swarm season is over now. At least we've reached the point where a swarm isn't worth much.

camprn wrote:

boffer wrote:Is that a normal response to a bee sting for you?

I get a typical normal venom response but this is the first time I have gotten a sting on the face. I think stings there typically swells significantly due to the highly vascular area.  Dunno, we shall see. Clearly I need to replace some of the elastic on my veil.

Anywhere on face or ears usually will have a much greater reaction. I hope you took a Benedryl immediately.

When a bee gets inside your veil, they generally sting in the first few seconds, if they are going to. After that, they are just trying to get out. If you can stay calm, move away from the other bees, then carefully let your bee out, you'll generally be OK.

I remember when my twelve-year-old son, who was helping me, got his first bee inside his veil, and he whipped off the veil. Not a good idea. A bee inside the veil can only sting once. Back then, we had a much more feisty race of bees, and he got nailed several times. We laughed about it later.

Pollinator wrote:

camprn wrote:

boffer wrote:Is that a normal response to a bee sting for you?

I get a typical normal venom response but this is the first time I have gotten a sting on the face. I think stings there typically swells significantly due to the highly vascular area.  Dunno, we shall see. Clearly I need to replace some of the elastic on my veil.

Anywhere on face or ears usually will have a much greater reaction. I hope you took a Benedryl immediately.

When a bee gets inside your veil, they generally sting in the first few seconds, if they are going to. After that, they are just trying to get out. If you can stay calm, move away from the other bees, then carefully let your bee out, you'll generally be OK.

I remember when my twelve-year-old son, who was helping me, got his first bee inside his veil, and he whipped off the veil. Not a good idea. A bee inside the veil can only sting once. Back then, we had a much more feisty race of bees, and he got nailed several times. We laughed about it later.

Yup on the antihistamines, oral and topical. I have had this situation before and always been able to gently remove the veil and away she flies but like you said, it was a quick hit. Any swelling on the head or face is going to look enormous because there just isn't room for it to go anywhere else. Hopefully I can go back to work tomorrow as the swelling is starting to go down and I can sort of open my eye, LOL.  

In my first year of keeping bees, I was hungry for more bees, and would take them anywhere I could find them. I had a call on a colony in a house wall, and found a humungous colony that filled quite a bit of the area between two studs, plus went in the spaces between two ceiling joists about halfway into the room. In those days, before the mites came, colonies used to get very large.

I got the brood into hives, and most of the honeycomb into buckets. I had to use a hoe to reach all the honeycomb that was way in. It was as far as I could reach to pull it out, with my armpit and shoulder right against the sticky wall.

Well I hoped the queen was in the hive with the brood, and there was still quite a bit of honey in the walls. So I left the hive there a couple days so they could get organized, and clean out the honey that was left in the building.

A couple days later I returned to get the hive. I could not back up to it, as it was up a slope about 25 feet from the driveway. It was near dusk, and the bees were about done flying, except that there were quite a few hanging out.

As best I could, I smoked the bees back into the hive, then picked it up to carry down the hill. It was awesomely heavy, and I was definitely staggering.

Just then one nailed me on the arm, and then another. I dropped the hive. It came apart, and soon I had bees crawling all over the place.

Well I wasn't about to drive back (about 50 miles each way), for another try, so I gritted my teeth, smoked them until they were gasping for breath, and picked up the pieces as well as I could.

Now smoke doesn't work well after dark, especially when a hive is already greatly disturbed. So there were hundreds of them crawling, on the outside of the hive and, in great numbers, up my sleeves.

The moral of the story is that you never, never drop a hive. If you get stung while carrying it, you just grin and bear it, until you get to the truck and set it down. Dropping a hive will cost you dearly!

At least it made another hive of workers willing and eager to work for me. I went into the pollination business; by my fourth year I had 300 hives. I had bought a truckload of old bee equipment, as well as building some more. By my sixth year I had 900. I figured 1000 hives would be enough to make a living of it.

But my estimations never did quite work out. Pesticides were the reason. Just when the bees were looking really good, they'd get knocked down, and I'd have to build up again. I threw away many frames of pesticide-contaminated pollen, as this would continue to kill brood until it was all used up. The mites came along and did their damage, but we could cope with that. We could not cope with the pesticide misuse of others.

I made a living - barely - and I enjoyed my career, but I'm also enjoying retirement, except for my back. I wish I had been more careful of my back!

Camp ...... Any selfies or portrait pictures for the world to see ??   

 When Alison turned up to work once after being stung , her right side of the face looked like a well progressed goitre complaint .. She had to shorthand notate a small international business meeting.
She got some funny looks from the French & Swiss guys.
  
 The MD was a bit of a *hit and took her to one side after the meeting and said .. " Alison it is in the terms of your contract that you do not undertake any dangerous pursuits, we cannot have you looking like this at important business meetings .".
 
To which Al replied , " I got this standing in Nottcutt's the local garden centre , miles away from our hives , talking to an assistant about water features . I didn't realise that I was in the bee line of large  cotoneaster that was in full flower & nectar flow till it was too late " .

Gak, 6 week delay in my package delivery now! Was scheduled for late April, now it will be early June...

Nhg, did your bees survive the winter ? Or are you currently without bees?

My Italians bit the dust (with lots of honey left in the hive, which I'm trying to protect in the house from the sugar ants...) but the Russians are going strong out there. So I have some to play with until the reinforcements come. A new Russian queen coming late June to try a split with.

Must be poor queen mating down there this spring, is all I can figure.

NHGardener wrote:Gak, 6 week delay in my package delivery now! Was scheduled for late April, now it will be early June...

Migratory beekeepers took a heavy hit in almond pollination from pesticides used during bloom. A couple hundred thousand hives were badly weakened or killed. Some of these bees would normally come back to the Southeast to be used for package and queen production, and it's put the supply in some real stress.

Brokers from California have been begging beekeepers from the east to come for almond pollination in February, and many have taken the bait - good hives get $160 each for just that one pollination. That kind of early cash payment can finance a beekeeping operation for the entire season.

But now some have sworn they'll never go back - or if they do, they will have a serious penalty in the contract for damage to the bees.