Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Any BeeKeepers?

I have 6 acres in a pretty rural area. My SIL is going to put two boxes out. There are lots of flowering plants within a mile of the house including a peach orchard and several clover fields. Don't have the hives with queens yet, but hope to get them from swarms or will buy a couple of locs with marked queens. Just wondering if there is any beekeepers that i might be able to get some advice from. thanks

My family had a beekeeping business, and I believe there are a few others on the board as well.

There are two types of boxes you get for bee's - Hive bodies are the taller / deeper boxes and you have 2 of them on the base for the bees to store thier food for winter. "Supers" are the thinner / less deep boxes you put on the top of the 2 hive bodies to harvest honey with.

Always put the hive bodies up off the ground, we used to have them facing south, and we'd have an old hive body box at the bottom as a base with bricks under it to make sure it stayed level.

You need to mow around the hives so they can fly in and out, if you put them next to a hedge row be sure you mow in front of them.

You can buy (they ship them) bee's so if you buy the hive bodies, tools and bee's you can be up and running. There are plenty of other little details, but those are the start up thoughts before my first cup of coffee is done.

Spot

Trying to be, but still pretty new. Lots of things to watch for that I did not know existed. First thing was small hive beetles. They found my new package bees within days. I happened to be watching and saw one light and enter the hive. A few minutes later I saw another and smashed it before it could enter. I then went online and looked them up. Problem in the South mostly as they came from Africa, somehow. Controllable but a problem if not looked after. Another is Wax moths. I had robbed and captured a hive from an old house late in the year, and did not know about wax moths. The hive was weak in August when the wax moths are at their worst. I lost that hive. I put out some simple traps and caught a lot of moths. I am sure not all are wax moths but but I have caught close to 200 in about 8 months and a lot of that was winter when they were not flying, in 2 traps. Probably a lot more stuff than I know. Forgot about the mites. 2 kinds that you have to treat for. Lots of stuff, but I like to mess with them. miles

Don't be tempted to use a deep for honey. Even a medium full of honey is heavy. miles

Miles' bees make great honey!!!

😋

I'll ask for clemency ahead of time, then say, there's quite a buzz about that, but I've not gotten the bug yet.

Miles gave so great advice. I'm just a hobbyist who's trying it again after a 30 yr hiatus. Was able to get my two hives through the winter, so I guess I can call myself a keeper again.

My 2¢.

I frequent the forums on Beesource a lot. It's got a wealth of information and expertise.

If I were you I'd spend this year reading, taking a beginning keeping class, and planning for next year. Unless you can catch a swarm. Then start sprinting!

If you do decide to start now, the best advice I can give is to get two hives. That way you can compare things and you can share resources. Like if one hive goes queenless you might be able to share some brood comb and get it to raise a new one. Or if one is light going into Fall you can share stores.

The other is, read, read, read, read.

Also if you can find someone local to look over what you're doing that can be a Godsend. Local clubs are good for that, even though I've not taken my own advise in that regard.

Another is don't shy away from treating for Varroa mites. They are the number one problem with bees, IMHO. A lot of hobbyists seem to want to get into the hobby and think they can go treatment free. Then they wonder why their bees died even though they had lots of food. Inevitably it's mites and the vectored viruses they carry that killed them. You might be able to go treatment free, if you know how to keep bees. If not your gonna be buying (or trying to catch) lots of bees every spring.

Keeping bee's isn't too hard as long as you make sure you give them room to store thier honey.

If they run out of room they'll swarm and you loose them...

2 hives is smart as well.. if not 3.

Early in the year you get clover honey which is light colored and sweeter so don't wait to get your bees.

You've already received some good advice. I would also recommend that you get involved with a local beekeeping association. Check Beesource's local association page for one near you. You can get a lot of good info on local conditions, local sources for bees and equipment, etc.

What ever you do get good head gear (no holes for then to sneak through), and find heavy Jeans so when they do sting you don't get nailed to hard.

Soft leather gloves are good too.

Also - NEVER EVER use anything with banana oil on it near them, that's the scent a stinger puts out and can trigger them to sting in groups.

They do not like Body Odor, or Bad breath... that bugs them.

Last thing - the meaner the bees the sweeter the honey.
You can tell a mean bunch by what they do when you crack open the top of the hive - if they all stick their stingers up in the air you know they aren't happy...

They don't like cold, they don't like rain, and clover dinks them in the head when they get the nectar... so they do get moody.

Pine shavings with really thick white smoke is what you want for your smoker. Make sure the top of the hive is cracked when giving them some smoke before you open it. This way they can push it out, ( for those who don't know when you pump smoke into the hive they all buzz thier wings to move it out and they get kind of dopy so they don't come after you).

That has not been my experience. The flavor of the honey is entirely dependent on the nectar source. Flowers that have a higher ratio of fructose to glucose will taste sweeter, and will also take longer to crystallize.

My experience is that they are happier on a sunny day instead of a cloudy one. I still struggle with my smoker. I think I have it going good and I fail to pump it and it goes out. miles

Yes, and mine get really cranky right before sundown. I get in trouble a lot of times by trying to check just one more hive before I quit for the day.

I've have good luck with pine needles. Once I get the smoker lit and going really good I pack the needles in as tight as I can. The tight packing seems to help keep the burn going even without constant attention.

I have used pine needles but with mixed results. I found some sacks that coffee beans came in that work pretty good. I had better luck with those than the pine needles. My year old hive I sometimes work without smoking if the day is clear. miles

I work a lot of mine without using smoke too. If the bees are content to let me poke around without getting smoked I don't see any reason to disturb them with it.

I've been getting queens from Miksa down in Florida. Miksa queens generally produce hives that are very docile, and great honey producers.

This!

It also makes for cooler smoke.

Keep an empty hive close so swarming bees will move in. A very good read is "Bee Democracy". It is about how bees choose a new hive location.

It's been a couple years since I kept a hive.

Biggest pain out here is just the wet/dampness. I learned I had to feed pretty late in the year, at least for first year hives, and keep hives where they will get some sun and air movement. The still damp air wrecks a hive even if it is fairly mild out.

They're fun to mess with. Started paying attention to a lot more things around the house when I started keeping bees.

Ours were in upstate NY where there was lots of clover with that pollen stem that whacks them in the head when they hit the nectar...

The bees will often skip clover for other sources because of this but some hives seemed to not skip it, but they were grumpy customers. You could tell it by the color of the honey being more clear... and the bees were pissy.

I.e. --- meaner the bee sweeter the honey.

Not sure if it's true everywhere but I've seen it.... we had a couple hundred hives, so after a while you start to see patterns. it's only true during the first and second cuts of clover in the fall they don't act that way.

Then your have some of the Africanized bees ... buggers.