Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Honey Bee's

Plural is not possessive.

One more thing. The first flow of nectar in the spring brings the best honey for consumption. Late spring/early summer the honey will be slightly darker. Late summer it'll be dark. I used to leave one full shallow super for the bees to consume over the winter. When I lived in Baton Rouge there used to be a lot of beehives on the Levee near the Mississippi River. All spring white clover, wonderful honey. Haven't been there in a while so don't know if that's still a practice or not.

That's what my brother in Fairbanks used to do- order new every spring, harvest all the honey in the fall.

One year he had a lot of wild blueberry syrup and jelly that froze and broke the quart jars over winter. We set these out for his bees when the arrived, and boy, did they clean that up, resulting in slightly blue colored, and slightly blue-berry flavored honey. It was excellent!

Check with your state Department of Agriculture for local clubs bee keepers.
Some states are more into bees than others, but ALL should have a big interest.

Work with adjoining farms and block your bees if the farms start spraying!

Yes, i've thought about the crop dusters also. I have about a 500yd wooded buffer between where my bees will be and where the rice fields are. However I need to check with a guy that has a lot of hives about 10 miles from me and see what he does with his when the planes are spraying. His hives are on the turn roads right next to the crops.

Keep your hives clean. Monitor your queens. Pull your supers and harvest frames of honey during the honey flow. Provide them with supplemental feeding and pollen patties. Learn about the "alpha bees" that run things in the hives. Use good pro and treatment them like a loaded gun. They provide a great deal of enjoyment.

Set them up as far as possible away from any type of traffic including people. Too much traffic will cause they to leave.

So far, I've been fortunate enough to not have to "buy" bees.
All my bees have come from "cut outs".
I currently have 3 hives.

I have two 10 frame hives and several 7 frame hives.
A 10 frame honey super CAN contain 10 pounds of honey per frame. I can't handle 100 pounds anymore! 🥵
Therefore, I use 7 frame.

If you're looking for a hobby to make some extra money, try something else. Unless you get into commercial beekeeping, it's not very profitable.

First, gather up all the tools and equipment you'll need, THEN buy the bees.

I Think I have everything I need. Got 2 smokers (one for spare) spare boxes and frames with wax foundation, suit, tools etc. The only thing I don't have is some kind of feed patty or any of the medical treatments. I will find out from the keepers what's best to treat them with around here, and what I should feed them until everything starts blooming.

My buddy who started me beekeeping, uses those throw away aluminum pie pans.
Mix sugar and water until it just kinda blobs up. You don't want it soupy. Bake it in an oven until it hardens. Use it as bee feed.
I don't make the patties, I just sprinkle loose sugar on top of the inside cover. They still eat it.
Around Christmas, grab several boxes of peppermint candies. The bees love them, varroa mites hate them. Won't STOP the mites, but it helps.
DO NOT feed the pollen patties until spring. Anytime before and it encourages "bee production". Too many young bees and your colony will over feed on it's winter food stores.

Beekeeping can be very rewarding, frustrating, puzzling, etc, etc. Just about the time you think you have them figured out, you figure out you don't know squat! LOL!

The bee group I belong to feels that captured feral bees are healthier that purchased bees. 🤷‍♂️

Did not know that about the patties. Thanks for the information. Also will try the peppermints..I have a big pile of candy canes from the xmas tree the kids didn’t eat. Might try them. I have 2 entrance feeders I was going to use, but I might try something else depending on recommendatios from experienced keepers.
I just ordered some Apivar strips just as a precaution, along with some patties and my spacers. All I’m missing is the bees now.

My dad had a few bees 40 years ago. Maybe 4 hives. He enjoyed it but you have to tend to them or else. When he moved he sold them to a guy that had to have them. I know the guy that bought them and he does not take care of nothing. All the bees died right away. I think it’s a good hobby. I can remember him complaining about moths and remember him feeding the bees in the winter. Best of luck.