Backyard bees

[kstaven]

How many bee keepers do we have out there?

Langstroth or top bar?

 

[elevan]

I've thought about adding them but DH gives me THE LOOK when I bring it up

 

[that's*satyrical]

I want some. We are thinking of joining the area bee keeping club. I want to learn more before we venture in, but I love honey bees!! I am super sad that the bee population seems to dwindle more & more each year....

 

[Ms. Research]

I want some. We are thinking of joining the area bee keeping club. I want to learn more before we venture in, but I love honey bees!! I am super sad that the bee population seems to dwindle more & more each year....

X2 New Jersey is becoming a very bad State for Bees. Lots of good people trying to keep them but having a hard time. That's why I love my Sunflowers we received from the Indians. Great people we get our tobacco from always sends us something to plant. This year it was Sunflowers. They turned out in abundance. And with it the Big Honey bees and Hummingbirds.

I give people credit who keep these bees. Makes me thing of Iggie in "Fried Green Tomatoes". Sorry old movie buff.

 

[zzGypsy]

How many bee keepers do we have out there?

Langstroth or top bar?

langstroth but might try a top bar this year just for fun.

 

[Stacykins]

This is my first year keeping bees. I have two langstroth hives. Hive 1# was going super strong and then swarmed on me, is still OK but I wish I'd caught it in time. Hive 2# requeened themselves, twice. Been feeding them since they have like, no honey stores. Hoping for the best that both make it through the winter. They're both on syrup until it is too cold, then they're getting a candy frame made. Bonus of candy frame: it absorbs humidity in the hive and prevents it from dripping onto the bees, and also provides food to the overwinter cluster.

 

[daisychick]

My next door neighbor has a top bar hive and since I plant all the flowers and have all the fruit trees on my side of the fence, I pretty much feed 1/2 of his bees. They live in my yard and sleep in his. So I get all the honey I can handle. It would be neat to have a thread to read more about them. I have thought of getting my own hive here since I am already use to the bees.

 

[zzGypsy]

currently a bee-less beekeeper. just moved from CA and sold my hives there as I didn't think my feral and semi-feral bees would appreciate the MO climate. the Italians might have moved fine, but didn't seem like something practical to do. I'll be getting new local bees in the spring. in the mean time, I'll just hang out at the beekeeper's meetings.

we had about a dozen thriving hives at one point, 2 hives of italians and the rest local ferals from cutouts, swarms and a trap-out.
miss them.

 

[SuburbanFarmChic]

We'd really like to get some but don't have a place to put them. Our whole yard is busy L. I may end up keeping a hive out at dad's though.

 

[CYGChickies]

I give people credit who keep these bees. Makes me thing of Iggie in "Fried Green Tomatoes". Sorry old movie buff.

Towanda!

I'm starting a hive of Hygenic Italians in the spring then requeening next year with a bee from one of our Beekeeper's in the area. He works with bees from the USDA on varroa "sensitive" bees that work to rid the colony of the pests more readily than other breeds. The hive I'm using is an 8-frame "garden hive" from Brushy Mountain, it's basically all 8-frame medium supers so there's no guesswork. I'm going to use an IPM screened bottom board and a small hive beetle trap to try and avoid chemicals that aren't organic while still fighting pests.

CYG