Anybody here keep bees?

Scott and I are going to a beekeeping class this Saturday. :D

We've wanted to do this for years, and have even had all the necessary equipment and the hives themselves tucked away in a shed for a while. This year we have decided to get them up and going. the honey (assuming we actually get any/enough) will be used to brew mead...one of Scott's hobbies.

Our biggest issue starting out is: where to put the hives? I know they need to be somewhere warm, and out of bear reach, and on our property, that's a challenge. We are considering putting them on the roof of one of our sheds.

Has anyone here ever done this? Do you enjoy it? Get stung a lot? :pupeyes: How much honey do you get on average?
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My ex's father used to keep bees. He had three acres of land that he had tons of apple trees on. He'd place them close to the barn, in the shade of some trees. They would get some of the most amazing honey and put honey combs in the jars to chew on!
We did. Face the door East if possible, everyone likes the early morning sun. They have a glide path for coming in, laden with pollen, so keep the glide path open (no walls, people, etc.) On a shed roof is idea.........if it can hold ALOT of weight. Honey is heavy, plus your own weight up there when tending. Depending on the number of supers, comb, honey-- your hive could easily be several hundred pounds.

Ideally the east face open with good glide path and the hive partially shaded to aid in keeping it cool, leafless in winter for winter warmth. Early on you'll have to feed to bees as there just isn't enough food about. They sip nectar and eat pollen, you'll feed them sugar water. Also they need water at all time. Keep a tray or some such filled and float a stick or something for those who fall in can climb aboard until they dry out.

Keep the hive away from dogs.....tho dogs learn quickly not to come near. I assume you are far enough north not to worry about Africanized Bees......a big concern here. Also bees are under terrible attack from various mites. The Euro bee population is in serious decline, anyway we can get people to take up hobby beekeeping and maintaining clean hives is great.

Make certain you have enough blooming stuff about for them. Season long is ideal for both the foods: pollen and nectar. We always had a batch of buckwheat about, for the bees and to improve the soil when we turned it under. I prefer the wildflower honey a friend produces over the buckwheat and clover we had, so gave up. Plus we got the mites.

As to how much, depends on your pollen/nectar flow, the number of bees and their health, but you should be able to harvest pounds every year. If you really get into it, you'll want to borrow or buy an extractor, otherwise you'll be using your honey from the comb.
Great info sheepieboss, thanks! :D

We have lots of wildflowers, as well as clover here, so hopefully they'll do well. No Africanized bees up here as far as Ive heard (also, no poisonous spiders, no ticks, no fleas and no heartworm...there are advantages to our long, cold winters! :lol: ) The local beekeeping club has an extractor that is available to borrow if we need it.

Im pretty excited about this, even though it will be more Scott's project than mine. This year we are really wanting to focus on our yard/garden etc, since over the last few years we have been too distracted by other stuff to do much with it. I'm getting my veggie-garden starts going now too (although nothing can go outside till Memorial Day) and planning some new raised beds to plant them in.

*Sigh* cabin fever....it tends to make you ambitious, if nothing else! :cow:
Interesting thread.

I work for a large produce grower/distributor and bee keeping is becoming the pet project of one of the farm managers. We rent hives to pollinate crops. He was so fascinated by it he decided we should invest in some hives of our own, though we still rent hives as well. No word yet on how they overwintered. And, yes, he does harvest the honey and share even though that's not their main purpose. :wink:

I'm too afraid of the critters to ever do something like that, or even take him up on getting a "tour" so to speak, but it sounds fascinating.

Kristine
To answer, I was never stung, either was hubby. Only the Pyr bitch (I've forgotten her name?????) was stung. Stellllllla! how could I forget?

No, I doubt Africanized bees will reach you :lol: :lol: Though they said they'd never get this far and they have. I have no idea how they will overwinter up there, you'll have to leave way more behind for their winter grub instead of harvesting honey.......and may need to even wrap the hives.

Les used to trunk his bees from Central New Mexico to the California almond grows to help with pollination. But the bees would darn near starve since there is little food that early, just pollen for babie packin' They'd have to carry honey and feed the bees. Plus the idiot growers insisted the bees be out until "last bloom" and by then others were spraying, thus killing bees. Les may have stopped trucking them out there, it wasn't worth the bee loss.

The fact you have a beekeepers club is encouraging! Plenty of good info and apparently enough bloom to carry the hive thru the long winters. Plenty of huckleberry, currants, lupins?
SheepieBoss wrote:
I have no idea how they will overwinter up there, you'll have to leave way more behind for their winter grub instead of harvesting honey.......and may need to even wrap the hives.

I'm not sure if anyone actually overwinter's bees here. :? I always hear beekeepers talk about ordering bees in the spring, so they may just have to start from scratch each time. On the other hand...we have plenty of native, wild bees, and they manage somehow... :lmt: This will be one of my 1st questions to ask on Saturday!



The fact you have a beekeepers club is encouraging! Plenty of good info and apparently enough bloom to carry the hive thru the long winters. Plenty of huckleberry, currants, lupins?


There is a very active club here in Eagle River. We 1st encountered them when I was sharing studio space with a lady who does batik dyeing on fabric...she purchased wax from them. Yes, we have TONS of berry bushes: currents, cranberries, raspberries, etc...and also lupines, wild roses, columbines, and lots of this weird yellow flower called "Butter n' Eggs Toadflax" (believe-it-or-not! :lol: ) Im also hoping that the bees will encourage my husband to be more enthusiastic about growing flowers...he usually hates to take up space with anything "inedible" :roll:
:lol: Linaria vulgaris: Butter and Egg Toadflax is a noxious weed down here :lol:
SheepieBoss wrote:
:lol: Linaria vulgaris: Butter and Egg Toadflax is a noxious weed down here :lol:


Yup..fairly obnoxious here too, but the wild bees seem to love the stuff :roll: Oh yeah...and also: Fireweed! how could I have forgotten?! Its pretty much our propertie's principle crop! :lol:
Todd's dad had honey bees for many years. Just as a casual hobby though.
The hives were on the east side of the house. I never did much with them (I have the same bee issues as Kristine).
I know he rarely ever was bitten. I personally would have trouble even mowing near them!!
got sheep wrote:
Todd's dad had honey bees for many years. Just as a casual hobby though.
The hives were on the east side of the house. I never did much with them (I have the same bee issues as Kristine).
I know he rarely ever was bitten. I personally would have trouble even mowing near them!!


I wont be handling the bees myself for the same reason :wink: Although I'm not really too concerned about getting stung just because the hives are on the property...we have so many wild bees, plus the bees our "up the mountain" neighbor keeps, that I doubt the increase will be very noticeable.

Its wasps that really scare me 8O We have lots of those around here too. Our roof is in the process of being replaced right now, and so far the roofers have removed over 30 wasp's nests! :twitch: This is the main reason they are doing it in the winter.
I hear you about the wasps!

Several years ago I got stung in my friend Mary's garden. It turned into cellulitis and my whole arm swelled and I needed antibiotics. Good thing I was at work (hospital) when it got too painful in the middle of the night!

Then I found the hard way that I had a nest in my garage wall. I pulled in after work on summer day. Got out, slammed my door shut. It triggered the whole nest to swarm me, trapping me in the garage! 8O 8O
I finally had to run through them, screaming and getting stung. It was horrible. :( Thank goodness I'm not allergic to them....
Yes, I'm more afraid of wasps, too. As a gardener I'm always happy to see bees - just prefer them at a bit of a distance even if they're nowhere near as aggressive as the ^%$@ wasps.

I was weeding once and got stung multiple times by some very small but terribly aggressive wasps and had a rather bad reaction to the stings, but nowhere near as bad - Dawn, you may appreciate this :lol: :lol: - as my reaction to Marnie threatening to go get her epi pen or whatever they're called 8O

YIKES!!! :sidestep:

Kristine
LOL - I would have happily epi penned you too!!! :D :lol: :lol:

It hardly hurts....really!

Then again, I would have done it MYSELF, not have Marnie wielding it! :wink:
I got swarmed once while berry-picking :evil: My poor dog (Spencer) would never willingly go back to that part of the property again, and I radically changed how I dress to go up there. I now suit up for berry-picking like I was going to the moon :oops: :wink: Rubber boots, heavy canvas pants, and lots of duct tape! 8O
We just got home from our class :)

Apparently, almost nobody up here over-winters, as I kinda suspected. if they do, its by moving the hives into a heated garage or shed. No mites to worry about, unless you order bees packaged with some of the combs from their old hive. For that reason, as well as concerns about bacterial infection that doesn't tend to occur up here either, we were told to just order the boxed up bees with a queen. Our instructor's comment when I asked about mites was: "No, we have to worry about the bigger pests, mostly." He then gave a half-hour lecture on building an electrified bear fence 8O

I'm feeling a bit apprehensive :? :!: the bees are ordered, and on the way though!
Oh my - does that mean you should electrify a perimeter fence??

We are fence and electric fence pros here - they really aren't tough at all. :wink:
got sheep wrote:
Oh my - does that mean you should electrify a perimeter fence??

We are fence and electric fence pros here - they really aren't tough at all. :wink:


Interesting that you mention this, dawn^^^because our instructor commented that bears "react much like sheep"( :o :? :!: ) to an electric fence...in that they may move forward in response to a shock to their body 8O , so you are supposed to set things up so that they get a shock to the nose, instead. For that, he said to use bait... :?: :!: :cow: I just don't know about that! I'm much more comfortable with the idea of putting them on a rooftop, I think. Black bears might climb that high, but grizzlies at least really don't.
yes - sheep need to get the shock on the nose or front of the face. Anything at the ears or back further makes them go forward. Interesting that bear are the same.
Yes, them big pests are around here, just not HERE! Friends in East Mountains have bear problems on their hives. The did fence in their bee area. So the bears keep to the apple trees, breaking limbs as they crawl about. But then these aren't grizzes, but little black bears.

Of course you already know the saying: to determine what type of bear is after you, climb a tree. If the bear follows you, it's a black bear. If the bear knocks the tree over, it is a grizzly. So if the bear knocks over the shed to get to the honey, it's a grizzly.
Image

This is the shed I'm thinking of (the bigger one). Notice the door? It used to be on a track, but at the time this photo was taken, it was just leaning there. We used to keep our garbage in there between dump runs, until a grizzly decided to rip the door down! 8O

The good news is, our bears don't actually know that beehives have a yummy treat in them. There are various native bees, but no honeybees. The instructor said that unless, or until, a curious bear encounters a hive and tips it over, they don't have any overwhelming reason to want to get at it. I'm hoping for lazy bears! :lol: Our up-the-mountain neighbor has bees, geese and ducks, and I know he has had bear problems (we hear the gunshots as he warns them off) but I'm not sure if that's due to the bees or the birds :? I'll have to go ask him!
Yeah, that's a pest problem all right.

I knew somebody here in town who kept a hive on a roof so as not to bother the neighbors, so if the shed can carry the weight, it might work. Know that the front door of the hive will be the dead bee cemetery......where workers bring out the dead bees and drop them. So you'll have a bit of sweeping if the wind doesn't blow them away.
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