Any Other Bee Keepers?

[Dentoro]

Not sure where to place this but I feel like it belongs in survival because of the indestructible food aspect. Several years ago I started with three hives. Unfortunately they all absconded. Last year I was gifted another hive. Managed to get it through at least now. If I keep them alive I plan on adding another hive. If I can support it I’d like to grow 3-5 hives. All that being said are there any other bee keepers here? if you are a veteran keeper maybe speak up and be available to receive some questions and pass some hard fought knowledge along or even grow a the hobby. Anyway I just thought I’d open a discussion and see if anyone else is keeping bees.

 

[patience0830]

I have a friend near Antioch, Illinois who lost three hives to Icarine Mites last fall b4 it ever got cold. He's studying up on how to prevent that this year. Especially at $140 a batch for fresh bees.

 

[Brandon]

Did work at a house who had a few hives. Forget how many bees he said he had but it was a huge number.

I was amazed at how close you could get to their area and they didn't care.

 

[shibumiseeker]

We keep them. Two hives overwintered but we’ve had as many as 5.

 

[Leadeye]

We keep them. Two hives overwintered but we’ve had as many as 5.

Are they as well defended as the chickens?

 

[shibumiseeker]

Are they as well defended as the chickens?

Fenced yard inside a fenced pasture and air support.

 

[Leadeye]

Fenced yard inside a fenced pasture and air support.

We see few honey bees on the plants, mostly bumble bees and some other odd smaller ones. I thought about keeping a hive, but figured the forest critters would tear the boxes up.

 

[Dentoro]

I have a friend near Antioch, Illinois who lost three hives to Icarine Mites last fall b4 it ever got cold. He's studying up on how to prevent that this year. Especially at $140 a batch for fresh bees.

I’ve not yet seen any for less than $180 this year!

 

[hoosierdaddy1976]

Always found it interesting, but my wife has a severe enough allergy that she carries an epi-pen so it's a no go.

 

[spencer rifle]

Our oldest kept bees in Maryland for a few years. He had a good relationship with his neighbor and wanted to keep it that way. The neighbor would wash his car and the bees would visit to drink water from the car exterior. The neighbor's brain damaged dog would try to eat them and get stung repeatedly. Rather than alienate the neighbor, he stopped keeping bees.

 

[topash]

I’ve not yet seen any for less than $180 this year!

Is that for 3 lbs of bees?

 

[printcraft]

NOTE: "The Beekeeper" movie was not great... wait for home video.

 

[Dentoro]

Is that for 3 lbs of bees?

Yep, two to three pounds of bees five frame nucs. At least on Facebook market and some of the groups I’ve joined That has been the going rate. I can’t pay that much.

 

[Dentoro]

Did work at a house who had a few hives. Forget how many bees he said he had but it was a huge number.

I was amazed at how close you could get to their area and they didn't care.

Just don’t crowd the entrance or smack the box and they usually stay pretty chill.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I got my first bee hive set up at the Banta Bee Store, back in the early 90s, getting a lot of help and advice from Boyd Musgrave, the proprietor. All my first colonies were package bees, mostly from a place called Hardeman's Apiaries in Georgia. In later years, I had gotten a wild swarm that I learned how to split once or twice each year, raising my own queens. They were motely-looking bees, some almost black, some more yellow, and some in between. They probably didn't produce as much honey as well-bred package bees I'd had before, but they sure were survivors. I went through many generations of those wild bees over almost 15 years before I finally lost my last two colonies during that really bad winter in 2013. A couple of years later I decided to set up a bait hive and I ended up getting two colonies the first spring I had it up. I kept those bees for a couple of years, but when I lost them, I put my stuff up in the barn, and there it still sits. Maybe someday I'll get the "bug" to get back into it.

I've always been a Biology nerd, and I loved working with the bees, learning as I went. I made a lot of mistakes; accidentally killed some queens, lost more swarms than I could count, got the crap stung out of me a couple of times, but I always got enough honey to keep friends and family supplied, and every so often things would work out well, and I'd have enough to sell. After the first few years, when all I knew was to follow the books, I treated for mites and foul-brood, but the wild bees I had never got treated at all and they did mostly fine.

For anyone interested, I got a ton of good information from Michael Bush: https://bushfarms.com/bees.htm