Anyone with Honey bees?

[Jbxl20]

Last few years we have been growing meat chickens in the spring and turkeys in the fall. last year I started looking into honey bees. Bought two complete hive setups from a local guy and ordered two nucleus Colonies. Over the winter with help from my 4 and 7y/o, we got them together and painted. Bees showed up late March and have been doing well so far. A lot more work already than I had previously thought. Anyone else on here working with honey bees?

 

[9.1]

I keep thinking about it, but I also keep hearing they're more work than most people anticipate.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Yeah, I keep threatening to get some Bees, but with chickens, vegetable garden and work/life in general, I'm spread kinda thin
as it is.
Maybe when I retire.

 

[Bluumoon]

I've had them in the past and kept a couple hive setups. From my limited experience the first year is a bit of work/figuring out if you have decent bees. My first year both hives had disease and hive beetle issues, neither made it through the winter. Local bee store admitted that the bees they sold had issues and switched suppliers the next year.

Second batch of bees I got did great and were very little work. Still eating honey from them three years later. Had to leave them behind when we moved cross country.

Don't drink margaritas and tend to bees they don't like it.

 

[cfdjay]

I tried for 3 years. A ton of work and I couldn't get them to survive a winter. I really enjoyed it but it just got to be too much.

 

[GoatPackr]

I've had them for about 5 years. Anywhere from 2. - 10 hives.
They are much more work than one would think. Also expensive especially when starting out. You gotta find a place to buy sugar as cheap as possible. Look for sale prices and buy a lot. I can go through several hundred pounds in 1 season.
After their first year you won't need to feed them much. I do feed pollen patties all summer long.
The real test is keeping them alive through winter. Get good at treating for mites. Is is the biggest killer in our area.

Plenty of good info online but be careful as techniques vary in each area. Just because Fatbeeman does it doesn't mean it's right for you.
Find a local bee club and get a mentor.

Kris

 

[Fisherhahn]

I’ve found my bees mostly take care of themselves after getting through the first winter. I rarely check on the main body of the hive and have never actually seen the queen. I’ve had a few different hives through the years and my only issue has been bears ripping everything up as the hives are not at my home, but about an hour away on hunting property. Finally fenced everything in so the bears don’t bother trying, too many easy bird feeders.

 

[Rimrocks]

I have had anywhere from 2-30 hives, and some years also sell Nucs. It’s a lot of work and sometimes frustration because bees will be bees! That said it is also enjoyable and I love honey!

 

[tony]

I work on occasion with a guy that is an apprentice beekeeper, never knew there was such a thing. I think here in Ohio you have to be licensed? Anyway, I was going to work one evening and there was a massive swarm of bees in a tree just off the my back bumper may 10-15 feet. Now, I’m standing real close before I realized what was going on!
They didn’t even notice me per se, and all kept going to this little tree. I took a few pics to show and thankfully got ahold of him as i figured they were honey bees. Sure enough they were. He and the master beekeeper came up and got just about all of them. I really wanted to see how they did it.

Said they were looking for a new home and got caught outside before finding one I guess. The bees were swarming together for warmth and protection and would have been on their way in the morning.

 

[Elk97]

I used to be a commercial beekeeper way back. Had 12-1300 hives, moved them back and forth from WA to CA.
I help a lady with her bees now. She's struggled with them and spent a ton of money on stuff through the years. Mites are a big problem now, I never had to deal with that.
Unless you are willing to put in the time to learn how to take care of them, and don't go into it thinking it's going to be easy it can be a great hobby.
To the OP, looks like the hive on the left in the pic doesn't need that entrance reducer any more. Good for you for getting the kiddos involved.

 

[Jbxl20]

I used to be a commercial beekeeper way back. Had 12-1300 hives, moved them back and forth from WA to CA.
I help a lady with her bees now. She's struggled with them and spent a ton of money on stuff through the years. Mites are a big problem now, I never had to deal with that.
Unless you are willing to put in the time to learn how to take care of them, and don't go into it thinking it's going to be easy it can be a great hobby.
To the OP, looks like the hive on the left in the pic doesn't need that entrance reducer any more. Good for you for getting the kiddos involved.

Thanks! I try the get the kids involved as much as can from hunting and butchering. (They love running the meat grinder).
As far as the entrance reducer. That pic was from the first warm day since we had the bees and I added a second brood box and removed the entrance reducer on that hive that day. I’m glad I took recommendations to start with 2 hives. The hive on the left is definitely a lot more active than its neighbor. Right now I’m just debating if I want to remove the feeder and add a honey super in the next week or two. I took some classes on bees and one class about catching wild swarms. I’ve built a few nuc boxes and was given some old equipment from a neighbor that switched to all horizontal hives and I have about 7 traps out on different properties. YouTube has so much information but I always do independent research before doing anything I learn on YouTube. Bee keeping is expensive to get into just like everything else and I’m finally making some money back on my chicken plucker and butchering Equiptment so I figured I’d pickup another hobby and hopefully be able to sell some honey in the next years to come.

 

[Cameron.25]

My wife and father in law do it, it definitely seems like more work than I imagined it was gonna be lol

 

[Elk97]

Thanks! I try the get the kids involved as much as can from hunting and butchering. (They love running the meat grinder).
As far as the entrance reducer. That pic was from the first warm day since we had the bees and I added a second brood box and removed the entrance reducer on that hive that day. I’m glad I took recommendations to start with 2 hives. The hive on the left is definitely a lot more active than its neighbor. Right now I’m just debating if I want to remove the feeder and add a honey super in the next week or two. I took some classes on bees and one class about catching wild swarms. I’ve built a few nuc boxes and was given some old equipment from a neighbor that switched to all horizontal hives and I have about 7 traps out on different properties. YouTube has so much information but I always do independent research before doing anything I learn on YouTube. Bee keeping is expensive to get into just like everything else and I’m finally making some money back on my chicken plucker and butchering Equiptment so I figured I’d pickup another hobby and hopefully be able to sell some honey in the next years to come.

Sounds like you're doing it right. Can't believe the price of bees and equip now, I used to buy complete hives with two supers of drawn comb for $50-60, and queens were $3-4.
I always recommend adding supers before you think they need them, helps control swarming and if they start hauling in nectar they won't crowd the brood chamber with it.

 

[duckcarver]

We have about 30 hives and our kids enjoy making beeswax candles. Just when you think you're starting to understand a little about them, the bees will prove that you're wrong.

Over the last 5 winters, I've worked hard to try to build a collection of treatment-free hives but will treat them all for mites next year. We keep bees at home and on two farms. The home bees have not been treated for mites and consistently have 10-30% survival, while the hives on the farms that are treated have averaged 70-90% winter survival.

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

www.pbapiaries.com

 

[Coues123]

We had around 500 hives growing up with a 6 or 12 frame extractor. Rattlesnakes loved to get under the hives to keep warm. Moving a trailer load of hives was a real joy. Fixing a broken axle with a veil on and wiping bees off just to see was memorable.
Mites, killer bees and bears were what caused us to get out. Catclaw/mesquite honey is my favorite to this day.

 

[duckcarver]

We had around 500 hives growing up with a 6 or 12 frame extractor.

WOW! I'm running about 30 and can't imagine that extraction effort--real commitment!!

 

[Ohiohuntr]

I’ve had them a few years but have gotten pretty allergic and swelled like a dog tick the last few times I got stung, sold them off which sucks because I had enjoyed them

 

[vectordawg]

I've heard you can't have bees if you have a pool. Any truth to that? I wouldn't think it any different than having a pond on the property.

 

[GoatPackr]

I've heard you can't have bees if you have a pool. Any truth to that? I wouldn't think it any different than having a pond on the property.

Yes some truth. They will use the pool water due to the chlorine. It's a type of salt and they love a light about of salt and minerals in the water.

They might not even bother with it. So far we have not had issues with our above ground pool. We do have a few bees around the edges but not many. They will gather resources from several miles away so could end up using a pool 2 miles away if they like the water better.
They do prefer dirty muddy water over clean water. Probably due to the minerals in it.

Kris

 

[Jbxl20]

I built 4 swarm traps a few weeks ago and set them out on some old deer stands at some friends and family members properties. 2 of them have swarms! Looks like the apiary is expanding sooner rather than later