Anyone with Honey bees?

[SwiftShot]

I remember with bees. NEVER move more than 3 feet unless your moving them miles. The workers will get lost. You can put a stick or bucket in front of the hive after a move to make them re orientate to the location.

 

[rtaylor]

Beekeeping is super addictive so just a heads up. A few basic principles I stole from another beekeeper Kamon Reynolds: dead mites, strong queens and good nutrition and you will be successful.

 

[sharkhunter]

My girls

 

[Fisherhahn]

Had mine all fenced off and kept a bear out for a couple years. Last weekend he finally got mad and did a belly flop or something and destroyed everything. Likely have to try the solar power electric fence or something. Have a new nuc coming in a couple days. Need to focus on shooting the bear this fall. Never once came by during daylight..

 

[Elk97]

View attachment 552974
Had mine all fenced off and kept a bear out for a couple years. Last weekend he finally got mad and did a belly flop or something and destroyed everything. Likely have to try the solar power electric fence or something. Have a new nuc coming in a couple days. Need to focus on shooting the bear this fall. Never once came by during daylight.T

Damn bears. What I did when we moved bees into the mountains for fireweed honey was put up just a three wire electric fence with a car battery fence charger (solar is a lot easier now). Instead of a ground rod we'd lay 3' chicken wire fence on the ground outside the fence and attach the ground wire to it. Then we'd wire several strips of raw bacon on the electric wire. Bears would be standing on the ground wire and taste the bacon with their tongue. Straight tracks of bear chit heading away from the fence. Never had a bear get in. Good luck!

 

[fwafwow]

An old thread, but thought it might be the best place to mention the article below. Any of you bee keepers heard of this? (TL;DR - the article discusses a type of pesticides called neonics, along with some of the science that supports those pesticides as being at least the partial cause for bee and other pollinator declines, as well as how the pesticides are banned in other countries, and the behind-the-scenes efforts of the pesticide companies trying to convince the public, and lawmakers, that pesticides have no impact.)

This Pesticide Rapidly Eradicating Insect Life May Also Harm Humans

Bayer's chemical became the most common pesticide in the world in recent decades. How the industry co-opted academics, regulators, beekeepers and the media to remain silent about the risks.

www.leefang.com

 

[Durran87]

Big losses in the bee world currently. My colonies took a big hit too. They had an outstanding year and then crashed late fall.

 

[duckcarver]

Thanks - interesting read. We had comb samples analyzed by the APHIS program a few years ago. Interested to dig out the results to see whether they analyzed for neonics.

 

[Eagle]

I live in the heart of that spraying, with ag fields all around my bees and haven’t had an issue. This year could be different if course, but so far so good.

Does anyone do this as a side gig for hunting funds? I’ve got three at the moment, hoping to have 6 after they split this spring. I’ve heard you can get roughly $500/hive from honey and I know nucs in my area can be $200+, anybody do this?

Thinking about building out to about 10 hives and then selling the additional nucs every spring if hives split and of course selling honey as well.

 

[Durran87]

I live in the heart of that spraying, with ag fields all around my bees and haven’t had an issue. This year could be different if course, but so far so good.

Does anyone do this as a side gig for hunting funds? I’ve got three at the moment, hoping to have 6 after they split this spring. I’ve heard you can get roughly $500/hive from honey and I know nucs in my area can be $200+, anybody do this?

Thinking about building out to about 10 hives and then selling the additional nucs every spring if hives split and of course selling honey as well.

I used to (mainly from honey sales) but now I spend too much time hunting and not enough time beekeeping. I was up to 140 hives at peak. I did gain access to some great properties to hunt this way.

 

[fwafwow]

Big losses in the bee world currently. My colonies took a big hit too. They had an outstanding year and then crashed late fall.

Thanks. I've not yet listened, in part because it's long. What's the TL;DR of the cause (if they give one)? (And since I asked you, I'm going to do a TL;DR for my post, as that article is pretty long.)

 

[Glendon Mullins]

How often do you guys get stung while messing with your bees?

 

[JDT1982]

I have 2 hives. I have only been stung when mowing in the vicinity of the hives. I have never been stung when suited up and messing with the bees.

 

[Eagle]

How often do you guys get stung while messing with your bees?

It depends on the hive, some are docile and some are more aggressive, but I probably get stung 5 times a year with my current three hives. I wear a jacket and veil, but usually just wear normal pants. Most of my stings have been on my legs as a result.

 

[Jbxl20]

I caught a bunch of swarms this past season and had 11 hives going into winter. Each hive is different, last year I had a hive that I had no problem inspecting without any mask or jacket and didn’t have to smoke. I even had a few of my buddies with no gear come down and check out a frame with bees all around it and I let them find the queen. Other hives can be very agressive. Most stings I can shake off relatively easy with no lingering effects but I got stung in the ankle and couldn’t walk for a week. I also did a hive removal from a wall and took quite a few stings on that job. mainly the forehead/nose through my veil. as I was looking up working to remove the honeycomb, the veil was flat against my forehead and nose and they could sting me through it, that’s the only time I’ve needed Benadryl so far. I’m still learning and definitely changed my approach and gear for swarm removal jobs.

I’m actually studying for my pesticide certification right now. Trying to learn as much as I can on the subject.

 

[Durran87]

Thanks. I've not yet listened, in part because it's long. What's the TL;DR of the cause (if they give one)? (And since I asked you, I'm going to do a TL;DR for my post, as that article is pretty long.)

Huge losses reported as bees are headed to almonds. 50-90%, reminiscent of CCD. Not huge mite levels this Fall. May have been caused by an event in late summer, mites or pesticides? Up to 300,000 hives short for almond pollination. May lead to under pollination of our crops. I’ve taken a lot of stings, FWIW

 

[kapntx]

I started keeping bees around 1975. Beekeeping was fun back then. There were hardly any problems like mites, hive beetles, and Africanized bees. Extracting honey was a lot of hard hot work. Hard to imagine that I sold honey for $3 or $4 a quart (about 3 lbs). I kept bees until the early 90’s and quit when I went to the big city for a couple decades. When I retired in 2015 I decided to get a couple of hives. I soon discovered that beekeeping has changed completely. It’s hard to even keep a hive alive now much less make surplus honey. The mite problem is much worse and probably accounts for a majority of hive losses. The infected bees just don’t have enough energy to build up a strong population and honey surplus. I’m going to try to catch some swarms this year and see if I can find a good way to manage mite infestation.

 

[Elk97]

Huge losses reported as bees are headed to almonds. 50-90%, reminiscent of CCD. Not huge mite levels this Fall. May have been caused by an event in late summer, mites or pesticides? Up to 300,000 hives short for almond pollination. May lead to under pollination of our crops. I’ve taken a lot of stings, FWIW

That's going to send pollination fees through the roof. Back in the early 80's were getting about $20-22 per hive, have heard it's $200+ now.

 

[MarlinMark]

So I should go buy a couple of quarts of honey now before the price skyrockets?

 

[Durran87]

So I should go buy a couple of quarts of honey now before the price skyrockets?

It might go up in price but many of these big operations are pollinators and only sell honey as a by-product. I have not heard updates to how almond pollination is going, but we rely on bee pollination for many of our crops. The best time to buy honey and stock up is when it’s fresh, from a farmer’s market, which around here happens late Summer.