Honey Bees 2015

[robsdak]

hello my people. just thought i would start a thread on this year's honey bee doings. this year i am planning on a total of 4 colonies here in the backyard. i have my Top Bar and adding 3 more Langstroths. i have talked with my friend that i do bees with and he's excited about my decision. no pictures as of yet. will post when it's all together.

i did get out the other day and till up 2 sections of ground behind the back fence for bee flowers and such. i picked up a fountain that a neighbor was trashing, cleaned it up and added a new $20 pump from Lowe's and it's good as new. you know bees need water and it sounds cool. :)

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Looking forward to this but your Thread title is a bit misleading. LadyHK will enjoy this once you get it going.

[Sniper-T]

Fixed the title for ya...

I'm looking forward to this thread too!

[realist]

Hay Rob we just had a story in the news about the theft of bee hives due to there value. I would imagine it is other bee keepers. I guess the almond growers in our area pay big money for having people bringing bees on their property for pollenating the trees. Do you see that in your area and how do you prevent theft? Looking forward to the thread

[robsdak]

Looking forward to this but your Thread title is a bit misleading. LadyHK will enjoy this once you get it going.

OK... sorry about that. don't remember what the title was. :) i am going too add pictures in a day or 3.



Fixed the title for ya...

I'm looking forward to this thread too!

thank you... changed?


Hay Rob we just had a story in the news about the theft of bee hives due to there value. I would imagine it is other bee keepers. I guess the almond growers in our area pay big money for having people bringing bees on their property for pollenating the trees. Do you see that in your area and how do you prevent theft? Looking forward to the thread

yes sir, it is big business out there. it's just not the almond growers, it's all of them from what has been discussed at the bee meetings i have been too.

no, i haven't seen nor heard of it here. i have seen hives just sitting out in the open with nobody around for miles. as for deterring theft at my place? 6' privacy fence, 2 puppies, an electric wire (mainly to keep said puppies from digging out. :) and i have had yotes try to dig in) and an owner that will put a bullet in your ass! if he catches you inside said fence. no way in but climbing over it. all the gates lock low and from the inside, have to be in the backyard to open.

[Sniper-T]

No biggie, just a typo

Hone Bess 2015 vs Honey Bees

[robsdak]

running a wireless set up and it might need the batteries changed. i will look into it. thanks for the help.

[Willie51]

Hay Rob we just had a story in the news about the theft of bee hives due to there value. I would imagine it is other bee keepers. I guess the almond growers in our area pay big money for having people bringing bees on their property for pollenating the trees. Do you see that in your area and how do you prevent theft? Looking forward to the thread

In our neck of the woods, like Rob said, the hives are all over the woods in open spaces. No one bothers them.

BTW, The Tupelo Honey Festival is coming up soon in Wewahitchka, FL.- May 6, 2015 9am to 4pm ET. We go and load up on honey for the year, but when I run out, I have a connection for all the Tupelo I want. We don't use sugar in our house much at all, everything is sweetened with honey. We eat the Tupelo though, it's too expensive to use in everything.

http://www.tupelohoneyfestival.com/

[Sniper-T]

tupelo?

type of honey?

[Willie51]

tupelo?

type of honey?

The best in the world (IMHO)!!! It is the sweetest and has a golden green tint and does not sugar even after 20 years of storage. It only comes from this small region in Northwest Florida where the Tupelo Trees grow way in the backcountry along the river basins. Most of my friend's hives can only be accessed by boat way up the Chipola and Apalachicola Rivers.

http://www.tupelobeekeepers.com/

[Sniper-T]

these trees drop seeds? never heard of them... maybe they'll grow north?


hint hint...

[robsdak]

here are a couple pictures of the bee planting strips. right now planted with a wildflower mix. just had it around, if it takes good, if not good. as the weather warms up i will add the other mix. one side is for the bees and the other for the birds.

http://encap.net/flower-kits/pollinator-honey-bee-mix/

and this one for the birds.

http://encap.net/flower-kits/wildflower-butterfly-hummingbird-mix/


left side of gate behind my fence birds

http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/oo102/robsdak/garden%20%20bees%202015/100_0486_zpsjamfaye9.jpg (http://s366.photobucket.com/user/robsdak/media/garden%20%20bees%202015/100_0486_zpsjamfaye9.jpg.html)

right side of gate behind my fence bees. the hives are on the other side of the fence. tahat way thay don't have to go real far in the beginning.

http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/oo102/robsdak/garden%20%20bees%202015/100_0485_zpsndyuzrvp.jpg (http://s366.photobucket.com/user/robsdak/media/garden%20%20bees%202015/100_0485_zpsndyuzrvp.jpg.html)

[realist]

Just got back from my brother-in-law's 60th birthday down in the valley. He has just planted 200 acres of almonds so I got a tour of the area. There are thousands of acres of almonds in the area. There are also hundreds of bee hives. We were talking about them and he told me they really were labor intensive. I did not realize you had to feed the bees after the flowers fall. Later that night when we went back to the hotel there was a flatbed truck in the lot with a bee company out of Washington. My brother-in-law said this time of year they come from Idaho, Montana and Washington bringing the bees. He said during the cold winters they will keep the bees in heated barns. You know you drive by these things all the time and never really think about them. I definitely do not want to go into the commercial bee business but I would like to have a couple of hives.

[Vodin]

I have an interest in bee's. I do have a colony of bumble bees that live under my front door sidewalk. They are respectable as am I when I trim the grass around the entrance to their home.

[robsdak]

Just got back from my brother-in-law's 60th birthday down in the valley. He has just planted 200 acres of almonds so I got a tour of the area. There are thousands of acres of almonds in the area. There are also hundreds of bee hives. We were talking about them and he told me they really were labor intensive. I did not realize you had to feed the bees after the flowers fall. Later that night when we went back to the hotel there was a flatbed truck in the lot with a bee company out of Washington. My brother-in-law said this time of year they come from Idaho, Montana and Washington bringing the bees. He said during the cold winters they will keep the bees in heated barns. You know you drive by these things all the time and never really think about them. I definitely do not want to go into the commercial bee business but I would like to have a couple of hives.

don't know about heated barns? but i do know honey bees are big business. there are a couple of businesses that have their winter home here in Florida and another shop/place in Northern states. they spend a lot of time trucking bees around.

as for the non-commercial side of it. it's easy to set-up and relatively cheap to do, well after the initial investment and the rewards are worth every penny spent IMHO. all the honey you can eat, even sell a bit and the flowers, garden and trees will benefit from it. that's the reason i got into it, pollination factor. instead of 5 plants, i can safely do say 8.

[realist]

Do you feed your bees? This was the first time I had heard they needed to be fed.

[robsdak]

Do you feed your bees? This was the first time I had heard they needed to be fed.

i did for a while, then i got hit hard by 'robber bees' little bastards. i ended up losing one colony (moved away/killed off) but i did manage to save the smaller of the two. i relocated it over to my buddy's place. so i have a good start on one and we are going to split from his to make up my other three. but, to answer you question... yes, we feed them through the winter. simple syrup, 2 parts sugar to 1 part water by volume. ie... 2 lbs sugar to 1 lbs water. it doesn't matter how much, just that it's in that ratio. hope that made/makes sense?

edited to add... not really necessary here too feed them, it's just a supplement what they have for honey stores and a vehicle to add nutrients and meds. i personally don't add much if anything to it, i prefer the 'natural way'. now that being said, if and only IF i hear of other beeks having real problems with their colonies, i will treat. but again, i prefer to let nature deal with it as intended.

[realist]

What type of med do you administer? How much sugar will a hive go through a month?

[robsdak]

it's for mites. don't know the name as i don't buy it. my buddy gets it and then gives me what i need. sugar needed depends on how big the colony is. i went through 5 lbs and had about 1/2 gal. left over. i fed every 2 wks.

[robsdak]

here's the rack the 3 Langstroth Hives will be sitting on this year. just 2x6 and 4x4. several different ways, i chose a stand/rack for a couple reasons. to keep the working height reasonable. i am kind of tall and have a good reach. to make it easier to ward of other critters. the legs give ample room to use deflectors or traps for them. to keep the puppies safe. they did very well last season with the Top Bar. it was high enough off the ground that they didn't feel the need to go inspect it all the time. the puppies have access to the backyard 24/7 via a doggie door so it's important they are comfortable with whatever i have in the backyard.

more pictures when the bees get here.

http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/oo102/robsdak/100_0511_zpszqxvydbg.jpg (http://s366.photobucket.com/user/robsdak/media/100_0511_zpszqxvydbg.jpg.html)

[robsdak]

well i was out in the backyard Tuesday and found i had caught a swarm in my TBH. SCORE! i am working on getting more bees in. trying to catch a swarm over at my buddies place, but they are 40' in tree. i may have found a ladder tall enough to get up there, well a friend is climbing it. my days of that high are over with.

[Stormfeather]

I really have to catch up and start reading up on the bee thing, theres so much to learn and I cant wait to start!