The bee keeper diaries

[Iowanian]

It's a great time to buy stock in eppy pens.

This thread is a repository for bee keepers or those interested.

A couple of years ago, a couple of friends an my brother started puttering with honey bees. I didn't buy off because, well, I've never been a big fan of bees or getting stung by them. Last summer I tagged along a couple of times to check their hives and to remove honey bees from a house, public building and an old garage.

I realized at the end of the summer when I was helping them process some, that it's actually pretty interesting, and fits into my expanding "grow my own" logic. I'm not full blown hippy but I see a lot of logic in the self sustaining food thing and I'm doing some of that too.

That said, this thread is about bees, honey bees, bee keeping and bee fighting war stories.

I'm taking the leap and plan to get 2-3 hives this spring and maybe build some bee swarm traps to make it cheaper or to make a few bucks.

Join me and I'll share the real life lessons of an ameture bee keeper. I'm sure I'm going to learn some things the hard way.

[redfan]

Yes IA mostly clover early, but the white is one of the first flowers that finishes blooming.

I took this @ the beginning of Oct, pretty late in the season. Honey gets darker later in the season(where I have these hives) due to the other flowers going.

I had some stuff last year that was much lighter than this. Gonna have to put up some comparison pics.

[threebag]

Originally Posted by redhed

I got about 4.6 gallons this year; not too shabby for a couple of first year package hives.

Beautiful.

[redfan]

Originally Posted by threebag02

Beautiful.

Thank you

[seclark]

such an interesting thread.
my great grandfather raised bees and had an apple orchard.
he showed me how to work up a snapping turtle when i was 8.
sec

[Buehler445]

I hope none of you guys' bees get pollen from pigweed/Palmer Amaranth.

Pollen from that shit is every bit as bad as chemical warfare.

[redfan]

Thanks for the new reading subject, Buehler. Dang, looks like that stuff is a real problem.

[scho63]

[redfan]

Some recent honeys to compare:

The very light stuff from Grundy is from a friend of mine, there is a ton of clover, apple and pear trees up there. Very clovery.

The Platte Co stuff (mine) has clover, basswood, paw paw, and other fruit trees.
The really dark stuff from 2016 was extracted using a crush and strain technique, and resulted in a much denser and very robust flavor.
I ate/sold all of the other 2016 regular centrifugal extraction stuff which was in between the color of the Grundy and my other stuff.

[DanT]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

...
I'm not s pro and I'm sure I make mistakes. Usually I just tell people that bees are a good judge of character as proven by them coming for my face every time I get near a hive with no net. It's a fact that they come after some people more than others. It's either because they think my manly smell is bad, im ugly or I'm so macho they think I'm a grizly bear. I'd go with ugly since you've seen me.
...

This is a great thread. Thanks for starting it, Iowanian.

Here's a shameless plug for the UC Davis "Honey and Pollination Center", http://honey.ucdavis.edu/front-page

[KS Smitty]

Originally Posted by redhed

Some recent honeys to compare:

Please provide a review on here. Amazing difference in the colors.

This is a great thread!

[Iowanian]

I'm hearing more stories of people losing hives, from guys like me with a handful right up to a commercial guy who treats his bees seven ways to Sunday.

I haven't been in mine for 3-4 weeks but the next time it warms up to 50+ I'm going to pop them and have one last look.


Red the color variation is interesting and pollens makes all the difference. I've heard that urban honey is different and darker due to the varieties of flowers and ornamentals in the vicinity.


I should start a go find me for plastic surgery to see if doctors are skilled enough to make me pretty enough bees don't want to sting my eyes shut.

[Iowanian]

Bummer.

It's 50 degrees today so I walked down to check my hives. 2 alive, 3 dead.
My friends have lost several hives already too. I don't know if it's the extreme cold, mites, who knows.
This pic is my strongest hive....and the shit bees next to it are roaring stronger than they were when I wanted them to be busy....

Chalk it up to lesson learned. Next winter, I'll do more to protect them from cold and maybe do candy boards.

[redfan]

You do any mite treatments, IA?

[Iowanian]

Yeah I did some of the treatment sticks. I guess I'm blaming the extreme cold for now.

I'll re-evaluate what I did, treatment(very limited) and what I'll do next winter(candy boards, wood chips, hive wraps).

The thing that pisses me off is my strongest hive died, and my shittiest hive that I planned to pinch the queen is roaring today.

[redfan]

Yeah, mites will kill a strong hive, doesn't matter how strong a hive if the mite load is too great.
I did an oxalic acid vapor treatment mid-Dec, mites dropped like so many freckles.
Earlier in the season I used a product called Hopguard II.

It was 64 degrees here yesterday, and I wanted to pop the lids and see how the girls were doing. I get worried that there are too many dead bees blocking the entrance.
So I checked my "weaker" hive. Right out the gate, I got a little venom therapy for my trouble.
It was about all I could do to lift the top box off.
Great!! We're heavy!! That makes my forehead hurts a little less. Hives look good so far!
When I got home, I looked like a damn Ferengi from Star Trek! I've never swelled up that much before. I've heard that bee stings accumulate over time; I'm starting to believe it.