Bee keeping - Page 10

Quote:

Originally Posted by RAST 

 Let me try to make myself clear. EMPIRE is correct, Nuc's should always have a mated and laying queen when received. Packages also should have a mated queen.

 

I agree 100%

Nuk is short for nucleus hive.  A Nuk should have at least 4 or 5 frames of honey, pollen, and brood in all stages of development plus a bred and laying queen, along with a work force of nurse and field bees.  A nucleus hive always is in effect a going concern or complete mini hive when you buy it. 

There is only a short time period that a virgin queen bee can mate in.  If a virgin queen has been in the hive too long for any reason she will NEVER take a mating flight.  She will however lay drone brood out the yang-yang leaving you to wonder what evil corporate farmer killed your bees when in effect your hive just ran out of workers and the population crashed from starvation.

A package will need at least 21 days to produce the first replacement worker bee.  The queen will often begin laying in an incomplete brood cell and the worker bees will finish building the cell out as the larva in it grows. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by chickengeorgeto 

Traditionally there are two corks in a wooden queen cage, one on each end. One of these corks has candy behind it and one doesn't.  The hole with no candy is where the queen and her attendants entered the cage.  Some plastic cages may only have one entry/exit.  Of course your bees may also have been in the cage so long that they ate all the candy themselves.

Nope, these queen cages only had one 'entrance hole' drilled through the wood.  The cork was quite obvious, although flush with the wood, there was nothing behind it between the cork and the queen.  When I mentioned it to someone I know who also purchased packages from this company, she mentioned that there wasn't candy in hers either. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by deserthomestead 

me too! I chose chickens because I already had most of the things I needed and the overall startup cost was much lower.

I built our top bar beehives from 'extra' wood found from other projects and some left-over plexiglass super-cheap from hardware store.  The total cost was mostly for hardware (hinges and such).  The total cost was $40 for two hives. 

I also purchased a hive tool, bee-suit and smoker.  The bee suit was the most expensive jacket I've purchased since 1998! 

So total outlay of costs was less than a 'standard' box Lang hive.  By a long shot.  And I've got 2 hives to show for it!  I also purchased 2 books that cover management of top bar hives.  And a series of classes held at a local forest preserve.  All well worth it to be able to ask questions of folks interested in bees and knowledgeable about their care and feeding. 

Bee packages were $90 each, so yes, they're considerably more expensive than chicks!  But, if you figure there are about 5,000 bees - that comes out to $.55 per bee!  LOL!  Not too bad on cost if one thinks of it that way. 

that's only a little over 160 bees at that price.  

how about .018ea 

I haven't even looked into top bar hives, so I don't know much about them.  Is the plexi so you can see inside the hive without opening it up, like an observation hive.  That would be awesome. (pardon the pun)

how do you extract honey from them?  Do you just put each comb in an extractor like you would with a traditional frame?

and we need a bee smiley

Quote:

Originally Posted by chickenstricken 

that's only a little over 160 bees at that price.  

 

how about .018ea 

 

I haven't even looked into top bar hives, so I don't know much about them.  Is the plexi so you can see inside the hive without opening it up, like an observation hive.  That would be awesome. (pardon the pun)

 

how do you extract honey from them?  Do you just put each comb in an extractor like you would with a traditional frame?

 

and we need a bee smiley

 

Whoops - never try to do math and get dinner into the oven simulatenously!  You're right - the bees are a little over a penny each. 

Yes, I built an observation top bar hive - mostly for cost containment - it was cheap, cheap.  See there's this chicken addiction thing going on!  The hive is simple to make, a bit of extra weekly 'tasks' of checking on straight comb and that they've got enough space, but not too much!  So I spend about 20min/wk checking on bee stuff.  Compare that to nearly an hour for 5 different chicken pens with five different sizes of chicks (feed, water, litter combing or scooping as needed) - yeah, the bees are SO much easier at this point.  And yes, I do a daily 'peek' into the hive via the windows - saw a worker with wax extruding out of her glands (ewwww, but cool!), see wiggle dances, see pollen of all shades, see comb being built out - it's simply incredible.  It's almost as good as candling an egg in an incubator (almost). 

For honey extraction, you mostly take a whole bar of honeycomb and can either cut it and have fresh honey comb or you can crush and strain the honey.  So no cost for extractors or bottlers - although I think I'll get a bucket with a honey gate simply to have on hand.  Since the honey isn't heated at all, it's also more pure and has pollen grains to help those with allergies (my son). 

There aren't any frames - just a bar on the top from which the bees draw comb from.  So there's no foundation to try to get into the frame, no frame costs, no building of frames frantically if you need another super - no lifting of supers, no storage of hardware (wooden ware) - EVERYTHING is inside the hive.  If they need more space because of a big honey flow - you take a few bars of honey out for your use, then put the empty bars back in so they can rebuild again!

Beekeeping is a great hobby, but bare in mind, the national average of hive loss this past winter 2012/2013 was 75%. 75% of all maintain hives did not survive the winter across the country (everywhere, not just pockets) and they are not sure why.  Average winter loss is around 30 - 50%.  This past winter was not especially rough.

Best place to get equipment, find a local Amish or handyman.  We have a local Amish men that builds great equipment, cost less then the box stores, and no shipping costs.  A win, win, win, and supporting the locals.

Please do your reading, not just books, but also website forums and magazines to keep up with recent topics.  Bees are having a really rough time just surviving and people who don't understand them are giving them a bad rap and a hard time as well.  Become a Bee advocate.