A BEE thread....for those interested in beekeeping.

[andalusn]

Quote:
Oh be careful since your reactions are getting worse! Make sure you take some benedryl after you get stung if it's real swollen. It's not generally a good sign when reactions get worse. If you start to have difficulty swallowing or shortness of breath call 911! You might also want to mention this to your doctor next time you see him/her, they might want you to have an epi pen just in case... It never hurts to have one laying around anyway just in case someone does have an anaphalactic reaction

Anyway, I'm super excited about this thread. I wanted to get bee's this spring but my boyfriend isn't very excited about the idea. I'm still working on him! They would fit in perfectly with my little "urban farm"

I too would caution to talk to your dr on what you could do to better protect yourself in case of a very bad reaction to a sting. We are working on making our garden more eco friendly for the native orchard/mason bees. They are very gentle, and people are not known to be allergic to them if you can convince one to sting you. The downside for this thread is they do not make honey. Theyare busy pollenating fruit trees that give fruit instead.

 

[Beekissed]

Beekissed, this is so funny. Guess where my bees came from! Here: http://www.rweaver.com/all.html and they were good, gentle stock that was very healthy and productive. I guess you could say that great minds think alike!

That's funny! Small world, huh?

Southern Bee Lady says: I have tried two buckfast swarms but they would not stay in the hives. We put them in the hive 2 and 3 times and we finally just let them leave. Never had that problem with Italians. I have also heard that some of the buckfast are a little hot.

If you have an Italian hive and put in a buckfast, or carnolian, or some other queen, in a few weeks your hive will be buckfast, or carnolian or what ever race the queen is. Bees only live approx. 4 weeks in the summer and are constantly being replaced.
When we buy queens we are never sure what type of drones the queen has mated with. Queen breeder try to saturate the area with drones that are the same race as their queens.

Thank you for that info, SBL! I will definitely be checking at Beemasters to see if anyone has had similar problems with the Buckfast bees. It would seem that there would no longer be a Buckfast strain if no one could keep them in hives, so it will be interesting to see what everyone over there says about their experiences in the matter.​

 

[Reinbeau]

We've had bees now for five years, we have hives in the backyard here, at my mother's house a few miles away, and up at our home in Maine. We have Italian bees down here, and New World Carniolans up in Maine.

The bees in Maine are so calm you can practically pat them - seriously! They build up fast in the spring, and produce lots of wildflower honey for us. The bees down here are package bees from Wilbanks. Some are mild and some can be rather contentious, you soon learn the 'personality' of the hive. One hive at my mother's will chase you across the yard if they're unhappy, we haven't had a hive like that here at home. If it's still problematic this spring we're going to requeen.

We use Langstroth hives. I can't imagine trying to harvest honey from top bar hives in the quantity we get, over 500 pounds last year, and this year we're tripling the number of hives. Being able to extract frames and use that comb again to start new hives or give them already to fill honey supers is a huge benefit to the Langs - with the top bar hives you have to crush and strain that comb, it takes a lot of energy/honey for the bees to rebuild it. I have no problem with top baq hives if you just want to enjoy the bees and have a hive in your yard, but if you're in it for the honey and the bees, Langs are the way to go.

As far as stings go, be very, very careful. One of our club members developed venom sensitivity slowly, she didn't realize it, until she almost died of anaphylactic shock - thankfully her neighbors saw her get out of her car (her hives were at a local farm) and called 9-1-1. Debbie had no idea she was reacting in an almost fatal way! You can be desensitized through an allergist, but you have to make it there!! Be careful.

We manage the bees as organically as we can. We do use thymol in the spring to knock back the mites, monitor mite loads through the summer and dust with powdered sugar every three weeks or so if the mite load says to, then in mid-August, after a mite check, we'll use Mite-away II (formic acid, a naturally occurring chemical in the hive, but at higher levels) to knock down the mites so the winter bees go into the winter strong. That's how you keep the hive over the winter, make sure there's a strong buildup of young, healthy bees. Those winter bees live longer than the other bees over the summer, they need to be alive to help the queen build up numbers in late February/Early March for the spring season. You also have to leave them enough honey for the winter, around 70-90 pounds for around here, if they don't have adequate stores you need to feed, feed, feed, in the fall, to help them build up stores.

Mites are here, they're everywhere, you have to manage the mites or you will lose your bees. There are 'hygenic' bees being developed, there's research all over the country trying to develop ways and bees to deal with mites, some have good luck with various methods - it's a huge subject. Best to get a subscription to one of the good bee magazines, American Bee Journal or Bee Culture (or both! I read them both). There are numerous websites worth visiting, Bee mentioned some - if anyone wants, PM me and I'll send you my "Using Internet Resources" pdf that we print out to hand out to bee school students every year.

 

[Beekissed]

Ann! Glad you showed up!

Hey, what do you know about the Buckfast bees? Hard to keep in the hive?

 

[Reinbeau]

Bee, I've actually heard that too, I think the problem is the build up fast in the spring, so they need room quickly - if you don't stay ahead of them, they swarm. Same thing with the NWCs up in Maine, we have to be quick to add supers! I have heard there's some bad genetics in the Buckfasts, you might want to research where the breeding stock came from - if I can remember, it's a Brother somewhere up in Canada that bred the best strains of Buckfasts.

Much as I dislike it, the best place to learn about the different bee breeds is probably Beesourc. Many of the article writers, bee researchers and bee experts post there - beware, however, they can be a contentious lot, and many of them don't take kindly to newbies asking questions where answers can be dug up via searching the forums - I don't go there much anymore. I far prefer Beemaster (Beekissed already mentioned them), lots of good advice there offered by welcoming beekeepers. Some of those same experts post there, too, but they're far kinder and more helpful.

 

[sgtmom52]

We have Russian bees. They are a winter hardy mite resistant hygienic bee. We have been happy with them so far.

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/entomology/apiculture/PDF files/2.16.pdf

A comparison of various colony characteristics of Italian and Russian honey bees

Characteristic Italians Russians

Varroa mites More susceptible More resistant
Tracheal mites More susceptible Highly resistant
Brood rearing Continuous throughout the summer Usually only during times of pollen availability
Robbing High Low
Queen cells Only during swarming or queen replacement Present most of the time
Pollination skills Small difference from Russian bees Small difference from Italian bees
Temperament Gentle, less defensive; not likely to sting Gentle, less defensive; not likely to sting
Color Light Dark

 

[Damummis]

Thanks for all this info. I am slowly building courage to get bees. Kinda like the scenario with my dog. Got a dog because I was afraid of them.

 

[SamG347]

For those of you who have any questions about FOUNDATIONLESS beekeeping or Survivor Stock queens feel free to PM me. Or any other Beekeeping questions!

 

[PotterWatch]

I am interested in foundationless. I am using some foundation in my frames, but only an inch or so exposed in each. I have heard that some people use just a strip of wood in place of even that much foundation. How do you do it?

 

[SamG347]

I use all medium equipment....8 frame. And each frame has a popsicle stick/small strip of wood glued in as a comb guide. I also have combo hives that are topbars that can be supered with Lang equipment.