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

[GreenAcresChick]

How close can a hive be to your chickens and will they co-exist well?

 

[sgtmom52]

My chickens pretty much ignore my honey bees.

 

[bilder]

Been wanting to take up beekeeping for some time, but never lived in an area where they were welcome till now. Got a hive for free and am going to set it up later this month to be ready for spring. Found a local source for bees as well.

I am also going to build my own top bar hive and try to capture a swarm to put in it.

Chickens rabbits and bees. Who knows what we will end up with next.

 

[Life is Good!]

Jumping in with both feet here -

I'm taking a beekeepers intro class through local forest preserve (1x/mo for 6mo). By the end of it, I'll have enough knowledge to go forward. Unlike our chicken interest, I wasn't afraid of the critters. I knew how hard a bird bite was and that I could handle it. Bees, well, it's similar but not really!

I'm totally fascinated by this hobby - and we use enough honey to make it worthwhile for effort - just like our chickens. Got some layers for eggs (teenage boys do eat us out of eggs, but if the girls are in full production, they do keep up with the kids!), then some meat birds for the table (see above about teen boys). Now, adding bees. Garden has been in place for years, looking at adding edible landscaping this spring by ripping out ornamentals that do not produce squat (ok, flowers for the bees - but why have a purple sand-cherry when you could have a REAL cherry?!).

I'm trending towards the smaller 8frame Lang hive. Really, I'd like a combination of top bar hive with extruder-able frames. As a woman with a bad shoulder this season of life, I'm afraid I'm not strong enough to lift much over 40#'s. The 50# bags of chick feed are bad enough. I pay more for the 40's, but it's less wear on my shoulder. the better! I've got another 50+yrs with this shoulder - need to keep it healthy enough to lift grandbabies!

Yes, I read all 75 pages of posts. Whew. Now, to go through all the links ya'll posted and I've got in tabs on my browser! That'll be another couple days worth of reading. Glad to get to know everyone!

 

[Life is Good!]

Anyone here use a Warre hive?

Interesting concept and hoping to find someone with practical knowledge of this system....

Thanks!

 

[tmoore8595]

I've been reading about varroa and how to treat for it. The treatments I've seen are toxic to humans (fumagillin). At least it has warnings about not getting it in your eyes or on your skin. I was wondering if there are natural treatments that aren't harmful? And what success any of you might have had using them?

http://www.countryrubes.com/images/...lonies_as_varroa_control_updated_9_09_09l.pdf

 

[NevadaRon]

Awesome, thanks! Have you tried this method? Does it work?

 

[tmoore8595]

Awesome, thanks! Have you tried this method? Does it work?

I did it last year as a precautionary measure. I don't really know if it worked because I don't really know if I had any varroa mites. I have seen pictures of them but I have not seen any on my bees. I am new to beekeeping ( started last spring). I had 18 hives going into winter but I have lost 2. One lost its queen and finally died out, the other just left for no apparent reason.

 

[NevadaRon]

Wow, 18 hives!

That's pretty ambitious. I started last spring also with only one but I'm thinking of adding another this year.

 

[sgtmom52]

I bought a pot of hyacinth flowers at the garden show last week and planted them today. My honey bees found them before I even got them in the ground. It was a beautiful day for mid March with temperatures in the lows 60s. Hyacinths are not due to bloom in this area for another few weeks, so this was a real treat for the bees.