Any beekeepers here?

[citychknraising]

Looking for somebody with beekeeping experience. I've been considering keeping bees and I just moved to a new home that backs up to a marsh (however, it is in a neighborhood), so it seems like a good opportunity to get started.

- I've been told/read that you do not need a lot of land to keep bees because they travel a few miles from their hive during the day. Is this true?

- Looking for different hive designs. I'd like to build something over the winter and then possibly get the bees in the spring. Does anybody have suggestions?

- Any other good-to-knows? I've done some reading online but I'd like to get some first hand accounts.

Thanks!

 

[IndianaGreg]

Well, this is my first year of keeping bees. Hoping to do all the right things to be able to over winter my bees. But my advice would be to wait till spring to get any hives at this point. Also, I would not get just 1 hive. Get more than 1 if you can. I jumped in and got 3 hive to start and it has allowed me to make mistakes and still be able to get some honey for harvest. There are quite a few resources in VA so get someone to help you.. Having that honey is sweet....

 

[JurassicBawk]

This is my first year with bees too. I didn't have the money to get more than one hive plus all the equipment this year, but so far my one hive seems to be doing great and I'm hoping survive the winter so that I can split them into a second hive instead of them potentially swarming. I didn't take any honey from them since I didn't get them until late May, but when I checked them last Wed they had 4 large frames of honey in their brood box, 3 frames of brood, and what still looked like about 50K bees crammed into both brood boxes and the super I put on for them in case they wanted to build up wax on the honey frames to be ready for spring.

I'm in a neighborhood but have 2.1 acres, which backs to government forestland. My bees are behind my greenhouse inside my garden, and their regular flight pack is backwards over the fence, down the driveway, and out into the neighborhood instead of straight back to the woods. They seem to know what they're doing, and from the research I've done they can go 2-5 miles away depending on the weather. If it is very cloudy or rainy they will stay mostly in the garden, but otherwise they scout out the area and go to wherever the most pollen/flowers are as to be more efficient.

 

[citychknraising]

You're right, @IndianaGreg - I'll have to join the bee keeping groups around here.

@JurassicBawk - Good to hear, we only have about .7 acre so I'm hopeful that the bees spread out instead of staying concentrated near me and my neighbors. They already put up with my chickens lol.

What do your bee homes (hives?.... I'm not sure of the terminology) look like?

 

[IndianaGreg]

You're right, @IndianaGreg - I'll have to join the bee keeping groups around here.

@JurassicBawk - Good to hear, we only have about .7 acre so I'm hopeful that the bees spread out instead of staying concentrated near me and my neighbors. They already put up with my chickens lol.

What do your bee homes (hives?.... I'm not sure of the terminology) look like?

Well, I have mine near a pond that I have. We are out in the country so the bees do have a lot to forage. I also, have a hay field with clover in it that they seem to really like. But, yes they can forage out up to 6 miles which is really unbelievable. I think I have a picture will include it in a post...

 

[JurassicBawk]

I'm at work and my photos are on my phone, so I'm having to edit after the photos are loaded. lol

This was the first day I took my bees out of their nuc (seen on the ground) and put them into their hive. It was 3 frames of bees, 1 honey, and 1 pollen frame with the queen running loose with them. I had to drive an hour away to get the nuc and it was almost $200 just for it and the bees, but that gives me a baby hive if I need it.

The board you see between the nursery and sugar is for a inner hive top feeder, because I fed them sugar water for about 2 months while they got the hive built up.

 

[JurassicBawk]

I can't find a photo of what it looks like now with 2 full brood boxes and the medium honey super, but these are the insides of my brood boxes from my inspection last Wed. I can't find any local beekeepers to help out, so most of my research has been online. It seems everyone else it getting their bees ready for winter, but here in east TN it's still in the high 70s with humidity in the 80s, so my bees are still in summer mode. Currently they have these 2 boxes plus the medium size honey super on top, which they have put a little honey in but didn't fill up since it's their first year and they got a late start.

The nuc was on the ground in the background because I had hundreds of bees on the ground about a month ago. I couldn't tell if they were swarming so put that out just in case, but later determined they had probably been poisoned by someone spraying their lawn down the road. So hundreds of bees died, but the colony made more and didn't suffer. My yard is a Certified Wildlife Backyard Habitat and pesticide-free, but I sadly can't control the neighbors.

 

[IndianaGreg]

 

[IndianaGreg]

This was one of my hives about 2 months ago I guess..

 

[IndianaGreg]

View attachment 1165046 View attachment 1165045

Very Nice.... What are the darker colored frames?