Any Beekeepers out there?

[Lark Rise]

We keep bees.
We've had our top bar hive for 18 months now.
Our first package of bees were Italians, but due to our inexperience they absconded.

We installed our 2nd package of Minnesota Hygienic bees a few weeks later and they are still with us.

We are still learning and pray the don't swarm. We want to build a second top bar hive for next spring.
Photo credits to my son.

 

[toochicky]

Awesome pictures!!

Yay bees!

 

[Beekissed]

Mine were Italian too and they absconded as well....I put it down to the lack of available food sources in our drought, but maybe they were going to do so anyway, who knows?

Love the pics and the top bar hive way of raising the bees. I really love the Barefoot Beekeeper's methods and if I ever do the bees again I will be employing that method. Survival of the fittest and keeping the survivors to breed new tough bees is a good method to insure your bees are able to survive bacterial and parasitical infestation.

 

[Parson's Wife]

My Dad was, and my brothers are. I would enjoy but the Rev. says no...so, I enjoy when they donate to their bestest sister!

 

[sulco]

Maintaining the hive and coop for the ladies provide some of the best therapy!

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Started out with some discussions with a friend back last christmas that a couple hives would be neat to try, one thing lead to the next, couple extra nucs, another family member picked up some hives, a couple splits to avoid swarming, raised a few queens and the bee yard topped out at 15 hives this summer. Working on combining them them down into 12 for winter.

We extracted 500lb or so of honey first year so feeling pretty good about the bees, just need to see how well we can winter them.
Fabbed up a heated decapping tray/wax melter this summer and am working on plans to build a larger extractor over the winter.

Need to go out later and give second last treatment of formic acid, store empty boxes, move some honey around and feed a little to beef up a couple weaker hives.

Lots of fun, lots of work, lots to learn for sure.

 

[jtbrown]

When I mentioned a hive next year at local Farm Store (really local mill), they said == Now beekeeping is a very expensive hobby! How expensive?

I mean, for goodness sake, we built a 12 x 24 building with 2 coops within it, built 2 runs in with hardware cloth. I don't even want to think how expensive that was (we stopped keeping track and are just doing a little each payday). The chickens themselves were cheap, but that was about where cheap stopped. We also were doing this knowing we were staying at this house, not planning on moving, and this is my permanent garden shed, chicken coop -- MY Barn.

So, as far as start off costs, what is a good estimate if we buy the hive? I know I will need at least the face cover and gloves and some equipment, but it cannot be anywhere near what we have spent on chickens, right?

Also, I am in a position, where I can pursue my hobby as I see fit, money is always a consideration, but I've earned the time and money to spend on my hobby. It gives my family healthy food, and me a positive outlet while off work. Also, priceless to show my kids the lessons in animal husbandry, hard work, etc. So the cost doesn't scare me, just curious.

ps -- I got 2 pounds of honey at local farm store from 2 different people's hives, I am so excited, the whole family was involved in tasting the difference last night at dinner.

 

[sulco]

Quote:
We bought the hive and wear for just a pinch over $400; bee pack cost ~$60 I think... then a couple hundred on electric fence parts. It's as entertaining as watching the chickens to have the lid off the hive and watching all the activity.

Just do it and don't overthink/stress about it.

/plus the hive is great for a little alone (read: quiet time) since we only have one hood and set of gloves. "Sorry honey, can't talk, got to check the ladies at the hive."

 

[jtbrown]

I have been looking at hives, the Garden Hive, which is a top bar looks like it might be a good starter hive. What do you think?

 

[zzGypsy]

Quote:
like a lot of things, there's some startup cost, and then maintenance isn't bad. how you do the startup will determine how much initial cost... some things you can do for yourself and that brings the cost down.

here's what you need to start:
a bee suit (or jacket, or hood, depending on how nervous you are about being stung). I started with a jacket which has a built in hood.
bee gloves (ordinary gloves won't work nearly as well, get the bee gloves)
a smoker. special smoker fuel is optional
a frame/hive tool
a bee brush
bees.

If you go with regular hive boxes you'll need:
a hive (bottom board, lid) with 2-4 boxes (2 deeps plus two shallows, or 4 mediums, or 4 deeps)
10 frames of the appropriate size per box (can be with built in foundation, or you'll need foundation also)

if you go with a top-bar hive you'll need:
top bar hive
hive cover
top bar frames to fill the hive
a divider to move back as bees expand the area they use.

optional items:
a queen excluder
a fume board
a bottom board with slide out tray and sticky board
Bee-Go or something like it for moving bees out of the frames
a frame puller / holder
paint for the outside of the hive
various medications
a frame feeder or landing board feeder
an entrance reducer
bee food if you need to suplement over the winter
corn syrup or sugar if you need to feed.
a book or DVD on beekeeping

if you're going to do a fancy job of processing the honey, you'll need:
an extractor
a capping knife (manual or electric)
a settling tank / jar filling tank
a honey filter
special frames for comb-in-the-honey packaging
custom printed labels and jars for your product...

I don't think I've left anything out...

so. to bring down costs you can:
build your own boxes and frames. they're not difficult if you're handy, but it's probably cheapest to buy knocked down boxes and frames and put them together yourself, rather than work from scratch.
build your own top bar hive (most of these are home made.)
process your honey by hand (messy! and doesn't let you return the comb to the bees... they have to build new) but you'll need to buy new foundation each time if you have foundationless frames (not expensive.)

you can buy a full hive with bees already in it from some beekeepers. you'll still need the suit and tools.

You can capture a feral swarm and install it in your hive. sometimes this works well, sometimes not. not all ferals are friendly, and not all are high producers. I still love them and keep some.

costs... it's regional. you can check BetterBee or Brushy Mountain Bees online for nice "beginner beekeeper" packages. and also to see the plethora of cool things you might find you really want...

for equipment, if you can buy used from another beekeeper, that's good, but do ask if they've had any bee diseases (may still be present in the hive box or frames) or if they've used chemicals for treating the bees (also can build up in the boxes, and I use natural methods whenever possible.)

buy new gloves and a suit that fits.

buy bees from a reputable keeper with healthy stock. there are lots of apiaries that sell "package" bees (3lbs of workers and a queen) that you can install in your hive. package bees are $70-90 plus overnight shipping of maybe $50-60 dollars. (total $120-150). it's a few dollars more to have the queen marked or her wings clipped.

if you buy a hive from a local beekeeper already set up with bees in it, in CA that might be $170-250. not a bad deal, actually, if you consider the cost of package bees, plus shipping, plus a hive, plus frames. you do want to ask about the breed and temperament of the bees, and the age of the queen.

many things can be improvised... for instance you can make your own fume board, or tray and stickyboard, or your own entrance reducer, or buy an inexpensive feeder insert and make your own feeder out of a home depot bucket. if you're comfotable with the bees, you can handle them in jeans, a chambray long sleeved shirt, a net hood over a ball cap and bee gloves. I know folks who don't even use the gloves.

so how much does it cost? that depends.

decide on how you want to do this... somewhere between build it all yourselves and buy it all pre-made... and then start pricing on line. go to the local beekeeper group meetings, that's the place to find local resources (reduce shipping costs), find used equipment, and find out about buying bees locally.

happy beekeeping!

oh, and you were warned that keeping one hive of bees leads to keeping more hives of bees, weren't you?