bush bees

[twitch71]

i am wondering if anyone knows about were i can buy some bush bees, i wont to have a small hive in my back yard

 

[Life is Good!]

If you're referring to Michael Bush, he's a bee expert and has a fabulous website: http://bushfarms.com/bees.htm

However, having a 'small' hive is about as successful as having a 'few' chickens! Insects are not like birds or mammals. Please do a LOT of reading before jumping into this. A set of forums I can recommend are at: www.beesource.com. A lot like these forums. Great folks and awesome information.

 

[twitch71]

thanks, i just what to get a small hive to
pollinate
my vegies and fruit. i dont have bees anywhere here

 

[Life is Good!]

Bees do not do well in 'small' hives. An average size hive in the middle of summer can be over 60,000 bees. They need space to survive in!

If you're looking at obtaining bees, do a lot of reading! The www.beesource.com forums are the best place I know of on-line to find information about all variety of hives - 'traditional' Langstroth hives, Kenyan Top Bar Hives, Warre hives - there are many many options - all with different management needs, different costs associated with them, etc. First, please check your state requirements. Most states have inspectors - they can be a wealth of information on your location, what works, what won't. For example, folks in Alaska have a whole different set of problems than those in Arizona! Alaska won't likely ever have Africanized honeybees; but Arizonians do.

Most places have a state beekeepers organization. Some places even have local monthly meetings. That is a good place to start (sometimes). Many locales have low cost 'intro to beekeeping' classes available, usually in the winter months. Take a class, get books from the library, read on-line! Learn, learn, learn.

I started keeping bees for the same reason. I need pollinators for our garden. Oddly enough, the way I've placed our hives, the bees that do visit our garden are NOT ours! But ours are visiting someone's garden, as they're bringing in pollen and nectar from somewhere! It's a fascinating hobby, but one that can be challenging - more so than trying to figure out how to move a broody hen! Insects are harder to handle in many ways, for their ways are not at all like ours!

 

[chickenstricken]

I think this might be what you're looking for.

http://cdn.kinsmangarden.com/downloads/MasonBeeNestKits.pdf

These aren't honeybees, and seem to be used mainly as pollinators.