How the bee was made, the bee made honey

[MissPrissy]

I picked up the 1x12x8 boards at Lowes. I can't remember the exact price but they were close to $30 each. I really wanted the Western Red Cedar but it wasn't available at the time. That was the big expense.

We spent about $200 and he made 3 hives over 2 weekends. That is about the cost of the set up for one traditional hive.

 

[SamG347]

And this design is working greatly for you? Like the comb formation is turning out nicely?!? Also how many topbars fit each one of the hives?
Thanks MP!

 

[MissPrissy]

near 30 top bars in each of these.

 

[maplesky7]

ha ha.

I like the pics.

I especially like that he's wearing dark colors...like a bear...that steels honey.

You may know but bees like light colors better...less threatening.

I had 4 hives. None currently.

Never seen the hives like you have built.

I'll have to come back and look at them better. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

me,
g

 

[miss_jayne]

my oldest daughter (14 yrs) really wants to try her hand at bee keeping. i love this hive design! looks like a good project for building this winter to have ready for next year.
looks nice, functional and small scale. perfect for our little 5 acres!

thanks for posting all the great info, MissPrissy!

 

[deb1]

Wonderful post, Miss Prissy. I wondered what type of hive you had depicted on your site. Your hive was so interesting looking that I did research and then discovered it was a top bar hive. Looks like I had been patient I would have eventually read about it on this site.

Now I want a top bar hive too.

To everyone else...if y'all do a google or yahoo search there are tons of information on top bar or Kenyan hives(I think that was the other name for them) Really interesting stuff too.

Are the bees more docile in a top bar hive?

 

[maplesky7]

If you are a begginner contact your local Bee Assoc. and join. They will give you all sorts of valuable info.

My local bee assoc. is basically a bunch of bee keepers of every scale...1 hive to 300+ hives...that like to get together on occasion (called meetings) and bring food and chat and laugh and learn from one another...kind of like byc.

I started out with carnolian bees...more docile.

Then worked my way up to Italian.

Bees are happy as long as they have flowers to polinate and it's not a rainy day.

If the necter flow is nil to none and/ or it's rainy...then you have grumpy bees that will protect their stores of honey.

But I have learned they are easier to work with than most people think.

I don't know about top bar hives but mine are in supers. Boxes stacked on boxes. The bottom boxes were for the brood and the queen, then a queen excluder (grate that queen can't fit her body through but workers can), and the top boxes or supers were for the honey.

dadant is a well known and respected company to shop for honey supplies. http://www.dadant.com/

me,
g

 

[maplesky7]

Quote:
I think it's 10 miles to be exact...for foraging and water.


me,
g

 

[MissPrissy]

Exactly. Bees will never contain themselves to your personal property.

I have loved seeing the bees all summer. They are fat healthy little things. We see them covered in pollen and it makes me laughing watching them like pollen balls with wings.

 

[maplesky7]

Quote:
In the supers that we had...the narrow supers were for honey and would weigh 50 lbs. You can stack them and with a good size colony we've seen the supers stacked 11 high (but that's not typical and not easiest to manage)...that's with 2 deep supers on the bottom for brood. They have to use a ladder to get to the top!

Honey in these parts can sell about $5 a lb. Though you can find it cheaper and more expensive...just like eggs. Depends on your market. My apiary inspector told me he sells his for $5 and that's what I should sell mine for.

It's a matter of finding a market for your honey. Around me in my local farmer's market there were 3-5 honey stands. That's a lot of honey. But if you can sell it to a grocer...as local honey...

Boast of the benefits of "local honey," helps allergy sufferers because their bodies build up antibodies with all the local pollen...and so on and so forth.

me,
g