Nevadans?

[sherylreno]

Sorry about your not feeling well lately, I hope it goes away and never comes back!

 

[chicharomirinda]

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thanks! I'm feeling much better.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Daniel, I swear you are not busy enough! You need a few more projects.

Boy that bee thread alone could keep me busy for months! Apparently you need to live close to an alfalfa farm that raises it for seed. Duh, makes sense since the bees need pollen to make honey (for us and them). The alfalfa farm I live close to cuts it at least twice a year. So few flowers from that alfalfa.

Also says that alfalfa and clover (except white clover) honey granulate quickly. Not my favorite thing to deal with but they both make for delicious honey. There are other crops that produce delicious, mild honey but nothing I read talks about crops I have anywhere near here. The local honey I have bought is very strong tasting and not my preference so I will definitely need to do a lot more research before I ever get serious about this hobby.

Ok, gotta dash now but thanks for all the info. I will def look into that more later.

Glad you are feeling better Elizabeth!

 

[HighNDryFarm]

So, I know nothing about making honey but the olive orchard next to us had beehives in it for years before it was sold. Our horses were pastured on that same pasture and never bothered the beehives, just an FYI.

Is there some something good for honey in the olive bloom?

 

[SunnyDawn]

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I have no idea if olive blossoms make good honey but I do know that most orchards keep bee hives around for the bloom season to be sure their trees are pollinated.

 

[HighNDryFarm]

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I have no idea if olive blossoms make good honey but I do know that most orchards keep bee hives around for the bloom season to be sure their trees are pollinated.

The owner of the orchard didn't live near. A friend of the owner who lived in town, let his friend put the bees in the there. Maybe the bee owner needed pollen for his bees.

I'll have to ask my husband, he remembers details like that. I never tell him I can't remember, I just tell him I can't worry my pretty little head about it.....

 

[SunnyDawn]

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I have no idea if olive blossoms make good honey but I do know that most orchards keep bee hives around for the bloom season to be sure their trees are pollinated.

The owner of the orchard didn't live near. A friend of the owner who lived in town, let his friend put the bees in the there. Maybe the bee owner needed pollen for his bees.

I'll have to ask my husband, he remembers details like that. I never tell him I can't remember, I just tell him I can't worry my pretty little head about it.....

Well now you got me curious so I looked up preferred pollens for honey bees and Olive tree blooms were not on the list but who knows if the list was complete plus bees forage over 8,000 acres so it could have been the surrounding flora the beekeeper was most interested in. Ask your Hubby cause now you've got me curious.

 

[Penturner]

From what I can tell, just about everything about bees is money. If you manage to make a second small hive from one of your colonies it is worth about $100 the hive itself full of bees, comb and honey can be worth as much as $1500. the wax sells for several things from candle making to lip balm. You can produce just queens that sell for $20 to $30. The pollen is sold and is good for building up resistance to allergies in your area. You have to eat pollen from local bees for that one. I have the ability to make hives and frames and those sell for around $100 a piece for a full hive. And then of course you can sell the honey if you want to mess with it. Bees equal money and when you start looking into them you figure that one out fast. not even much of the information is easy to get freely. That makes the group I found a real gem. They will tell you right off the bat to expect to spend $600 just starting your first hive. I have spent about 50 so far and have no bees or bee suit, smoker or hive tools. I am maybe a couple hundred dollars away unless I can find a swarm to capture or something.

As for the reason to have bees. "Pollination" Honey bees do a better job of pollinating than any other critter. It is not just a matter of more fruit, but better fruit. many things that visit the flower do so by quickly taking a sip of nectar not always even toughing the blossom and then darting off again. The honey bee lands on the blossom and will sort of dig around in it. Like a child trying to get to the bottom of a toy box. THis results in more complete pollination of the blossom resulting in larger fruit.

It is sort of hard to pick just what is the most valuable thing you can do with something that turns everything into gold. But from what I can tell the best money in bees is placing hives in Pecan orchards. I read one post that said the going rate for a hive in any orchard or filed is $60 a hive and that they would not mess with placing less than 100 hives. That is $6000 to drop off a truck load of boxes. And the hive owner gets the honey, wax, bees and all back in a few months.

My interest in bees is to have them around to keep my garden pollinated. That and I just like them.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

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I know Tyler, I was thinking the same thing the other day. I do see Aubrey is on facebook lately but I haven't spoken to her.

Hey guys sorry. I've been lurking but haven't had much to contribute to the conversation lately.

I'll post pics of my polish later. A raccoon actually got our favorite little red one and it hasn't quite been the same without him. He used to follow us around the yard and go for rides on our shoulders and heads. Mark took the loss really hard. RED was everyone's favorite. They also ripped out our other roosters tail. The pullet survived the attack.
It's obvious now that we have a HUGE problem. They were so quiet that not even the dog heard them. They ripped off some hardware cloth that was covering a two inch by two inch hole an pulled little red out peice by peice. I don't even know how. The corners had screws in them and every hole had a staple. Wildlife services are bringing us traps. I was trying to look into humane ways of killing them but mark just plans on bludgeoning them to death.
On top of that I've been working both jobs all week. Our roomate has been kicked out, and now poor red. Yeesh

 

[HighNDryFarm]

Awe Aubrey, I'm so sorry.....I was worried that something had happened. I can't believe they tore off the hardware cloth! I feel so safe with mine surrounded by it.

Hope the rest healup quickly and you catch the predator. And yes, kill it. After we lost all ours even the county trapper asked us not to try to relocate them, because they will find thier way back!