The Birds and the Bees

[Sally PB]

Beekeeping is an expensive hobby

Can you list what a beginner needs to buy, and an estimate of the cost involved? I really know very little. Or point me to a website...?

 

[aart]

Was going to do bees a few years ago when I had a cash windfall,
decided it was too expensive and too much work.
Probably a grand(or two) to get started with gear/hives/extraction equipment.
Had quite a bit of info from and observation of a couple of local bee keeper acquaintances,
decided to just buy honey from them.

 

[Ascholten]

If you are going to get the honey extractors and all that stuff, yep, a few grand, but if you join a bee club, which many places should have around, there are probably many people there who have all that not often used equipment and generally are happy to let you use it or bring your supers to them and do them at their place.

To get started, otherwise, I think I paid about 700 dollars for 2 full hive setups, the full suit, gloves, tools and a smoker. I got tables and stuff to set them on too, which you really don't need, I mean, you could set them on cinderblocks really, but I wanted it to look nice. To get started with just one hive and a full suit etc, you probably could get into it, new stuff, around 500 dollars. That'd be a full hive, full suit, tools, smoker and some other knick knacks. If you were to ask around at a club you might get someone to sell or even give you a lot of stuff for a lot cheaper. You may even be able to build a lot of the stuff yourself if you are handy with woodworking. Me, I am NOT a carpenter, so, buy it it is!

Here is the place I shopped at, local place, great people, very cheap prices and they always support the bee clubs with better prices.

https://hivesandmore.us/

Of course you'd be best doing a google of your area for local clubs and supplies.

One other thing Id highly recommend is go on youtube and just type in beekeeping and watch some of the video's. There are hours and hours of them. Now just like with chickens, you can ask 10 different people a question and you'll get 17 different answers, but you'll get an overall real good idea what it's all about.

Aaron

 

[Sally PB]

Was going to do bees a few years ago when I had a cash windfall,
decided it was too expensive and too much work.
Probably a grand(or two) to get started with gear/hives/extraction equipment.
Had quite a bit of info from and observation of a couple of local bee keeper acquaintances,
decided to just buy honey from them.

If you are going to get the honey extractors and all that stuff, yep, a few grand, but if you join a bee club, which many places should have around, there are probably many people there who have all that not often used equipment and generally are happy to let you use it or bring your supers to them and do them at their place.

To get started, otherwise, I think I paid about 700 dollars for 2 full hive setups, the full suit, gloves, tools and a smoker. I got tables and stuff to set them on too, which you really don't need, I mean, you could set them on cinderblocks really, but I wanted it to look nice. To get started with just one hive and a full suit etc, you probably could get into it, new stuff, around 500 dollars. That'd be a full hive, full suit, tools, smoker and some other knick knacks. If you were to ask around at a club you might get someone to sell or even give you a lot of stuff for a lot cheaper. You may even be able to build a lot of the stuff yourself if you are handy with woodworking. Me, I am NOT a carpenter, so, buy it it is!


Aaron

This tells me a lot, so thank you both.

I do know a person who has bees and have bought some honey from him. I think for now, that might be what I'll do. I think I'll ask him about "helping" him sometime, or maybe just watching, to see what all is involved.

Oh, just remembered... A neighbor was talking to someone who rents out his bees as pollinators. She asked about renting them, and he refused because she (we) are too close to a commercial farm. Which uses Roundup. So this might not be something I want to pursue...?

 

[Ascholten]

She asked about renting them, and he refused because she (we) are too close to a commercial farm. Which uses Roundup. So this might not be something I want to pursue...?

If the bees are alive by you, you should be ok. The roundup, there is a lot of controversy over it, cancer causing, bla bla, it's not organic, bla bla. It's obviously not good for bees, and if they are killing off the vegetation, well, nothing to feed the bees so they probably won't hang around there very much to begin with since there is no food!

WIth that, if you have the Orkin man or any commercial pest companies treating your house, you probably will want to stop that. The poisons can transfer over to your bees and that's never a good thing.

To be totally honest with you. Ive used Terminix, and they tried to $%#$k me royally one time. I had flying ants. Panicked, thinking oh crap, termites, called them to come take care of this NOW! Either I had a slimy SOB salesman or whatever because they showed up, said, oh those are only flying ants but I can give you a deal, if you sign a contract bla bla vomit, we can treat your WHOLE HOUSE, for only 800 dollars.

I won't repeat here what I told him he can go do to himself, and long story short, I threw 3 or 4 handfulls of scratch feed on the side of the house where the ant problem was originating from, Made sure the ladies were standing there when I did that so they could see it. They started scratching after the feed, found the ants, and well.. the rest is history, no more ants and 800 dollars richer. Insecticides bad, but the chickens can take care of a LOT of pests, with a little coaxing. Do it naturally.

IF you have local beekeepers around, most of them are generally more than happy to talk to you, let you see what's going on etc. (If you are going to do active hive work, you'll want a hood at the very least, probably a suit) whether the person will lend you one or not is a coin flip to be honest.

Another thing you could possibly try is, tell the beekeeper, you'll let him put a hive on your property, which he can take care of, get the honey, and in return you get to watch him, it, etc. Many beekeepers are always looking for new places to set up their little buzzing shops at. This lets you see what it's all about, learn from it, and get the knowledge you need first hand for when / if you decide to go at it. If it's just totally NOT working out, he can pick up his hive and move on, no harm no foul really and you are not out hundreds of dollars in equipment so on so forth.

breathe...

ALSO on that. If you are in an area that's bad for bees, ie roundup farms etc, your local beekeepers would know this as well and would tell you, NO don't do it.

You might want to google or look around, just goto one of the local meetings of the beekeepers if there is one nearby just to get an idea about it. You won't have to buy a thing, don't need bees, don't have to have a single clue what they even are! That's how I got started, did the google thing, then went to a few meetings, and about 3 months later, finally sprung and got my hives. Plenty of people helped me along the way. I believe you will find that the bee community is generally really friendly and loves to share what they do!

Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

Ok, here is a picture of my current setup.
The big one on the left is going to be their permanent home.
The little one on the right is a 5 frame nuc. Basically when you get bees, they give them to you in that, it's a few frames with bees, maybe some brood, a queen, some honey, basically a minimum hive that's healthy, the queen and rest of the colony are working together nicely etc.

You set it up for about a week, let them get settled in, used to their new environment and settled down. Then you transfer the frames from the little one to the big one and you are done.

A frame is literally, a wooden frame, it's rectangular and has like a plastic pattern on it for the bees to build comb, put honey in, raise kids in etc etc.

Probably next monday if the weather is nice I'll move them into the 'big house' and we'll be good to go with a little luck!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

MannLake is good for bulk supplies. Free shipping on orders over $100. Good place to get bulk frames and commercial grade boxes. If you've the time then great savings on unassembled where you use wood glue and nails to put it all together and paint it.

Before you leap into know if you are going to use deep boxes and supers or if you will be all medium boxes. The joy of all medium is you have one type of box and all the same frames. Little more up front as you need more of them but evens out as you won't have as much unused equipment in the garage. Bee space wise 3 mediums equal 2 deeps and most people use the medium boxes as supers. So you'd need five mediums per hive. Down side of mediums is if you want to start with a nucleous colony instead of package bees. Nucs are five deep frames of starter hive that you need a deep box to put into with five more frames.

There are many configurations to boxes and how you manage. The hive body could be medium, deep then medium or you could be a person who only uses one deep as hive body with a queen excluder. With one deep body hive you are removing frames and starting new colonies to prevent swarming. Many ways and methods. With due diligence you can have a plan and not get caught up with purchasing equipment you'll not use.

 

[Ascholten]

As an interesting side note. I let the girls out today.
When morning comes, bees will clean their hive, this includes throwing out any that died during the night. They will either just pitch them, or sometimes carry them off.

Anyways there were about half a dozen dead / dying bees on the white plastic you see under the hive. I did the tongue click, and threw some scratch grains / goodies over there with the girls right under my heels, you know how chickens and treats are !!

They wanted NOTHING to do with that !! Scratch grain snacks, stayed right there, girls are not interested. This tells me then know what's up, so good in a way, but I want them to eventually scritchy scratch under it and eat beetles, and the dead bees etc etc. Hopefully over time, the relationship develops there.

Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

and the little brats got into my pea's that were sprouting.
I have just had an epiphany or maybe an aneurism, .. the results tend to be the same when I come up with ideas !!

Put beehives right behind my totes of goodies growing. As long as you don't stand right in their path, bees generally won't bother you. if you do stand in their path, they will bump into you because well... you are in the way to them getting to the hive. I can still work the plants, or worse case, veil up, BUT, the birds see the bees and stay their asses OUT of my veggies!! They have already shown they won't go near them, so if that is a continuing trait, this might be something to look into.

Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

I moved the bees into their permanent home today, got all suited up, puffed them with smoke, moved the frames and set it all back up.

The guy I got them from said they have very good genetics and are very docile bees. Ok, whatever that means, I got my runnin boots on just to be sure!

Well I found out exactly what THAT meant today !!
They acted like I was not even there. Just a slight puff of smoke on them, moved them, they buzzed around, were confused to the new hive, and did their flying around in circles until they figure it out again, but NOT ONE of them buzzed me, heck, none of them even landed on me, even though I was holding frames looking at them, checking brood, looking for the queen etc. Now in my book THAT is tame!

This is very good IMO. Don't need to worry about accidental stings when you go by, the neighbors getting lit up and then the crying starts etc etc.

The biggest commotion was when I did round 456.. of ... get even with you you little brat, and fully suited up, never been in one before, went and RAAaaaAAaaHHHHHH to the rottentoo. He puffed up, skwaked, I laughed and then he tried to attack me thru the cage where I tapped his beak and gave him PPppPPPpp as I walked out the door... followed by a 140 db scream Now I am back in, and he's cursing at me, screaming to be let out, umm nope, not yet. But trust me, I WILL pay. it may take him 3 or 4 days but he WILL get even.

Maybe I can enlist the help of the bees to protect me from the wrath of the TerribleToo. If he ever does get loose and outside, I pity the first hawk or snake that tries to attack him, it'll never know what hit it, he will demolish it !

Aaron