Anybody here have bees?

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1977212
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Anybody here have bees?

Post by 1977212 » October 2nd, 2016, 9:41 pm

Thinking about starting up a hive next year and wondering if anybody here has or had one?

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Re: Anybody here have bees?

Post by TimmyG » October 3rd, 2016, 12:50 am

Not yet. The wife would like to, and I am much more motivated with the recent introduction of the Flow Hive.

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Re: Anybody here have bees?

Post by 1977212 » October 3rd, 2016, 7:51 am

Its a nice concept but that's not really ideal because bacteria can grow easily with that setup.

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Re: Anybody here have bees?

Post by rough-cut » October 6th, 2016, 7:53 am

We have 2 hives. Why are you thinking of getting into bees?

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Re: Anybody here have bees?

Post by 1977212 » October 6th, 2016, 10:46 pm

rough-cut wrote:We have 2 hives. Why are you thinking of getting into bees?
Eventually make honey for a wine hobby. But Id be happy if I can keep them alive, do you run into much issues with mites? From what I've been reading people fail a lot just from them.


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Re: Anybody here have bees?

Post by rough-cut » October 7th, 2016, 3:45 pm

1977212 wrote:
rough-cut wrote:We have 2 hives. Why are you thinking of getting into bees?
Eventually make honey for a wine hobby. But Id be happy if I can keep them alive, do you run into much issues with mites? From what I've been reading people fail a lot just from them.
We started with 2 hives this past spring (April). June I missed one week in opening them up for inspection. In a two week period one hive got ants, then beetles and a few mites, then got wax moths. That (wax moths) was the death of that one hive. Once the hive is weakened and the wax moths invade, you have to destroy the hive. Pretty much anything else can be fixed. Mites are easy to cure with powdered sugar dusted every other day for 3 weeks, or a chemical treatment. If honey is being produced for your taking (honey super) then you have to use the powdered sugar method. We feed ours sugar water almost year round so we can add any treatments necessary to help them out. Figure on 70-100 lbs of honey per hive per super. If you stack an additional super then plan on another 70 plus lbs of honey. Our local apiary has stacked 6 supers on top of one very strong hive! They joke about the reason people get into bee keeping is because of the honey. The reason people get out of bee keeping is because of the honey :D

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Re: Anybody here have bees?

Post by 1977212 » October 7th, 2016, 10:55 pm

Interesting about all the insects trying to invade the hive. The u of m has a bee lab and offer a class this fall, the wife and I will probably attend it so we can have a better understanding of what to do.

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Re: Anybody here have bees?

Post by rough-cut » October 8th, 2016, 9:15 am

1977212 wrote:Interesting about all the insects trying to invade the hive. The u of m has a bee lab and offer a class this fall, the wife and I will probably attend it so we can have a better understanding of what to do.
:good:
We've attended 3 classes. Bee keeping 101:life cycle of bees, introduction to the hive, meet the queen. Our 2nd class was advanced bee keeping: care, feeding, spiting a hive, re-queening and problem areas. Our last class was harvesting the honey, now that was a great class! We see the apiary about once a month for info, supplies, and a whole lot of questions. Look around your area for local clubs. Check with the local ag extension office too for a listing of local clubs.
The reason for so many insects is.......we live in Florida. Never have weather cold enough to kill all the critters. They told us at the class it would be 12 months a year battle against insects.

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