Beekeeping...for those interested!

[bibliophile birds]

As I suspected, 2 of my hives starved out. I feel sick about not realizing soon enough last summer/fall that they were being robbed blind. One lesson learned. I fed them sugar syrup and dry sugar, but it was not enough.

we had two starve out this winter too. oddly enough it was pretty early in the season, just as we were starting to feed, but they were new colonies so i think they might have just been weak. 9 of the others came through decently even with the unusually cold weather, but we did have to feed them a couple of times.

3 of our hives are just total gangbusters, though. we fed them when we did our first feeding and they STILL had sugar water left from that feeding when i checked them this weekend. they happen to be the most active/aggressive bees and the only colonies that survived our big die off 3 years ago. they must be made of special stuff, those girls!

this year is going to be our first attempt at extracting honey at home. we've always robbed the bees ourself and then taken the comb to a local guy with an impressive set-up- we did help with the process, just took advantage of his equipment- but this year we wanted to do it all on-farm. it should be interesting.

i think i'm also going to try to split one of the really solid hives into a top-bar hive, our first. i'd like to trasition to about half top-bar and half Langstroth by the end of next summer.

 

[me&thegals]

bibliophile--that sounds like an exciting beekeeping year ahead of you! while you want to transition to topbars, I would love to try foundationless Langstroths At least in another year or 2. Probably Warres also!

Does anyone here know where bees would be pulling in pollen in zone 4 WI right now? They are hauling it in pretty quickly Do bees get pollen from pussy willows? Weeping willows? All willows? I don't think the maples have bloomed yet, no dandelions, just chickweed that I can see. It's all very mysterious. Some tan, some yellow.

Best luck, beeks!

 

[bibliophile birds]

i would guess that they are collecting from the willows, but i have no information to back that up...

 

[Beekissed]

Well, broke down and ordered a bee package.... Not liking the price but am hoping it will be a wise investment in the long run.

I ordered from Weaver Apiaries in Texas and ordered the All-American package. Anyone familiar with this strain of bee? It sounded like a great bee and I hadn't heard of it before so, of course, I wanted to try them.

Anyone else ordering packages of bees this spring? How much does the shipping usually cost? How do the post offices normally react to this buzzing box?

 

[the simple life]

I am familiar with Weaver and the type Weaver sells are actually an Italian strain that they have out crossed and developed themselves.
Alot of people do this but this is the first time I have heard them called All-American.

Their packages are the most expensive I have ever seen and then you have shipping on top of that, usually nucs run about that price but they are making some big claims about their bees so who knows, maybe they do really well and you will be able to make a split this year and really get your moneys worth.
They say they do best in the southern states but can do well in the northern areas too.

I have never had any come through the mail myself, I always order local nucs and go pick them up.
Companies have been sending bees through the mail for years but I know they are limited on the ways they can ship now because there was something going on about that a couple of years ago.
I know one supplier sent a very large amount of bees through the mail and the post office had decided that you could only ship them a certain way and returned the whole load and by the time they did all of the bees were dead and he was out thousands of dollars and he could not fill the orders for his customers.
I am not sure what the new regulation is now but its been back to business for shipping bees.
My mailman brings me chicks when I order meatbirds through the mail and he is fine with that but tells me he is allergic to bees and would freak if I ever had him deliver bees but not to be a jerk but everyone I meet tells me they are allergic to bees.
They think that if the area around the sting swells up after getting stung they are allergic, that is actually a normal reaction since that is kind of the point of getting stung.
If it didn't hurt and remind you for a while after the sting then you wouldn't be afraid to tick off the bees.
So far, my mailman, the guy who put in my shed, a friend's kid, and most everyone I come across is apparently allergic to bees.

Well anyway, good luck with the bees, they are on the expensive side but they do sound like they could be worth it.
It may be a case of them asking what the bees are really worth to them and you will get what you pay for.
I have been getting excellent quality around here and the surrounding states but if I couldn't then those bees (aside from the expense) would be at the top of my list to try.

I forgot about your question Bee, I will take a picture of my solar wax melter for you.
I bought mine unassembled from a bee supply company and put it together and painted it. Easy and the money spent was worth knowing this would work and not having the headache of designing my own.


As an aside, the second Northeast Chemical Free Beekeeping Conference is going to be happening again this summer in Leominstir Massachusetts on July 28-31.
The price has gone up to $190.00 per person and it includes all meals. There are hotels and camping sites nearby.
While its a little pricy for alot of us the information really was great and I met alot of expert beekeepers and authors that you read about, people came from all over.

They are having a crash beginners course and an advanced course within the conference.
When Dean updates the info and provides a link to the schedule and speakers I will pass it on if anyone is interested.

 

[rebecca100]

I really want to get bees!!!! Dh STILL says NO! Anyway I was looking up assoc. in our area and one of them is in OUR TOWN!!!! That is totally unexpected since we are in a tiny town. Maybe new hope getting dh to agree.

 

[bibliophile birds]

As an aside, the second Northeast Chemical Free Beekeeping Conference is going to be happening again this summer in Leominstir Massachusetts on July 28-31.

i would really love to get that info from you when you have it. i will, conveniently be in the NE for a wedding right around that time so it's actually a real possibility that i could make it. it would be GREAT.

 

[Beekissed]

TSL, you could be right...some fellas on Beemaster.com just told me that they don't think Weavers can ship to WV...will have to call them and see. If not, there are some bee packages in Roanoke, which is quite a drive from me, if they are still available. I tried calling about them but didn't get an answer or machine on which to leave a message.

I thought the price was a little steep as well but having never ordered a package through the mail, I didn't know what the going rate should be.

 

[the simple life]

If you have a bee club anywhere near you most of them go in on large orders of package bees and send someone down south to pick them up and they distriubute them to members the next day.
You may be able to piggyback on an order.
If you know of any beekeepers that catch swarms or wouldn't mind selling you a split that is another idea.
Put the word out if you can't get to Roanoke and get a package but even a long drive will be cheaper than paying a hundred dollars for a package and then the shipping on top of that.
I drove to New York and Rhode Island last year to pick up certain stock that I wanted and it ended up being worth it to me.
Good luck with it.

 

[FarmerDenise]

When I had my bees, I was doing some research on line and came across a simple homemade wax extractor.
The guy was from africa and was trying to promote beekeeping to help the people make some money.

I tried it and it worked very well.
The picture did not copy over, so I'll try to describe it.

Fill a good sized plastic tub (I used a 1 gallon ice plastic ice cream tub with a lip) about 1/4 of the way with water.
Place a paper towel over the tub and tie it on with string. Leave a bowl shaped indentation in the middle of the towel.
Put the tub inside of an insulated box, a cooler works well.
The tub should fit completely inside the cooler. Set the cooler with the tub outside in a warm and sunny spot. Put your comb in the middle of the paper towel. Cover the cooler with a clear sheet of glass or plexiglass.

Paul's Ingenious Solar Wax Melter

Here is a beautifully simple solar wax melter which Paul devised .

I have used melters made according to these plans, and I have found them to work well. If the paper towel hangs over the side of the container, wax will sometimes wick off and drop to the bottom of the chest. This really is no problem, for the wax can be lifted off the bottom when cooled. I use metal coffee cans rather than a plastic tub. That's the beauty of beekeeping and its associated activities: There are so many different ways of doing the same thing.
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James D. Satterfield email: jsatt@gsu.edu

As the wax melts, the paper towel holds all the impurities. The melted wax ends up in the water below in organic shaped globs and is easy to fish out. I used the paper towels as fire starters after I finished melting my wax.

I had copied this to my file, so I no longer have the link to the site.