OT: Pics of the new hobby

Me and the brother(he's the one in the pictures, I was taking pictures) decided to go in on haves on 4 stand of bees. We installed them on a week ago this past friday and all but one has really took off. The one farthest to the right is very slow and has probably 4 times more dead bees in it than the others. They finally started feeding more and are making comb, hopefully they'll make it. The one hive right next to it has really went wild, hard to beleive that they've made that much comb in just over a week. Just thought some of you guys might enjoy the pics.

Looks like fun! I tried 1 hive when I was in 7th grade. 4 should be much better! My 1 was a weak hive, so never made it thru a South Dakota winter! Enjoy yourselves. Greg

Looking good, you should be able to remove the entrance reducers soon.

KEH

Very cool.

I've over wintered 3 colonies this year and hope to build up to make a split or two in a few weeks.

Beekeeping is a great hobby. I sure wish things were greener up here like it is in your area.

Oh and keep feeding that straggler colony, I would also keep an eye on the queen.

K

I wish you good luck. Beekeeping is a very noble hobby. My dad has done it for about 30 yrs and now at 88, is too old to lift the hives. I attribute his good health to getting stung and eating honey. Bee stings increase the body's natural level of cortisone which is good for arthritis. One night when he first staarted we counted 39 stings on him. I am not man enough to get into it.
Please educate yourself on Colony Collapse Syndrome if you don't already know and treat for other issues, (mites). The last 2-3 years were a bust for his hives as collapse killed his hives repeatedly. It is slowly destroying most honeybees and fact is there are almost no wild honey bees left. I do believe our farm and gardens flourished because of his bees.

Neat pictures, thanks for sharing. Beekeeper had some hives on our farm, used to help him with them. Rarely used beekeeper's garb. Usually tended hives in shirtsleeves. No gloves!

Farmer was cutting hay in the adjacent field. Said we were crazy - wouldn't even go near that end of field! Only time I ever got stung I was driving a tractor past hives, and intercepted a passing bee in the top of my loafer shoe. got me below the ankle. Wasn't bee's fault - I just happened on the flight plan!

Unfortunately the bee hives died off due to the diseases prevalent a few years back. Hope you have better luck. I miss the honey!

My brother picked up 3 hives worth on Saturday. Won't see me too close to them, I'm mildly allergic to them and I tend to swell up a bit.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Get you supplies at Clarkson?

Kinda rude question?How much would it cost to get a set up like that going?

Looks like you have a fun operation going there. My FIL used to have bees when my wife was in grade school. I don't know what ever became of them. Might have to ask one of these days.

My wife loves honey, but it would take me 10 years to use a cupful - never did develop a "taste" for it. Her dad likes "buckwheat honey". That's one of the nastiest tasting things ever invented......

some people here have portable hives and move them around to pollinate
different areas. I can't see your pics, do you wear protective clothes? The old folks here (the 3 that I know) work in snug shorts and tanktops and talk to them like they are pets. They say that the bees can smell fear/excitement.

Dave

Wow, never thought there'd be this much intrest in bees, it's knda of a dieing thing around here, between younger people not being interested in anything that requires not being inside by the AC and the older people giving due to disease and Colony Colaspe, bees are slowly disapeering.

We've read up, and the bees we bought came from Georgia, supposed to have be treated for everything. We're feeding all the hives sufar water on a 1 to 1 ratio and treated the water with fumogellin(sp?), the cold weather medicine as the old timers call it. We've still been having some cold weather here, some light freezes at night, I'm suprise they've done as well as they have.

As far as the cost, we've probably got about $200 in each hive(not including the bench we built, it was just scrap stuff we had laying around), I've got a little less in mine than the brother, he went fancy and got the top feeders(which I don't like, always in your way and way more expensive) and he bought the fancy bottom boards with mite screens, which I might go to if we end up with mite trouble.. We got a great deal on the bees, $62 for a 3lb package of italians with the queen, but it was more like 3 and half to 4 lbs of bees. Most of our stuff came from Dadant and sons, we bought everything unassemble and unpainted, saved quite a bit of money.

If anybody has any specific questions, feel free to email me.

Casey

Was at kind of a fair last summer and there was a beekeeper display. They had a hive setup that was between two pains of glass like an ant farm. There was a holeabout a third of the way up from the bottom with a piece of tubing that the honey oozed out of as enough was made to overflow. Can't imagine that this was a permanent setup but don't know.

Dave