11 replies to this topic

[gnef]

I have a total of three hive bodies ready for packages/nucs next spring. I have some friends that are beekeepers and helped me to build two top bar hives, and they gave me a single langstroth deep super (I'll have to purchase the honey supers myself). In the past, I've bought 5 gallon buckets of honey for my annual meads. Hopefully I can produce enough honey from the hives (hoping to catch some swarms to increase the number of hives each year) to produce even more mead each year. I will also be frequenting the beemaster forum for more specific help, but thought I'd post something here since this is where I started.Anyone else raise their own bees?

[ScottS]

I keep bees. I maxed at 12 hives, though I've been downsizing. I'm at 5 now.It's great fun.

[gnef]

Are you purposely downsizing, or are you having issues with CCD, beetles, or mites? Not sure if I will get to 12 hives (that seems like more work than its worth at that point), but I definitely want to get more than 3.I have a lot of fruit trees and garden space that I think would benefit from the dedicated pollinators too, which is another reason why I want the bees.

[ScottS]

Kind of a combination of things. I had that many for commercial purposes, now I'm just working for myself, so I don't need as many.I originally was trying to be as organic as I could. I gave that up a couple years ago after losing many hives. Most of my losses then were due to mites. These days, I mostly lose hives to cold in the winter. I leave them outside all winter, but with a windbreak. I end up losing maybe 1/3 of them each winter, but I split back up in the spring to try to maintain a constant number of hives.

[strangebrewer]

Once we move into a permanent home the wife and I have been talking about keeping bees. I'll be interested in how your starting out experience goes gnef. Good luck!

[SnowMan]

I would absolutely love to have a few hives. Unfortunately my current housing / property situation does not lend itself to that project. That and the fact that we are going to be moving 200 miles in a couple of years adds to the reasons not to have hives. Scott... When you started out did you take a class or just wing it? Around here we have the "Indiana Beekeeping School." Not sure if it's worthwhile or I would be better off going it on my own.

[ScottS]

I bought three books and went to "beekeeping day" at Michigan State. The books all contradicted one another, and beekeeping day was useless unless you were there to buy equipment. I'm too impatient and stubborn for a mentor or a club. So I basically just winged it.My advice: either find a mentor, or read everything you can find on the interwebs and wing it. There are lots of ways to do things. A mentor will show you his way while insisting that it is the only way. The interwebs will give you exposure to the many ways to do things, and you'll have to sift through it all to decide what you want to do. You'll also find that techniques, and especially timing, varies significantly from location to location, but not all online sources recognize this.As with every agricultural venture I've ever undertaken, books and conventional wisdom are 10% of the knowledge you need. Only experience will provide the other 90%. So you might as well jump in and start accumulating that experience.

[Wayne B]

Hey Scott, you know by that description, you might be talking about meadmaking as well as beekeeping!

[BeesNBrews]

My goal has always been ten hives...a nice round number. Ever since I set that goal it has been bad winters CCD and mites. I usually top out at about seven and that has been more than enough to keep me busy. Many Northern Ohio beekeepers lost a lot of hives this winter. Our packages did poorly this summer.I just finished extracting. My two over wintered hives did best with one bringing in 110#, just like the good old days before mites et. al. The other put up 60#. The packages squeaked by with only 40 each with two just barely filling their own deeps. Here's hoping (again) for a banner year in 2010!

[ScottS]

I just pulled my supers a couple days ago. About 5 and a half medium supers from three hives. Not too bad, really. My splits all did terribly, but the mother hives all did great.

[SnowMan]

I just pulled my supers a couple days ago. About 5 and a half medium supers from three hives. Not too bad, really. My splits all did terribly, but the mother hives all did great.

So 5 and a half medium supers = ???? lbs of honey?

[ScottS]

It's about 2.5 gals per medium super, and about 12 lbs per gal. So.... 160-170 lbs. Probably 10-20% less than that, because extracting efficiency isn't 100%.