My next adventure...

Happy hour starts in 5 minutes
Myself, well....
Personally I'm kinda into C's and D's...
But cool John....B's are fun too!
 
SNF, I think we must be a lot alike :) That's a pretty winding path from bees to a fish pond... I'm surprised you didn't move on from goldfish to koi, just expand that baby and do the koi thing - you won't have any problem seeing them and they are beyond hardy from my understanding. On the bees, one thing I've learned for sure (and it is likely too late for you this year) but they say it is much more preferable to buy 'nucs' than 'packages' (and you may already know all this). Packages are just a random queen and a bunch of bees thrust together. You put them in your hive and hope they mesh and work as a colony. There is no control over how well the queen will be accepted and the ages of the bees are unknown. Bees live very short lives, so if you happened to get a bunch of older bees, you could find your hive suddenly depopulated and take a while to recover. Nucs are actual frames (usually 5) from an established colony. That means the queen is already established, and the bees you get will be a mix of older bees, young bees, but also 'brood' (eggs and larvae in various stages of development). Basically you just remove 5 frames from your hive and add the Nuc frames and you've got an instant young colony. It will take off a lot quicker because of the bees in various stages.

Stay in touch on how it goes....I go to all weekend 'Bee School' next weekend, excited about that!
 

Attachments

  • hives.jpg
    hives.jpg
    28.9 KB · Views: 225
I'll trade some honey for some fresh fish Kevin :)
 
The wife made me do it :)
 
Spent most of yesterday building my hive stands. basically a base of two layers of 4 cinder blocks capped with a wooden frame. I am no carpenter, but frames came out pretty well. That was the easy part. Hauling it all down to the hive location will be a chore :)
 
When you get a few jars of honey, I will trade it for a jar of our family BBQ sauce - it has won several national awards (when my grandparents operated a family restaurant from the 1940s to the 1970s). The old tank toy is not a part of this deal. :)
 
Boone said:
Spent most of yesterday building my hive stands. basically a base of two layers of 4 cinder blocks capped with a wooden frame. I am no carpenter, but frames came out pretty well. That was the easy part. Hauling it all down to the hive location will be a chore :)
Click to expand...

Cool! Tell pooh bear we want to see a picture of the stand. Here's how mine looked last spring. I set them up in my old garden and planted wild flower seeds in front of them. They pretty much look the same now. Just weathered a bit after a year. The rest of the supers are in the shed. I haven't checked them yet for mice and whatnot.

Hives2.jpgHives.jpg

And thanks, I do know that packages have a higher tendency to abscond, based on how they're put together and what they have to start with. Not to mention new hives that have no trace of former bees. Most packages do fine though. We'll see what happens.

I'm also interested in hearing about your experiences in the classes. I'm assuming you'll get some hands on with bees at some point. Definitely beats my youtube experience.
 
Burgundy Burner said:
When you get a few jars of honey, I will trade it for a jar of our family BBQ sauce - it has won several national awards (when my grandparents operated a family restaurant from the 1940s to the 1970s). The old tank toy is not a part of this deal. :)
Click to expand...

Oh - deal on! And I'll keep working on you in regards to the tank toy :)
 
And here they are. This is about 50-100 yards from the back edge of my garden, stream runs right down behind where I've placed my hives. Only thing remaining is I'll have to disassemble the stand on the right and level it out some. Leaning too far back for my liking currently, but the heavy lifting is done :)
 

Attachments

  • 1.jpg
    1.jpg
    72.3 KB · Views: 192
  • 2.jpg
    2.jpg
    99.3 KB · Views: 195
That is a nice setup SNF - looks like we have the exact same kind of hives too. Those are really close to your garden - you better make friends quickly! Mine are much further from the edge of my garden, I'd guess 50 - 75 yards and about the same distance from my firepit.
 
Did you build a house for pooh to hang out in while he waits for his honey?
 
I'm more worried about real bears tshile - they're known to come from miles and miles away to knock over hives and eat the contents. I may be putting an electric fence around these at some point...unless I develop a taste for bear meat!
 
MikeSr619 said:
Arent honey bees less likely to sting because they know they'll die after?
Click to expand...

Nobody said:
Yellowjackets suck. I've been stung by all sorts of wasps, bees, etc. Everything but a hornet. And honestly, it seems to me like the sting of a honey bee is by far the most mild I've had. Not that it's a picnic, but it isn't brutal like a wasp sting is.
Click to expand...

Boone said:
So as long as you aren't being real aggressive near the hive or messing with it, unlikely you'd get stung.
Click to expand...

The key to not getting stung by a bee, is to.....

:)
 
Boone said:
That is a nice setup SNF - looks like we have the exact same kind of hives too. Those are really close to your garden - you better make friends quickly! Mine are much further from the edge of my garden, I'd guess 50 - 75 yards and about the same distance from my firepit.
Click to expand...
Thanks! They're inside the garden, on one of the four plots. That way the dogs will never get near them. I've planted wild flowers in the other plots and just let them grow. I have plenty of room behind the hives to work with them.

And I definitely recommend a little pond for your water source. Oh, and it's too small, 6' x 7' x 3', for koi. They grow to two feet long. Comet goldfish were a lot cheaper and they're pretty active little buggers. They'll grow to a max of one foot long.

0625131730a.jpg
 
Nice little spot... I have a creek that runs right below where I've placed my hives so I don't need a pond.

Bee school this weekend...
 
Bee School in Asheville was just awesome. Learned so much. But let me tell you, this is like joining a cult. People are waaaay into it and there are as many philosophies around beekeeping as there are political opinions here. It reminds me a lot of brewing, in that there are theoretically a gazillion things the *could go wrong*, yet very few black and white 'do's' and 'don'ts'. I feel a little more prepared for what I'm getting into, but also readily understand I know nothing about these amazing creatures. And Asheville is one happening little town. I had some amazing brews and great food while I was there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Help Users

You haven't joined any rooms.

    You haven't joined any rooms.
    Top