Beekeeping

[jsanders420]

I just got my first hive and built it today. I should be able to pick up my bees soon. Are there any beekeepers here? I posted a pretty detailed blog about today at Minooki Living - Minooki Living . If you have any experience with beekeeping please let me know if I messed up somewhere.

 

[piller]

Congratulations!

My dad kept a couple of bee hives when I was growing up and I'm planning to get two hives next month. I recently attended a local one day beekeeping course and will get two splits from a local beekeeper next month.

I've been reading some about top bar hives, 8 frame hives, standard 10 frame hives. My wife is planning to help so I might go with the 8 frame hive. What are your plans?

I see you are going with the screened bottom board, that was recommended to us in our course.

 

[Concordriver]

Amateur beekeeper from Massachusetts here. Been beekeeping for ~ 4 years. I generally keep 2 to 4 hives going. All my bees died this winter. I don't think it had anything to do with colony collapse syndrome. I think they just froze to death...we had a very severe winter this year. Beekeeping is tough to do in New England. I am planning on taking this year off from beekeeping and starting up again next year. I have had very good luck with honey harvesting. It is a great hobby.

 

[jsanders420]

I'm going with 8 frame boxes. I have 1 deep for the brood box and the rest medium. I'm excited about getting started. Where are you getting your equipment?

I've got a couple concerns. One is that we used to have honey bees around here a lot in the flowers and such, now they are gone.

The other is extraction of the honey. I don't know where to start. I don't plan on getting an extractor but I might try to make one.

Sorry to hear about your bees. It was a tough year all over concerning weather!

 

[piller]

The guy I'm getting my splits from uses Kelley equipment. My local beekeeping club has an extractor that members can use, perhaps that would be an option for you.

 

[rootytoot]

Sometimes the place where you get bees (somehow writing "Bee Store" seems funny to me) will have an extractor that you can rent. Here in Portland that is Ruhl Bee Supply.

Kurt

 

[jsanders420]

I have met a coupla beeks here in town. They both have extractors that maybe I can rent or come over and have an extracting party.

 

[Concordriver]

I have ordered some of my beekeeping equipment from the large internet apiaries...Dadant and BetterBee. A honey extractor is a nice thing to have. But, it is not critical. I have a beekeeping friend with just a couple of hives that takes the full honey frames, scrapes off the wax coverings, and just lets the frames stand upright in a deep pan for ~ 48 hours. The honey will drip out slowly into the pan. This would have to be done indoors or else the bees will quickly take all the honey back to the hives. The warmer the temperature, the faster the honey will drip into the pan. I use a pair of new woman's nylons to filter the wax out of the honey after initially passing the honey through a colander. The nylons work better than cheesecloth in my opinion.

 

[jsanders420]

I have ordered some of my beekeeping equipment from the large internet apiaries...Dadant and BetterBee. A honey extractor is a nice thing to have. But, it is not critical. I have a beekeeping friend with just a couple of hives that takes the full honey frames, scrapes off the wax coverings, and just lets the frames stand upright in a deep pan for ~ 48 hours. The honey will drip out slowly into the pan. This would have to be done indoors or else the bees will quickly take all the honey back to the hives. The warmer the temperature, the faster the honey will drip into the pan. I use a pair of new woman's nylons to filter the wax out of the honey after initially passing the honey through a colander. The nylons work better than cheesecloth in my opinion.

The nylon's work better but let's emphasize "NEW" women's nylons! :laughing:

 

[Gil A]

Been into Beekeeping for about 25 years. Still learning. It was years b4 purchased an extractor. Since cells slope a few degrees toward bottom of hive, build a rack to mount frame upside down after capping. Placed the frames over a large plastic dish pan (purchased at restaurant supply) in a warm room and left for at least 24/48 hours. A large amount of the honey will drain into the pan. Placed the frames back into the box and on the hive. The bees will clean in the remainder of the honey. Strain the honey through strainer and then finer straining through a panty hose. If comb is badly formed and not easy to cap, would but it out of frame and squeeze the comb in a strainer to extract the honey. Necessity is the mother of invention. You may come up with a better way, but the above was what the wife and I used for years. Remember to SAVE the wax. It has many uses or may be sold. Have a method of melting it if interested.

 

[ptwat]

Nothing like a community of tractor people that also keep bees. I have been at it for about 3-4 years and now have five hives. Lots of good sites just for bees also. beesource dot com is one, bushfarms dot com and there are many others. Good luck with your new girls!

 

[ptwat]

The guy I'm getting my splits from uses Kelley equipment. My local beekeeping club has an extractor that members can use, perhaps that would be an option for you.

I use Kelley wooden ware and have been quite please with the quality. The real key imho is to get equipment from a well know source and stick with that one. All equipment is not the same exact size and using the same supplier will pretty much guarantee it all fits together.

 

[zzvyb6]

I keep my bees warm in winter by wrapping the hives in styrofoam blocks I find along the expressway. I have them on external feeders right now. Its supersaturated cane sugar water fed out of inverted canning jars. Without much pollen around, they would be starving otherwise.