Honey bees

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Awesome!

I'm going to try to build a horizontal langstroth this winter, if I end up with the time to do it. I've found a couple different sets of plans. I want to expand out to 6-8 hives by fall next year. I hope to harvest between 100 and 200 lbs of honey next summer. That should be enough for us to get our feet wet in the honey harvesting and marketing game, but not be overwhelming. My brother-in-law wants to be up to 20-25 hives by the end of next year and his goal is to harvest 1,000 lbs of honey. That's a lot more work than I want to put into it right now.

 

[cqaigy2]

Very nice! Do you know what kind they are?

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Very nice! Do you know what kind they are?

All of my bees are swarm mutts… they are wild, overwintered Indiana bees.

 

[IndyJay]

All of my bees are swarm mutts… they are wild, overwintered Indiana bees.

I was wondering where mine went when they swarmed... now I know.

 

[cqaigy2]

All of my bees are swarm mutts… they are wild, overwintered Indiana bees.

Ah, the best kind, local mutts.

 

[ultrarunner]

My uncle built a bee house for his 8 hives at my place...

He has good production years and not so good but at age 85 called it quits and I did not know until the bee house was no more... I guess that is the end of my free honey...

As a kid we would have swarms come through and often take up in the neighborhood but have not seen in decades...

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

The honey is coming in a little wet, so we are drying it down in the frames prior to extraction. Oddly, even the capped honey was a little wet.

 

[wmfamily]

All of my bees are swarm mutts… they are wild, overwintered Indiana bees.

Those seem to be the strongest. If you can find a swarm that is mite resistant that is a super bonus.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Those seem to be the strongest. If you can find a swarm that is mite resistant that is a super bonus.

I don’t treat for mites… so they are either resistant, or they die and I stop the weak genetics from propogating

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I don’t treat for mites… so they are either resistant, or they die and I stop the weak genetics from propogating

What would you say your failure rate is?