Honey bees

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Anybody getting ready for spring 2023 apiary work?

This weekend I bought 2 full double deep brood hive setups so I have places for splits. Also got a dozen medium supers, frames and foundation for all. Got put on the list to be called for swarm removal around my area. Bought a few pounds of wildflower seeds to cover the island in my new pond.

I've got some assembly and paint work to do then I'm ready for spring. I hope to expand to 6 hives and be able to harvest 100-200 lbs of honey in 2023. Right now I have 3 living hives, 2 of which are very strong. Once I get my new components assembled I will have 3 hives and 2 nucs ready to be moved into. I should have plenty of room for splits.

I run all langstroth hives right now. I know CloverKnoll uses horizontal hives. I may build 1 or 2 of those for 2024 if If I reach my goal for this year.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Yeap. Built 10 more Layens swarm traps and four more Layens hives. We will be up to 11 this year, and will probably stop there. We are planting a couple acres of buckwheat and alsike for them to forage on as well.

Having a new shop to work in through the winter has helped.

 

[Beeenvenue]

Getting started. I run 6 hives for my ag valuation. One died/left last summer, too late to replace. I decided to feed a bit this week during a 55 degree sunny day to get them through the rest of winter and another had died out. It was by far the weakest and I should have replaced the queen….

I ordered 2 nucs in December thinking I might lose one more.

Only in year 4 and haven’t had as much time to spend as I’d like, so now this spring I want to try a split and also try one of my nice plastic nuc boxes to catch a swarm.

 

[wmfamily]

Yeap. Built 10 more Layens swarm traps and four more Layens hives. We will be up to 11 this year, and will probably stop there. We are planting a couple acres of buckwheat and alsike for them to forage on as well.

Having a new shop to work in through the winter has helped.

Do you like the buckwheat honey or have a market for it? My brother had a local farmer plant several acres a few years ago and the bees went crazy on it. They produced a ton of honey but we couldn't stand the taste or smell. Fortunately they have regular customers who were crazy for it and they were able to sell it all plus some. I've still got some and the flavor does improve with age but I still don't care for it.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Do you like the buckwheat honey or have a market for it? My brother had a local farmer plant several acres a few years ago and the bees went crazy on it. They produced a ton of honey but we couldn't stand the taste or smell. Fortunately they have regular customers who were crazy for it and they were able to sell it all plus some. I've still got some and the flavor does improve with age but I still don't care for it.

I do enjoy it… but we will hardly have buckwheat honey… with all the other nectar sources available, it will be a component, but not the main nectar source. Alsike produces a lot more nectar than the buckwheat.

 

[Hoot Owl]

Beeenvenue you should plan on splitting all of your hives this spring, other wise they will swarm.

A little back ground. I have been keeping bee's since the 70s. I have 60 hives at this time and lost 4 so far this winter. 3 were late swarms I tried to save. The other was knocked over by cows around Christmas, but I was in Pa. at the time.
I sell around 5 - 600 gallon of honey a year.
I an treatment free and have been for years. This past summer we had a drought and a lot of people in the area lost most of there hives. I pulled 600lbs from my hives. I cut 300 end pieces for med. frames today and will cut out another 400 tomorrow. I am hopping to go in to 2023 winter with 100 hives and 50 nuc's.

 

[cqaigy2]

Beeenvenue you should plan on splitting all of your hives this spring, other wise they will swarm.

A little back ground. I have been keeping bee's since the 70s. I have 60 hives at this time and lost 4 so far this winter. 3 were late swarms I tried to save. The other was knocked over by cows around Christmas, but I was in Pa. at the time.
I sell around 5 - 600 gallon of honey a year.
I an treatment free and have been for years. This past summer we had a drought and a lot of people in the area lost most of there hives. I pulled 600lbs from my hives. I cut 300 end pieces for med. frames today and will cut out another 400 tomorrow. I am hopping to go in to 2023 winter with 100 hives and 50 nuc's.

Wow, that's a lot of honey! Lol, i thought you meant 5 gallons to 600 gallons and thought that was a lot of variance in amount. Or is that what you meant?

 

[Hoot Owl]

500 - 600 a year.

 

[tacticalturnip]

One day I'd like to keep bees, but that'll be far out in the future.

Are there any beekeeping forums that you folks would recommend?

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

One day I'd like to keep bees, but that'll be far out in the future.

Are there any beekeeping forums that you folks would recommend?

I only belong to a treatment free Layens group on FB. Every other group I’ve seen promotes feeding sugar and treating with chemicals. We will do neither. Great group, great people who build almost everything they use.