Backyard bees

[carolinagirl]

Hubby and I are taking a beekeeping course right now. We have our first two packages of bees on order and will get two hives set up for them shortly. This will be fun! We use SO much honey every year it just makes sense to make our own.

im not sure where your located, north or south carolina? where are you taking your course? i'd love to find one close enough, i almost signed up for one but it was going to be over an hour away :/ and on a weeknight so by the time i had someone to watch my son i wouldnt be able to make it there in time, ugh!

I am in South Carolina. There are lots of bee clubs, all over the state. Google it and you may be surprised. Some clubs do a two day course on the weekend but our course is Tuesday evenings for 7 weeks.

 

[Beekissed]

BTW, natural is different than hands-off...
that is, I'll treat for mites if I have them, but I use organic-as-possible methods and mechanical methods instead of commercial chemical methods. using a puffer with powdered sugar is time consuming but effective if done correctly, and will help reduce the mite load. you can use thyme oil, and other 'natural' concoctions for some things. so it's not that I don't treat, its that I don't treat with a chemical I wouldn't want in my honey.

it does mean the bees have to do more of the work of staying healthy, and some aren't up to the task. I work with and propigate those that are and let nature cull the ones that aren't. but I still help... so that's what I'd call natural.

and... no barefeet here! I suit up for the bee yard.

Yah...I think the barefoot part refers to all natural and not necessarily going without protection. The folks I follow on Beemasters.com don't even use the powdered sugar. They sort of breed for certain traits like I do with chickens and the bees that don't make it shouldn't have made it in the first place.

One guy, in particular, shows on his website copies of his health certificates of all the years, starting with when he used sugar, then years with no sugar.....his mite levels slowly decreased down to zero. Impressive. I think he is also using top bar hives as well. I haven't visited there for awhile but it is the only bee forum I like...Beesource was not to my liking.

 

[zzGypsy]

BTW, natural is different than hands-off...
that is, I'll treat for mites if I have them, but I use organic-as-possible methods and mechanical methods instead of commercial chemical methods. using a puffer with powdered sugar is time consuming but effective if done correctly, and will help reduce the mite load. you can use thyme oil, and other 'natural' concoctions for some things. so it's not that I don't treat, its that I don't treat with a chemical I wouldn't want in my honey.

it does mean the bees have to do more of the work of staying healthy, and some aren't up to the task. I work with and propigate those that are and let nature cull the ones that aren't. but I still help... so that's what I'd call natural.

and... no barefeet here! I suit up for the bee yard.

Yah...I think the barefoot part refers to all natural and not necessarily going without protection. The folks I follow on Beemasters.com don't even use the powdered sugar. They sort of breed for certain traits like I do with chickens and the bees that don't make it shouldn't have made it in the first place.

One guy, in particular, shows on his website copies of his health certificates of all the years, starting with when he used sugar, then years with no sugar.....his mite levels slowly decreased down to zero. Impressive. I think he is also using top bar hives as well. I haven't visited there for awhile but it is the only bee forum I like...Beesource was not to my liking.

there are hardcore make-it-or-don't folks, they're breeding for the narrow target of survivor bees. I'm not quite that hard core, I'll help to a degree, but won't baby a weak hive that has ongoing problems. same way I treat my sheep and goats - some issues, like worms, get help because the survival rate is very low if you don't. however not every animal needs help as often, or goes down as fast, so I cull at 50% - the healthy half stays, the less healthy half goes. that's fairly agressive and will result in stronger sheep over just a few generations... but doesn't put me in the 90%+ replacement territory I'd be in if I didn't help at all. same goes with bees, I help a little, and let the ones that are overall not up to it fail, the hardcore guys are breeding for a narrower target and are willing to sustain much greater losses each year, but will get to the end result sooner... if they don't lose everything.

it's a philosophy question one needs to answer for oneself - <save everything> - <help the strong> - <pure surviver only>

 

[Nifty]

I was looking at an old todo list and saw "evaluate adding a bees section to BYH". I did a search and was surprised I only found about 11 topics that had "bees" in the subject / title, and this was one of them.

Any ideas why bees aren't discussed more here?

 

[chicken pickin]

Maybe people don't see bees as part of "herd" topics, so maybe for a lot of people it doesn't cross their minds to do a search here on BYH for bees. I know I would like to see more topics on bees and how to raise them etc. BYC seems to have a lot of threads on bees.

Maybe there can be some sort of game or contest to bring the bee keepers out, something placed on the home page that will catch the eye of those raising or thinking about raising bees.

DH and I have been discussing bees for a year now and will be going to a weekly bee course starting this month. Next step is setting money aside for buying bees, hive and all necessary tools. We will likely put in our bee order for next spring, to give us more time to learn and to prepare ourselves.

 

[AshleyFishy]

I think adding a bees section would be good. I know when I was looking for information awhile back ago, I was forced to go to big bee group sites and most of them were either unfriendly or snooty. Maybe if a section was made here then people would use it more.

 

[babsbag]

The big bee sites are great...if you are a big bee keeper. Many times their information, while valid, is too complicated or just does not apply to the hobbyist. As a backyard bee keeper I would welcome a section for bees; but I don't consider them a "herd" therefore I don't mention them often on BYH

 

[Elyssia001]

I'm interested in bees as well! (though I do not have any -yet-) I would love to see a section where I can ask a bunch of questions and see pictures of people's hives.

 

[Scooby308]

I want to start TBH. I have a feral hive somewhere on the farm. They have been there for the last two years. When I bush hog I will hold my hand out and let them land on me and crawl around. Pretty cool. I would love to catch a swarm of them to start my hives as they will be more resistant than stock bees.

This is a really good site:
http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm