Bees, wonderful bees!!

[Collector]

I have an uncle who used to have 8 hives in his backyard when I was a teen. I would help them at extracting time, it was fun but I got stung alot. We currently have friends that have about a semi load that they haul around to different farms. I think that maybe I'll hit him up for a hive. We have several fruit trees as do our neighbors, so it might be nice to have bees. He's always telling me that we need some anyway so I might as well take him up on it.

 

[lesa]

Go for it, Collector! Your garden will be beautiful- it makes a huge difference, having your own bees!

 

[StupidBird]

I just now today saw what the top bar hives are and the management outline vs. the stacked box things I've always seen. Opinions? I'm thinking top bar would be stealthy in my subdivision, much cheaper for DIY, and easier to manage.

 

[boggybranch]

Lesa,
Ya'll have flung a cravin on me, I must say. Here are some links I found interesting .....

http://learningbeekeeping.com/

http://www.beeworks.com/index.html

http://www.biobees.com/

Am REALLY constipating on the "top bar hive".....inexpensive, easy to build, great "starter" method, interesting (as it seems ALL beekeeping is).
There is loads of youtube vids on the subject, too.

 

[chicken stalker]

lesa you mentioned that your queen came fro Hawaii. What company did you order from?

 

[lesa]

I get my nucs from an old timer, near me. He gets his queens from Hawaii- so I don't know...

 

[JimWWhite]

Bees, Bees, and more Bees!!! I ordered three 3-pound packages of Italian honeybees each with a marked queen this morning from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm near Wilkesboro, NC which is only about an hour from us. We pick them up on April 9th. I've already got two of the hives assembled and ready to go but this past weekend Julie our daughter asked if I'd order her a package. She wants to have us to set up a beehive on our property for her and her family and we said we would but for a third of the honey which she readily agreed to. She said she's going to buy a hive box and all the frames, etc. from someone local so it works for us. We've had good luck with our original hive this past year and they seem to be quite active and healthy on the warm days we've had lately. Beekeeping is an interesting hobby and a lot of fun.

 

[Ariel301]

I just now today saw what the top bar hives are and the management outline vs. the stacked box things I've always seen. Opinions? I'm thinking top bar would be stealthy in my subdivision, much cheaper for DIY, and easier to manage.

I inherited a top-bar hive from a friend who moved out of town. It is easy to build them, and it doesn't look like a beehive, which is probably what you're going for living in a neighborhood. Mine is a 55 gallon plastic barrel cut in half longways and set on legs, then the bars are placed on top, and the hole in the top of the barrel, now on one end, serves as an entrance. It looks like a table, pretty much. If I were to set flowerpots on top, no one would be the wiser, until they saw the bees coming out.

The downside is that my particular bees are not being very helpful, they are building their combs all over the place so that they aren't in neat sheets hanging from each bar, some are stuck together, and they've used propolis to glue all the bars together tight, so every time I try to lift one out, I end up tearing up their home, and obviously that doesn't go over well...ouch. Lots of people are really happy with the top-bar hive though, so it is worth a try. I am going to move my bees into a Langstroth hive, I think, the top-bar just isn't working for me, since my bees are a touch aggressive anyway (they were wild caught and in Arizona that can mean Africanized)...so I am also considering destroying the queen in this hive and getting a calmer one.

 

[algopurple]

I lost my last hive to beetles this fall. Kind of made me want to quit for awhile. Still love reading about them though.

 

[seedcorn]

I just now today saw what the top bar hives are and the management outline vs. the stacked box things I've always seen. Opinions? I'm thinking top bar would be stealthy in my subdivision, much cheaper for DIY, and easier to manage.

I inherited a top-bar hive from a friend who moved out of town. It is easy to build them, and it doesn't look like a beehive, which is probably what you're going for living in a neighborhood. Mine is a 55 gallon plastic barrel cut in half longways and set on legs, then the bars are placed on top, and the hole in the top of the barrel, now on one end, serves as an entrance. It looks like a table, pretty much. If I were to set flowerpots on top, no one would be the wiser, until they saw the bees coming out.

The downside is that my particular bees are not being very helpful, they are building their combs all over the place so that they aren't in neat sheets hanging from each bar, some are stuck together, and they've used propolis to glue all the bars together tight, so every time I try to lift one out, I end up tearing up their home, and obviously that doesn't go over well...ouch. Lots of people are really happy with the top-bar hive though, so it is worth a try. I am going to move my bees into a Langstroth hive, I think, the top-bar just isn't working for me, since my bees are a touch aggressive anyway (they were wild caught and in Arizona that can mean Africanized)...so I am also considering destroying the queen in this hive and getting a calmer one.

pictures please.