anyone here on GC keep bees? i help take care of bees at my community garden apiary and find it very interesting. i feed the bees sugar water daily and check up on their progress bi weekly or so. i am new to beekeeping and i just bought 2 new brood boxs of the langstroth standard 10 frame hive. i have 2 top covers 2 inner covers 2 bottom boards as well as the 2 brood boxs for starters. i have no bees thus far and its getting kind of late to buy them. im going to go to a local beekeepers meeting soon and there i will look for someone selling a nuc or package to fill one hive. the other hive i want to capture a wild hive from this giant old hollow tree at a friends house. any ideas as to how i can accomplish getting these feral or wild bees safely? i came up with the idea of buying a capped queen cell and inserting it in between 2 combs of wax/honey in the wild hive and when the virgin queen emerges maybe the hive will be forced to swarm and then i can capture them in a capture box scented with pheramone that tells the bees this box is a good place for their new home. will the pheromone i bought work? will the artificial requeening work in order to make the hive swarm? anyone who beekeeps id like to hear from you i am new and am learning slowly at the community garden apiary with the hive they have there. i hope to have 2 productive hives this season. one hive home to wild bees from here in NY and one hive home to italian or russian bees i hope to purchase from another beekeeper at the beekeepers club nearby. lets hear some advice for the craft!!
Fuck that, I think bees are out to kill me. What your doing is pretty interesting though, considering well yea, they're evil bees.
My neighbor keeps bees. I'm gonna ask him if I can buy some jars of honey, cuz it's way too expensive lol. He just gives most of it away, so I figure he'll sell it to me cheap, or maybe just give it to me.
This is a cool topic, wish I had more input on it. I just know about those 10 slot hives, have to sterilize the local farmers' every couple years. One guy said he stacks em once they start givin'er, little guys need more room eh. Best of luck anyways!!
I give mad props to you for your bee keeping, especially since so many bees are/have dying/died. I love nature. I don't know how personally but I remember watching an episode of Billy the Exterminator on A&E where this exact thing was done except from a house instead of a tree. There were bees in the interior of a house and Billy called upon a bee keeper who was able to get the bees out and put them in his hives. I don't remember exactly how he did it but it was a very smooth operation and a lot of bees. Try looking for the episode on YouTube you might find it there.
I'm sorry I tried to locate the exact episode but it doesn't look like it was loaded. Billy has several episodes where he's extracting bees but this particular one is where a white couple is trying to get rid of bees that are in the wall where their washer/dryer is located. I think Billy gets stung at least once then calls the bee keeper. Sorry I couldn't help more but maybe there are bee keepers on YouTube that could help w/ your situation.
honey is pretty expensive but beekeeping can be expensive to. however local honey is good not only for its taste but its medicinal properties. honey local to where you live can actualy help you with your seasonal allergies. the pollen that gives you allergies from local plants are also the same pollens in honey and eating 2 teaspoons in ur tea or w e daily can help rid you of seasonal allergies.
I have no idea why but when I saw the flat out title "beekeeping" I laughed so hard. I could never do such a thing as I am scared of bees. I had a teacher in high school that was big into it and brought in some honey and we compared it to store bought. Real honey is a whole different substance. Enjoy your hobby sir, hopefully you will gain some knowledge from it.
Honey is fucking delicious and a more healthy and better alternative to sugar. Eat LOCALLY PRODUCED honey (that means the bees are near where you live) prior to spring and fall (the major allergy seasons, if you have allergies) and you will build up a natural immunity to the pollen. Green tea + slice of lemon + good local honey = delicious. But i know nothing about keeping bees. Have any of you been affected by the bee die-offs? What are they calling it, something hive syndrome...?
sudden colony collapse disorder yeah i hear its bad but im still gunna give beekeeping a shot it seems interesting and the fact i get to work with such an industrious intriguing bunch of creatures i think it will be great stuff!