New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Grace and I have been talking about keeping honey bees for a couple years, and we finally got serious about it this winter; did some reading and attended a couple of presentations. I enrolled in a 6-week bee keeping class that started this past weekend and just placed my order for a starter hive & initial package of bees that will be ready for us around mid-April.

Not looking to do anything more than maintain a single hive for the moment. But even with just one hive, given the proper oversight and care, you can yield 60+ lbs of honey by end of the season. I'm thinking you might see honey in future troop auctions, Secret Santa gifts and herfs. We're not doing this to produce a lot of honey, but as a fat guy with a sweet tooth, I'm not going to complain if we do.

Always been interested in honey bees, and recently their populations have been dwindling. As one of the prime pollinators, if the bees go, our food supply is negatively impacted. Again speaking as a fat guy, I need to do my part to ensure the food supply remains robust.

Plus I already have the smoking part of bee keeping down. I just may opt to blow some ERDM Choix their way instead of whatever the hell it is they put in the bee smoker.

Will keep this thread updated with what I am sure will be an (occasionally comical) adventure.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

At work, we have a couple on the roof. They are maintained by Best Bees (out of Boston)

They are a big hit with the tenants and we jar up the honey every year and distribute it to them. The anti-allergen benefits of local honey is amazing also. And it tastes great

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Have you been in touch with Shade? It's a great day when I can get some of his honey.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

:tu:tu:banger

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Interesting, Vin! I think that the fear of getting stung and crying like a baby outweighs the potential benefit for me personally at this point, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how this progresses and watching you make some tasty honey!

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

That's great Vin. Check with your tax person. You may qualify as a farm and have hugely reduced property tax. I red Jon Bon Jovi keeps bees at his huge mansion in NJ. His property tax was reduced from 10's of thousands to 500 bucks a year. That's more money for cigars.:2

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Glad you're doing your part to insure the future of our food supply!!

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

:tpd:

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

this is an awesome hobby......someday!

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Good for you! We need bees to survive.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Very cool, Vin!

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

That sounds awesome Vin! Bees are pretty cool.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

As another fat guy I'd like to thank you for doing your part in ensuring the food flows! I bee-lieve that our entire food chain relies on bees, not just part of it, also growing up in FL we went to a bee farm and they used pine needles in the smoke guns, now with legalization in MA you can kick it up a notch for them. A side not you can do much with the wax as well. Best of luck on your unbeelievable new adventure.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

I looked into bee keeping here in Maryland and attended an 8 week class on it taught by local bee keepers and decided against it. We have a very short nectar season and hive losses around 50 - 80% each year. The one suggestion that they did make was to have a minimum of 2 hives so you can evaluate how they are doing by comparing hives. Good luck and I hope you do well with this. :tu

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Vin, that's very cool. If you don't mind me asking where are you taking the class? I'd like to get some info.

Fat guys need to unite to save food source.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Cool!

Bee a bee charmer:


https://d1o50x50snmhul.cloudfront.ne...6071-1_300.jpg

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

I'll gladly buy honey off of you! There is a lot of beekeeping near me in Holliston & Ashland due to the apple farms.

Was thinking of getting in bee hives as well, but figure I can just buy local honey down the road...

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

I have had a wonderful time visiting you the past few summers, Vin, and look forward to seeing you elsewhere in the future. ;) :r

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

We're going to herf in the back yard this year -- the bees will be out front. That's a good 250 feet away. :D

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

I almost think that you should just let them keep all their honey, at least to the point where you end up with more
than one hive. Then maybe start taking some for daddy. I don't know if anyone really knows just how to keep the
bees around forever when they can't figure out what's really going on yet. In any case, you are a guy that goes over-
board to be kind, I am sure it will work out.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

You should probably find the biggest bee and kick it's ass right away, just as a message to the other bees, not the queen but the biggest drone.

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I'll bring a suit of armor. :D

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Very cool Vin, if I had the space and time I'd love to do something similar. I'm always up for a honey/honey bbq sauce trade :D

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

From my as yet very limited understanding of honey bee dynamics, bee keepers are taught to only harvest the excess honey. There's not a "brood hive" and a separate "storage hive" -- if I have two hives, I potentially end up with 2X the honey. I'm nowhere near the point where I want to manage two hives, although some instructors recommend starting out with two because it can be easier to deal with problems in one hive if you have a second. But I'm going with one for the time being. I don't want so many bees that icehog won't set foot in New England much less Mass.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

I like turtles. :D

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Make sure the bees have plants to do their work on. If all there is around are pine trees; the honey will have a certain taste...

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Vin, before you get too far into this, you might want to verify that you are not allergic to bee stings :)

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

We're quite literally across the street from an apple orchard. :noon

Been stung as recently as last summer. Can't absolutely say it was a honey bee, but I'm not overly worried.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Here you go ...

http://fashionablygeek.com/wp-conten...bee.jpg?x22977

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Backyard herfing is better. That way your neighbors won't see Tom's retirement stripper dancing.:noon;)

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Have you seen these hives, Vin?

https://youtu.be/0_pj4cz2VJM

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

IPA! :pu

Yay!!

It better be a chick, Jeff. :r

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Built a hive stand over the weekend from some plans I found online. I'm no carpenter, but the stand is (relatively) stable & the hive fits on it perfectly.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/292/33...c8c8656260.jpg

The honey bees are due on April 10 ...

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Wow! Did not realize people still used corded tools!

:)

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Cool! Progress is good. Any chance you'll put up a "bee cam" at some point? By that I mean a small camera that sees inside the hive. Something like this but a wider shot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_9HZeG97Xg

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

I could see doing something outside the hive, but inside the hive would be tricky based on what little I currently know about honey bees to this point and the space (or lack of space) they like to have in the hive.

There's a concept knows as "bee space" which is between 3/8 and a 1/4 inch. If there's more space, the bees build to fill it in, and if there's less, they seal it up with this resin-like substance they produce called propolis. So a camera in the hive has to take bee space into account at a minimum, and I'm not there yet.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Most importanr part of beekeeping is yet to come. That would be beekeeping the bees away from icehog.

J/K, stand looks cool, Vin. Looking forward to seeing the project move forward. :tu

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Very cool. You never know maybe the bees like to be watched, everyone has their kink.

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hahaha...

And yet, you have "Jesus sandles"....Oh, and April 11th on my calendar ...:D

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Much like Jesus, my dad has the carpentry skills.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Just curious how to they ship the bees, I'm guessing it's not a big UPS box or anything, or hell maybe it is?

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

The bees are shipped in a small wooden box wrapped in fine wire mesh to allow for airflow. The queen is in her own separate "queen cage" in the larger box that keeps her separate from the other bees, but allow them to smell her and acclimate themselves to her because she doesn't start out as their genetic queen.

The package of bees originates from a bee farm in GA and is transported up to New England by a local beekeeper who then distributes them here. Because the bees are sensitive to temperature, he has a special trailer he uses to keep the bees in the Goldilocks zone: neither too hot nor too cold.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

I'll bee dammed. That's pretty cool.

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Do bees do ok with cigar smoke?

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I wish I was a bee.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

I hear that beech wood smoke makes them drowsy.


(actually serious here)

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Bees kick ass.
I have a ton of books, and had a mess of hives when the kids were little.
I never did dump bees in them, I was all about swarm gathering and had limited time to hunt bees with the farm and all.
I finally finished fixing all the bodies and frames and top and ended up gioving them all away to old man Hanzely.
A week later, I had an enormous swarm hanging in the oak tree at the corner of the yard, which was about 20 yards from where the hives had sat.
If I can help Vin, just holler.
It's still something I'm going to do, but as you can imagine, I have ideas for a "different" hive. :D

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Not sure how I missed this, but I've been researching getting into beekeeping heavily once I move into my next place.

What sort of hive are you going for? Starting with a langstroth it looks like.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Yup - going with a 10-frame Langstroth. The hive I bought came with the two deep boxes and two honey supers plus some basic starter equipment: smoker, hive tools, veil & gloves. (I look super cute in the veil.:noon)

Cannot recommend the bee school thing strongly enough. Lots of people in the class who tried their hand at beekeeping by reading/watching youtube videos, etc. Many of them have been struggling to maintain healthy hives or successfully overwinter them. Learning direct from someone who's been doing this for a couple decades brings life to all the book learning and online reading I've been doing.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Finally got the hive painted ... now with the two feet of snow we're getting today, I'm worried my yard is still going to buried come bee delivery day: April 10

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3833/3...64b2022e_z.jpg