This site impresses me more and more each day! The amount of knowledge here is very impressive and the enthusiasm of its members towards others is strong. Good luck on your bee project, I will enjoy the updates.
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Beekeeping goes hand in hand with apple orchards in Africa; however, handling bees there can be a bit involved, you can see a good look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAZ0thZEypw
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I got a 5 frame nuc today. I have had bees in the past but quit working with them when I developed an allergic reaction to the stings. I wanted them mostly for pollination for my fruit trees. My Skeena cherrry is in full bloom, the pears are just starting to open and so are the plums. My son will be taking care of them. He has a couple of hives too. Here is a picture of him putting them in their new home.
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I caught a big swarm per a request a short distance from my house.
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You guys are getting me really excited. I pick up my bees on May 7. Its a shame I couldn’t get them soon enough to benefit by this years blooms, but that is the only pickup day they had left by the time I decided to start this year.
I’m actually pretty concerned about that since there won;t be anything blooming on my land and I;m surrounded on all sides by many, many acres of farmland with non-bee crops. I’m worried they won’t have anything to feed on and will leave me. Is that a likely scenario?
They won’t leave, once the queen starts laying eggs they will stay until they overcrowd and decide to hatch a new queen and swarm. It takes lots of flowers to feed a hive and they may have to fly a long ways to find them. Is there anything they could gather nectar from within a couple miles? You could always feed them sugar water to supplement them also, especially while they are trying to draw comb, or maybe you bought a nuc.
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I’m also getting into beekeeping, and will pick them up on sunday. Just planning to feed them all summer, and hope for a good crop of weeds. Feels wrong to type that last part.
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I didn’t realize they had a 2 mile range, so thanks for that. It does make me feel better. Also, I grow about 200 watermelon plants and the guy across the street from me grows about an acre of watermelons, and bees seem to love those. They will be blooming in a couple months or less, along with other garden stuff and there are other things within 2 miles. SO I should be ok after all. And I may supplement with sugar water as you and @ChrisL have just mentioned.
Nice to see other people are getting into the hobby! WE can share our experiences as we go.
Feed lots of 1part sugar/1part water as a syrup until they won’t take any more.
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Do you feed until they don’t work the syrup?
This entire feed concept is highly debatable, as are many bee keeping techniques. I have rarely fed sugar to my bees. The times I have were purely springtime cautionary measures and really not needed. To get them started building comb, you can feed sugar, but if there are flowers blooming (aka- a strong flow), really not much of a need. Feeding all summer is a waste of time, energy and sugar, unless you live in an area that has no forage. Keep in mind the more sugar you feed, the more sugar honey you will get. Some hives get lazy and don’t forage much, but merely use the available sugar water and turn that into your harvestable honey.
The pro’s do, especially if they are drawing comb. Today we are getting rain, the bees will use that light syrup when they can’t forage and continue to work in the colony. If that syrup isn’t there, then the bees will stop wax production and in worst case, starve. If you are in an area with a consistent bloom, no need for pollen patties. I stopped feeding when a good flow starts or I saw enough nectar in the combs to sustain them for several days.
Anytime you have an honey flow you need to discontinue feeding, although the bees won’t touch sugar if there is good nectar.
A friend who keeps over 4000 colonies, feeds to keep his bees ready in case honey flow stops. If the colonies get weak and he needs to transport them or a flow starts, the bees build up on a flow and don’t store it. Feeding is another management tool to help keep your bees prime and ready to work.
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I feed some in the winter and early spring. I am not feeding now but rain is rare here so I don’t worry too much about extended periods of inactivity. Bee keeping is a strange and wonderful thing
Misquote, beekeepers are strange things, any human that purposely messes with large quantities of stinging insects should be institutionalized, I’ll happily be first.
Weren’t you stung on the nose recently? That’s the pic I was hoping to see.
The most inconvenient and uncomfortable honey bee sting I’ve ever received was when one crawled up the inside of my pants leg until there was no farther to go. She decided that tender skin was a perfect spot to sting. I puffed up, itched like crazy, and grouched for a week, but couldn’t show off my wound for sympathy. 
that isn’t my hand. Fortunately I don’t have any reaction after the initial yell
Every spring, first sting, something swells. I’m fine after that first one. Painful or annoying?[quote=“MuddyMess_8a, post:57, topic:4536”]
The most inconvenient and uncomfortable honey bee sting I’ve ever received was when one crawled up the inside of my pants leg until there was no farther to go.
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The worst I ever got was inspecting bees for the state. Had to walk back about a 1/2 mile, too muddy to drive, and got one up my pant leg. Sometime you can dislodge them by stomping the foot and hoping the bee will tumble out, that didn’t work, 50/50 chance of getting stung by swatting or pinching the bee lower. I lost that bet on the back of the knee right on the sciatic nerve. My foot went numb and I couldn’t bend my knee and I had to walk 1/2 mile to my truck, the only thing worse would to have been stung on that ‘tender skin’. The old guy that taught me to bkeep didn’t wear any protection, I have some sting stories to tell on him!!
My best and worst hive. A friend had a swarm of bees that decided to rest in a bush in his front yard. He called me and the rest is history. The bees were some of the best honey producers that I had and the supers filled up fast. The flip side was that I worked them in the same way I did the others but they were always a bit on the edgy side. On my last super removal of the season they became very irate. If I didn’t know better I would think that someone intentionally threw a few rocks at it before I arrived. That day was my worst ever accumulating in what felt like about 60 stings. Although they hurt I was thankful to not be allergic. Bill
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