Farmall Cub

We extracted around 3 gal of honey off this past Sat. 1 hive 2 shallow supers.
My son in law and Daughter, brought there Friend/wife and daughter over and we made a day of it Had a Lasagna dinner. We even made a few candles with the cappings.
Really light clover honey,some basswood as well. We always keep the first extraction and leave the fall honey for the bee's .
How are you other bee keepers doing on the years honey.
Phil

I'd like to get into it!!!I hope in time I'll have time to do so!!!Not much on honey, but like bees because they work so hard together!!!Talk about team work!!!Kevin

Hey Phil, speaking of bee's, I noticed the last several times while mowing, the bees don't seem to pay attention to the mower as it approaches them. I'm sure out of 100, probably 90 or higher get tossed out with the clippings. Just a thought with todays fast paced society. With all these faster mowers being sold today, then multiply that times the number of lawns across the U.S., Could this be what's happening to the bee population that everyone says is dwindling??

Just curious,
Rick

Rick,

There's no doubt that the honey bee population is dwindling...and fast. And it may indeed be as a result of our "fast paced society". Here's a little info.

http://ag.arizona.edu/yavapai/anr/hort/byg/archive/honeybeedecline.html

I had some folks call me to pick up another swarm. Nice find, only 5 ft off the ground. cut small branch put them in a 5 gal bucket and hauled home.
In the past I would have let them go ,but with the decline in swarms I will take all the swarms folks call me on , as I can always give them away to another bee keeper.
Phil

I would like to try keeping bees, but these guys would get all the honey.

Don,Ive met a few of them guys in western Md.They do like honey!!! Kevin We had a swarm at work in the tool shed.A guy came out and killed them execpt the queen.I don't like my old job for that one,or the guy that killed them.He said oh well!!!

I don't buy into the decline theory, they are doing well here. We have a lot of locust trees and the honey is water white around the sides of the frames, and gets darker (clover honey) towards the center. I usually try to build and keep strong colonies with two hive bodies and one standard super (full) for winter time, close the landing board to a one inch opening with an escape hole in one super.........they do well. A one hive body colony will be weakened and invaded by spring by the strong colonies or wax moths or mites unless protected. we try to build 60,000 bee colonies and can be done by manipulating queens. (when the queen gets lax.....supercede her) My step father has 15 colonies and we have a lot of fun tending them, and (he) made a lot of profit. A good colony will reproduce its self in two months or less. Good to meet another bee keeper.

I got 120 pounds of honey from my 2 hives at the soy beans.

My best friend thats helping me is the state inscecter. Right now he is in bangladesh or w.e lol teaching beekeeping. Thats how good he is.

I have a lot of supers and hive bodys.

Im going to have 10 hives in the spring.

So ill have over 450 pounds of honey.

But I starting to bread russain queens and at 100$ a pop I can get some money.

And as being good friends with the Head man in ark I know all kinds of thing about ccd no one else knows

pwl, how did you get into bee keeping? i have only met three bee keepers that i know of and i have always wondered how a bee hive is started.
john

Bees seem to have become pretty scarce in my area, Splicer. Would you like to brign some of them over my way?

is made down here in Tupelo country. Tupelo honey never turns to sugar and tastes fantastic. The bees are definitely declining down here.

Starting a hive is quite easy. Buy a hive body, running board and covers, 9 frames and foundations. Buy 2 Lbs. bees to put in hive body and your set for a while. The 2 Lbs. of bees will come with a queen in a small cage with a candy cork in one end. You will probably have to install only 8 frames to give you enough room to install queen. When the bees eat through the candy cork on the queen cage and she leaves, get rid of cage, install the 9th frame and you got a hive. when the hive body is 80% full, add 1 additional hive body With 9 frames. When #2 is 80% full, add honey supers. honey supers will have only 8 frames/foundations......this honey will be for you...........John, would you like me to start you a hive next spring? I'll do it.

Rick

Rick or anyone else,

I was thinking about eventually starting a hive on my property but was wondering how far away from walking trails and corrals etc is a good practice. We have a dairy farm next to our house that us in a trust with a walking trail on the edge of their property pretty close to our property.

Thank you,
Chad

Chad,

Do you have any black bears in your part of Mass., even infrequently?