Bee keeping

[Mech]

I started keeping honey bees this year.
This is actually pretty fun.
I have 2 hives of Italian bees.
They are very tame and mellow.
I'm a total rookie at it but have yet to get stung from these.
When I've gotten stung in the past it was because I didn't know they were on me.
The pain and swelling only lasts 20-30 minutes for me so I've never really been scared of bees.
Hope to harvest enough honey next year for gifting and would really dig making some honey granola bars.
Any body else do this?
Andy

 

[Helenthereef]

Actually we are just about to start - we have a new kind of hive on order. My partner got involved in a start-up project where you put money in to help get a new product off the ground, and if it takes off (it's a gamble) you get one of the first ones made at less than market prices.

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to post website links here - Mod please edit me if not - but it's a cool new idea in bee hives that reduces the amount of interference (and work, and hopefully stings) you have to do to get the honey out.

The idea is that instead of removing the combs to extract the honey, the combs are broken inside the hive, and honey comes out on tap. Supposed to be better for the bees and better for you.

We haven't got it yet, so I can't speak for how well it works, but if you're interested I'll post again once we have it going. I've no idea how it compares costwise with a conventional hive - did you buy or make your hives?

The website is
http://www.honeyflow.com/

 

[Mech]

Those do look cool Helen.
I can weld stainless steel so I'm going to build a centerfuge with motor and a drain valve.
I think I can get more product that way.
Spent most of my career as a mechanical contractor so building things Has always been fun for me.
I bought mine assembled but will probably only buy waxed started frames from now on.
Watching how a hive works is really interesting for me.
I got into it because bees are endangered here and could use all the help they can get.
Main goal was the pollination of my property.
A little bit of honey would be cool but only after the bees get their full requirement.
Andy

 

[Helenthereef]

A friend of ours got bees for the same reason - to pollinate their organic farm, and now they have more honey than they can handle...

Would love to see photos if you feel like it. About how long did it take for your bees to settle into your hive at the start?

 

[Mech]

Mine settled down in less than a week.
This bee keeping thing is kind of like playing chess...well ok maybe checkers.
They do one thing you counter with another.
You do one thing they do another.

I've had my Cham for maybe 6 plus years. He is really cool,takes a bit of attention but it's consistent.
I'm a rookie beek and so far I have not yet found any consistency with them.
Maybe it's just that I don't see it yet.
They act different when there is lots of pollen.
They even steal/rob when there is not enough...kind of going through that right now.
I'm about to do some mods to my hives to deal with this and a couple other things.
Love to post some pics or a vid of an inspection after I do the mods.
Andy

 

[Helenthereef]

Hope to see pics when you have them!

 

[Mech]

Cool.
Will do.
Your pic looks like the a Rolls Royce compared to my little Yogo model so please don't expect too much.
Man I would love to have one of those by itself in my garden area.
That would just look so darn awesome.
One thing I think would be cool though is videoing my hive inspection.
I'd like to be able to better critique my work and share with some of my friends that have no idea about these girls.

 

[Helenthereef]

Your pic looks like the a Rolls Royce compared to my little Yogo model so please don't expect too much.

Well, it comes as a flat pack, and we haven't received it yet, so no guarantees ours will look as impressive as the website model

Stuart, my partner, has been reading "Bee Keeping for Dummies" as a primer, and one of the things I hadn't thought about was that you really are keeping livestock which have to be tended to, and apparently fed sugar if there isn't much pollen about, which I hadn't considered.

Did you plant specific flowers fro them or are your relying on those naturally or agriculturally occurring in your area?

 

[Mech]

I plant a large garden.
I'm about to start my winter garden to help supliment some pollon/nectar flow.
My seller said to grow lots of brockly and to just let it flower and not worry about any harvest.
I am going to more research on what to put in the garden.
That said my winter garden goal will be about 50% for my bees and the rest for our family.
I also feed sugar water.
One part sugar to one part water earlier in the season.
Two parts sugar to one part water later in the year.
50lb sack of granulated sugar costs $21 here.
Little quart entrance feeder jars suck.
They are just to much work and encourage robbing from the stronger hive.
One of my mods is interior large volume top feeders.

I just received my items for my hive upgrades and will do them tomorrow with pics.
Not very computer savvy at all.
Any chance you could help me post some pics?
Thanks.
Andy

 

[Helenthereef]

There's a tutorial on how to post photos (with screenshots of what the page looks like, which helps a lot) at:

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304671&highlight=post+photos

Essentially you first need to save your photos in a small format - the maximum size is 1024 pixels (height or width). If you are not familiar with sizing photos, have a look at whatever photo editing programme your computer opens your pictures in. I use Microsoft Picture Manager - it's a standard programme on most Microsoft computers and very simple. Other programmes have something similar.

In Picture Manager, once your picture is open you go to the top bar and click "Picture" then "Resize" and then when the toobar comes up on the right size click "Resize Settings", "Predefined width and height", "Document Large 1024 x 748 px", "OK".
Save that in a folder where you can find it again (Vital!!!! ). In other programmes look for a "Resize" or "Compress" command, and do something similar.

The follow the instructions at the link above - basically scroll down from the screen where you type your replies, click on "Manage Attachments" and go from there. You can only upload 4 pictures in one post.

Good luck, I'd love to see your set up.

 

[Mech]

Thank you for the tutorial link .
That will work just fine.
Yesterday's video/photo shoot was kinda embarrassing.
It might be called "what not to do".
I thought that I could cut pics out of it but have not figured that out yet.
I misspoke several times,calling things by different names,stumbling forgetting to use my smoker at first and such.
Other than free diving vids (something that I actually am a bit ok at ).
I have not had much video work...OK I was really nervous and it kinda sucked.
I'll shoot some exterior pics today.
I'm going diving on Vancouver Island later today for 10 days but should have ample time to post my new pics.
On another note, if you want to see that vid I will privately share it.
Andy

 

[Helenthereef]

Don't worry abut sending me the video - I have slow and sporadic internet connection here and often can't see video (depending on which way the wind blows, I think). I get you on the underwater video - much easier when you can't speak!

I'm diving this weekend too, look forward to pics when you get back.

 

[Mech]

What I'm running

 

[Mech]

Thanks Helen.
Very cool.
Not hard at all.

 

[Mech]

The bottom 2 boxes are for their honey stores/ brood (egg laying areas).
The white smaller box is an additional area I added so they are not over crowded.
If they are over crowded they will "boogy away" from you and try to start a new hive else where.
This is called "swarming".
That little unpainted area below the lid is my "top feeder" area.
It has 2 toughs that has a floating wood and plastic mesh so my bees won't drown in the sugar water syrup. I'll try to find a pic of that because it's really cool with properly thought out engineering.
I'll see if I have a pic on me to show the inside of it,but I'm a thousand miles north from home currently.
The funny looking thing in the lower front of the hive is called a "robber screen".
How it works is that only the resident bees know how to get into the hive and all or most all just keep bouncing off the screened area..very simple but it works.

All that being said I am staying at my cousins house way up north on Vancouver Island and his neighbor has 4 hives and she is putting/giving away 3-4 hundred pounds of honey from her hives.
She doesn't have any idea what kind of bees she has but they are meaner than what I can print.
I think the meaner bees might produce morehoney but for me I'm just looking pollination an maybe a little extra honey.
I dig that I don't need a bee suit to work my hives.
I also feel that friendly bees are good ambassadors to this hobby.
Bees are disappearing right now and we should do all we can to help them.
Andy

 

[AbsoluteApril]

I'm really enjoying this thread. I've been watching some of the recent documentaries, just saw "More than Honey" and it's very alarming what is happening with the poor bees. Honey is so good but watching those makes me not want to eat it, if someone locally had enough to give away though I'd gladly help out. haha! I think what you guys are doing is awesome! Thank you for sharing.

 

[Helenthereef]

The other great thing about having local hives is you can actually taste the difference in the honey - my friends honey is distinctly "Flower" flavoured as opposed to generic honey. It's great.

I was in the UK recently and noticed that even in the local supermarkets certain garden flower seeds are now specifically labelled as "Bee friendly", so even if you aren't keeping bees, your suburban garden (or I suppose even windowsill plants) can still be a source of bee food. Maybe something everyone could look for?.

 

[Helenthereef]

The funny looking thing in the lower front of the hive is called a "robber screen".
How it works is that only the resident bees know how to get into the hive and all or most all just keep bouncing off the screened area..very simple but it works.


I think the meaner bees might produce morehoney but for me I'm just looking pollination an maybe a little extra honey.
I dig that I don't need a bee suit to work my hives.
I also feel that friendly bees are good ambassadors to this hobby.
Bees are disappearing right now and we should do all we can to help them.
Andy

Thanks for the picture and explanation. It's more complex than it looks from the outside. I love the idea of only the resident bees knowing how to get into their hive through the robber trap - brilliant!

I'm also not certain of what species we get here - there is a bee keepers' association where we will obtain the bees once we have the hive - I'm presuming it will be a local South Pacific species, hopefully a mellow one.... I can see we are at the bottom of a steep learning curve....