Author Topic: Whos got bees?  (Read 2047 times)

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Offline LazyBkpr

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Whos got bees?
« on: April 17, 2020, 07:47:40 am »
...And what are your plans? Splitting? New packages? Production hives? Resource hives?  Plans for the year!

   Of about 17 hives i came out of winter with two years ago.. then not touching, treating, feeding or wrapping hives that winter or last winter...  i have six hives left...  They have all been relocated, treated and fed... and it is now snowing MADLY...    I really miss the years it got warm early and stayed warm...  Years like this.. all the buds and blooms start, then die when they freeze,and its not till the dandelions pop that the bees get their first flow, so i have to keep syrup on them till then. At least if I want them to start building up.
   I'll keep a couple hives for production, and the other four will be split early, and then split again late with purchased queens. With a little luck I can get built back up to 20ish hives by the end of next year.
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Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: Whos got bees?
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2020, 11:04:18 am »
It's only April 2020 and who would have thought we would all be in the situation we are facing?  So, for some the stay at home orders may have an impact on their beekeeping goals.  For me, the situation has made it possible for me to be able to do timely inspections and make corrective actions when needed.

My goals for 2020 are to do as many splits as possible.   So far, so good.  I am not as interested in honey this year.  Enough for us, family, neighbors, and coworkers will be just fine.   I would also like to perfect my honey processing.  I don't seem to get it as filtered as I should.  Others have beautiful translucent bottles of honey where mine is not.  I don't know what I am doing wrong.

I did purchase a couple of packages of bees because the supplier gave a deep discount to repeat customers.  Around here we usually have to order packages before we have had a chance to look in our hives to see how they came through winter.  As it worked out, I didn't need the packages, but what's a couple more colonies to tend to?

Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Whos got bees?
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2020, 09:28:08 pm »
Heh I considered ordering a few packages, but decided my skill s at raising queens and splitting hives were second to none!   (LOL) Okay so maybe not, but I will manage, mostly because the bees tend to fix my screw ups....
   I wish I had the option of staying home, but the wifes demands MUST be met.. i still have some work to do on the fish camp, and the wife is in Maine right now picking up her mother...  Alzheimers is getting worse, and the brotherinlaw was threatening to put her in a home... AFTER he threw a fit because we were bringing her out here.. so.. off to his house she went...  We backed out on the duplex we were going to buy, and bought this fish camp on the Mississippi, intending to take two or three years to remodel...   Three weeks after we closed, brotherinlaw calls and says he cant handle it shes going in a home... and he wonders why I swore at him, called him names and threatened him with physical harm...  He seems to have no clue why i am ticked off at him...  So now Every dime we had is dumped into the fish camp to get it ready for motherinlaw... NOT a good house for her, WAY too small,, but, we are locked in, and motherinlaw IS NOT going to go into a home for the elderly if we can help it...
   Which.. translates into me spending a lot of time in Illinois instead of taking care of the bees, the house, the new building, etc, etc, etc...   I'm getting older, and it seems that life is intent on keeping me from doing the things I want and NEED to do.. but, i will endeavor to persevere...   I will MAKE time to take care of the bees this year no matter what....  I have to mow this yard {5 hours} every third or forth day in spring and summer, so I will take an extra couple hours to manage the bees, then drive the 1.5 hours back to the fish camp.. 3 hours round trip.. every three/four days...  Life just got un fun again.  But we do what we have to do.
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Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: Whos got bees?
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2020, 09:52:56 am »
LazyBkpr,  I am sorry to hear about your mother in law. 

Offline Wandering Man

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Re: Whos got bees?
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2020, 09:56:26 am »
We had 4 hives at the end of March, but needed to split one because of their aggression, so now we have five. 

I ordered new queens for both and was feeding both. 

When we installed both queens the new hive seemed very accepting and the old hive seemed aggressive towards her. 

Four days later both queens had been released. The old hive's queen was laying like crazy.  The new hive's queen had no place to lay, since the workers had back-filled every nook and cranny. 

We quit feeding the new hive.  A week later the new hives queen was laying, but the old hive's queen had disappeared.

We'll install a new queen in the old hive today, as soon as it quits raining.

In the meantime, we now own 10 acres and need to bump up our hives from 5 to 8 in order to get an ag valuation on the property.

We don't want to manage 8 hives.  4 is all we wanted.  But I don't think I can get away with just setting out 4 empty hive boxes.  Although, I've met with the man who does the counting and he is afraid of bees ...

Nah, that would be dishonest.  In any event, we are now trying to catch swarms and considering splits later, after the nectar flow.











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Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: Whos got bees?
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2020, 11:17:26 am »
Wandering Man, perhaps you could ask a fellow beekeeper to bring 4 of their hives over for the season.  Tell "The Man" you are leasing the land out.   :)

Offline Wandering Man

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Re: Whos got bees?
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2020, 11:19:52 am »
That would be fine.  He doesn't care whether they are mine or other's hives.  The problem is that the only folks I know who put hives on other people's property want something like $350 per hive. 

Interesting, the put the hive on your property, charge you one time rent on the hive, and then don't care for the hive.  Does that sound like renting, or buying to you?
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Whos got bees?
« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2020, 11:32:37 am »
LOL you would put 4 empty hives out, and come back to find out swarms moved in!   :laugh:
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Offline Wandering Man

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Re: Whos got bees?
« Reply #8 on: April 19, 2020, 12:03:10 pm »
That would be nice.
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Offline iddee

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Re: Whos got bees?
« Reply #9 on: April 19, 2020, 01:03:06 pm »
LazyBkpr. Beezneedz has Wayne's queens ready to ship, if you or anybody else wants any.

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Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: Whos got bees?
« Reply #10 on: April 19, 2020, 04:21:08 pm »
That would be fine.  He doesn't care whether they are mine or other's hives.  The problem is that the only folks I know who put hives on other people's property want something like $350 per hive. 

Interesting, the put the hive on your property, charge you one time rent on the hive, and then don't care for the hive.  Does that sound like renting, or buying to you?

Say What!?!?  I have never charged anyone.  I give them honey for putting hives on their property.

Offline Wandering Man

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Re: Whos got bees?
« Reply #11 on: April 19, 2020, 05:40:24 pm »
Yeah, it's a business down here.  The guys who pull colonies out of people's homes rent the colonies to land owners wanting an Agricultural Valuation on their property.  If I can get 8 colonies on my land, I'll pay $20 a year in property taxes, rather than $1,700 a year.

The bee catchers don't put in new queens and don't care for the bees.  The problem with this is, even if the original colony isn't infiltrated with African genetics at the time it is placed on the property, it eventually will be.

I asked one guy about not caring for the hives, and he told me he doesn't have time, and he thinks it might make a good business for someone - keeping other people's bees for them.

When I first heard about the practice I was afraid they were charging $350 a year, but apparently it is a one-time charge.
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Offline RAST

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Re: Whos got bees?
« Reply #12 on: April 20, 2020, 08:37:15 am »
 You have to prove its a viable agricultural business to get an ag exemption in Fl.

Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: Whos got bees?
« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2020, 09:44:03 am »

When I first heard about the practice I was afraid they were charging $350 a year, but apparently it is a one-time charge.

So, you could collect swarms and resell them for $350 each?  Who would buy the woodenware?  Is there a risk of being liable for Africanized bees?