Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: LazyBkpr on December 21, 2013, 07:16:44 pm
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I have sixteen hives built.. built two for Daughters boyfriends father for Christmas.. he expressed interest in bees to her, and has asked her several times if I wanted to put hives over there, and if I was interested in helping him get started.. so hes getting the hives and beekeeping for Dummies with my number written in the cover.. will see how that goes!!!
Cut and assembled about 150 frames today... Over the next few weeks I'll probably build enough components for about ten more hives JUST in case.. with 16 ready I should be well set for splits and swarms/cutouts but doesnt leave any for the spring panic when ppl want to buy them.. always better to have TOO MANY ready than not enough.. Need to build about a dozen Nuc's as well.. Got my Pollen Sub ready.. Hopguard, new suits.. just have to wait for thaw to set new stands.. Nuc's and queens ordered..
5 of my current hives will get split and the new queens put in. May try to pull a few nuc's out of the other hives and let them make their own queens.. all depends on what I have that survives the winter..
Swarm boxes built.. swam lure bought.. need to order Lemongrass Oil... and WAIT until spring has sprung.... is it here yet??? >:(
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I have to make up 10 medium supers. I bought 10 deeps from Mann Lake a few weeks ago and have to put them together and assemble wax and wired frames for them. I am sitting at 8 hives now and really want to keep it there or a few less but I dont want to be caught flat footed if they all survive and some need splitting. No heat in the shop so I am just mentally building bee equipment. I could work in the mud room but then I would have to finish bottling up the honey and such that never really happened since I extracted. It takes so little to keep me busy I tell you its simply amazing!
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I've got lumber milled to build 60 deeps and 60 mediums. Just have to cut to length, cut rabbets, and put them together.
Need to order frames and foundation for them as well. When you sell nucs, you don't notice right away, but suddenly you're short of frames! :o
I need to cull some old boxes, I'm short of honey supers (mediums) and folks want to buy boxes when they buy nucs.
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It takes so little to keep me busy I tell you its simply amazing!
I tried that excuse but the wife doesnt believe it for a moment!!! She is of the oppinion that I should be capable of completing her entire to do list in about an hour and a half!! I tried to explain that MY to do list had priority... but I am sure you know how THAT went....
Perry.. you Paint up those old boxes and sell them as Seasoned Hives!! hehe.. I can only imagine how fast you go through frames in the spring!!
I was hoping to head to the big chain store tomorrow.. will see how much SNOW we get tonight.. I may end up back int he shop (heated!!!! I'm so spoiled!) building more frames/boxes/inner covers/bottom boards/ tele covers/ Nuc's/swarm traps/stand for my table saw/table for the decapping tank/running wires for the extractor/ etc etc etc etc etc etc... It doesnt take much to keep me busy, but the list is so LONG.. and thats MY list.. you dont want to see HERS!!
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Perry, about Feb.15, contact lazy's wife. Tell her you clean garages for gas money only. She will be happy to give you gas money there and back. ;D ;D ;D
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No! I'm not ready for spring! I would rather be out in the heated garage making hives and frames.... but nooo! I have to contend with the holidays! Not much longer tho! Then I'm brushing up on splitting my one and only hive, 2 deeps tall, per Glenn's instructions of which I have printed off and ready to go. My first split, I'm excited!
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Heck no, I need to get busy though. The wife has been using my workshop to hide birthday and Christmas gifts. I will get on it as soon as Christmas is over. I am considering making some frames for the first time. It sure would save a bunch of money.
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I have way too much work to do before spring:[ the 1 thing I have learned about beekeeping for sure is if you think you need 10 boxes with frames you actually needed 25 and should have bought 30
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Last year I only stayed one step ahead of the bees. I quickly assembled boxes and frames, painted and set up just days before I actually needed the wooden ware. I guess my New Year's resolution will be to anticipate my(the colonies') needs and get ahead and be ready for splits and packages. :P
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never ready,
I bring swarms home in card board boxes and have to scramble to find something to put them in.
Building frames on the spur of the moment.
never ends, that's what makes it exciting!
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I may be able to go to the shop next week, i'm already walking without the walker, I cut several things out before the surgery and all i have to do is put them together and paint them. As for those honey do list, i'm planning on playing this knee surgery thing clear into fall,i'm practicing making a painful face and rubbing my knee at the same time now, and it seems to be working great. All my wife well let me do is, walk to the table, bathroom, and bedroom, Life Is Good. Jack
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"Jack if you can get her to put boxes and frames together................just saying! ::)"
;D LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL ;D
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I've got a "to do" list made up. I have two weeks off after Christmas, and hopefully I can get some of my stuff done then
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LOL!!! I like it!!
I thought about that comment G.. then I thought about what those boxes etc would LOOK like when she finished them....
Moan loudly.. Limp a lot, whine that spring is SO CLOSE and I NEED those boxes!! Ohhh.. what EVER will I do?????
Yes.. it would work... my wife would put them together.. out of square, not enough glue, too many nails.. WITH splits in every one.. corners uneven.. oooh LORD that would be a mess!!! And Even the LORD himself couldnt save me if I complained about the job that she did!!!!
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Lazy... And the bees would just square it up themselves, propolis over the sloppy glue, propolis the exposed nail ends, propolis the splits wide as a pencil. How did they ever make it for 40 years in the neighbors unused chimney, one will never know... ;)
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Lazy... And the bees would just square it up themselves, propolis over the sloppy glue, propolis the exposed nail ends, propolis the splits wide as a pencil. How did they ever make it for 40 years in the neighbors unused chimney, one will never know... ;)
OH NOESSS!!!! ITS MY WIFE IN DISGUISE! :D
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LOL lazy!!!!
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Crackin Me Up! Rolling Eyes!
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I got two more swarm boxes ready for the spring. I live right in the middle of many, many blueberry farms. Hope to get some free bees this spring. Got one free swarm last year. This is my first year of bee keeping. Have a honey farm about 45 minutes away. They suggested I put out swarm boxes since its mostly their bees at the blueberry farms. They have been a great help.
www.abhoneyfarm.com
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Hello there Finally Home! Mind if I call you Fin? Ooo Ooo Ooo how I would love living in blueberry country...
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Hello there Finally Home! Mind if I call you Fin? Ooo Ooo Ooo how I would love living in blueberry country...
No problem. We also found a guy a couple miles away that was giving away full grown blueberry bushes. I happen to have a friend/customer that has a skid steer and tree spade. We now have 50 of those bush's on our property................YUM-YUM 8)
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Welcome to the forum Fin, you might check me out? but i've read/heard? that it takes three strong hives per acres to pollinate Blue berries, and that blue berries don't produce much nectar? Jack
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Welcome to the forum Fin, you might check me out? but i've read/heard? that it takes three strong hives per acres to pollinate Blue berries, and that blue berries don't produce much nectar? Jack
We are trying to grow our own small orchard so to speak. Recently bought the property and have planted many fruit trees, grape vines, strawberries and have a good sized garden. Thought the blueberries would be a good addition and the price was right. An acre of them would have been way more than I could keep up with. Just enough for us and a little to sell. We have 4 double deep hives right now and hope to grow that to about 25-30. We have hundreds of black locust trees on and around us so that will hopefully do them some good too.
Thanks for the welcome. I'm enjoying the forum quite well already :)
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Fin~ just think of all the added anti-oxidents to the blueberry honey. That's some good honey raught thar! If we knew that it was 100% blueberry nectar honey, I would pay good $ to have you ship me some ~
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Fin, looks like you have a good plan with the trees and berries your going to plant, the black locust make a real light honey with a extra good taste (to me). I have several black locust trees here on the farm, and have seen some years they never worked them? they must of found something they liked better. I put out Catalpa trees several years ago, and when they bloomed the first three years the bees were all over them,but i haven't seen a honey on them for the last 5 yrs.? but the Wasp and Bumble Bees love them. Another good investment is Buckwheat, plant it early (after last frost date) and i can get 3 and sometimes 4 blooms out of one planting.Good luck, and keep posting. Jack
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I would choose buckwheat as well, but I think you need land where it doesn't matter if it is invasive.
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Buckwheat is an annual, so therefore non invasive. It is self replanting to an extent, but will not continue without cultivation.
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Very Cool! Think I'll plant some in my back alley :D
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Sweet clover and wildflowers.. The disk is ready.. going to run the draws with it and use the spreader to seed before the fields are planted. Probably in the range of twenty acres when its all said and done. Will see if it has any impact on honey!
Considering planting 300 acres or so in Bee forage, and bailing it a couple times a year. I think between selling the hay and honey I can make more than cash renting the land... the debate on that is still out.
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we have done a lot of planting for bees in the last 5 years. this year we readied and planted another 4 acres of buffer zones in what is corn fields near and on either sides of my hives, with bee forage friendly seeds/plants zone specific from prairie moon nursery. 2 acres on either side. a lot of work. rental farmers, if you are not watching, like to cut into as much land as they can plant in; scootching over and over into tree lines and berry bushes to get every bit of corn they can. one of our rental farmers was a bit industrious at this without asking. next season they have been asked to go back to planting soybeans outside the planted areas rather than corn. we cleaned up all the dead trees and brush in the buffer zones. hopefully some of the wild berry bushes will come back as well, if not, we'll get some planted, blackcaps and raspberries, they were choked out but some of them still looked like they might come back. we are also planting buckwheat and more clover as well.
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What i like about buckwheat is that you can get a bloom from it in the dearth part of the summer. Another plant that gives nectar until frost is Vitex (a bush) mine has a purple bloom, i might as well give the Moon flower a plug also, it's a late summer bloomer. Jack
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hehe.. I tell my renter to leave me enough room to run my bush hog along the fences... if he plants too close it just gets mowed off. Usually only takes them a single year to understand that tapping the fence posts with the planter isnt going to gain them anything.
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It's nice to see we have rich land owners like LazyBkpr and riverbee renting their land to farmers. :):) The Vitex bush that Jack refers to prospers in our area. I have a large one in my Weatherford yard and when it blooms it draws bees by the thousands. I am going to plant some buckwheat this spring. If our rainfall ever returns to normal, my bees will have plenty of forage. Oh well, hope springs eternal.
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Laz- buckwheat is also good nutrition for the bees to forage on, good for their immune systems.
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I've been reading that.. I think I will look into it a bit further...
I'm STILL considering planting all 40 acres... will see what I make off the honey in the next couple of years.. If Honey/Wax/Bees can make me more than I get for rent Why wouldn't I plant Buckwheet or Sweet Clover etc??? Cut it, Bale it, sell that too a couple times a year.. (after it blooms) Might as well have grand ambitions of 200 hives and 300 to 400 acres planted in something both the bees and I can use!!!
Rich Landowner... Shooter I just got impatient waiting for my folks to die and bought it from them :P
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Lazy- We just seeded our front and back yard with clover in the fall. Our quarter acre property is clay and shale, so the lawn always looks dry and burned out! the clover will spruce it up a bit.