First Lessons In Beekeeping.....

[riverbee]

What was your first valuable/memorable lesson(s) you learned when you first started keeping bees, the first week, first month or year? or maybe the realization of,  you had no clue what you were doing? come on let's tell on ourselves and tell some good stories!

me???
i had a veil, a hive tool or two, a smoker, 3 heavy double deeps with supers on.

lesson 1:  i forgot about those pesky BEARS.......oops.....

lesson 2:  NEVER leave home without your veil.......oops (see lesson 1)

lesson 3:   fencer first, then bees. electric fencing is your friend even when you accidentally shock yourself, and yes i did plenty of times. neglected to turn it off or weed whipped into it, fell into it, leaned over and into it, whatever graceful action......but i still have bear free bees!

btw, all three hives were in smitherenes, equipment scattered all over creation and thousands and thousands of angry bees in the air and on what's left......
oh and......
lesson 4: after disregarding #1, forgetting #2 and failing #3......you look to the bees like you might be a bear.....

LOL!!!
i will never forget it

[iddee]

Hot summer day. Not a cloud in the sky. Perfect day to work bees.

Didn't notice the clouds on the horizon. As you approach the hives, you can smell the rain coming.

Guess what. The bees smell even better than you do. 5 mile down the road, they are still chasing the truck. People sure looking at you funny with that veil and suit driving down the road.

[G3farms]

well now........

1. What better way to kill wax moths than with moth balls, yep just toss a few of them babies in the hive entrance and no more moths 

2. Always inspect hives of bees when you buy them. Bought 15 single deeps, loaded in car and off to my bee yard, come to find out they were Warre hives, what a mess. Had to cut them all out, and yep you guessed it little black German bees. They would eat my lunch every single time I fooled with them.

3. When extracting honey with a hand crank and you are young boy, faster and harder seems to be the motto. Just how many frames do you have to blow out before before slow down sinks in?!?!

4. Hives in the pasture with cows = a disaster waiting to happen.

5. I LOVE my bees, and they need me, I better inspect each and every frame from top cover to bottom board as often as I can. Whew it was a tough job but somebody had to do it. Yep, loved them to death!

[Slowmodem]

You can never have enough woodwork.  Seems I'm always needing a super or a broodbox.  When you need one, it's too late to order one.  Think ahead!  You never know when there will be a swarm call.

[G3farms]

6. Be aware of who knows about your hives in out yards. Had five hives at a university that ran a good sized farming operation also. I lived on campus in the dorms and one of the janitors saw me working the bees one day and finally approached me in the parking lot and started talking bees. Long story short, during the summer break I was contacted to come and remove the hives since they were building a large pond and the bees were stinging the dozer driver. Had permission to use their tractor with front end loader to set hives in back of truck, since they had 4 or 5 supers of capped honey on them. Too light weight, somethings wrong here. Load all of the hives and head home. Upon further inspection was clear that someone had took all of the supers off extracted the honey and returned the wet supers to the hives. Don't know who did it but have a good idea.

7. When feeding sugar syrup to your hives in an out yard be sure not to spill it all inside of your car, and if you do don't leave the windows down. Makes for a fun ride home anyway.

8. Riding around with a lit smoker in the back of your truck makes you a popular person, for some reason everybody wants to holler and point at you 

[riverbee]

LOL!!!

heres another from me:

moving bees in a vehicle
    moving bees in an enclosed vehicle of any sort, especially when things come undone, like say a 4 door buick, and with bee go spilled in it...     
    LOL !!!
   #1  if a friend asks you to help out moving a hive or two with their 4 door buick, (don't volunteer) if you do, bring a veil, matter fact, just
          wear it.  most importantly....don't volunteer to drive.
   #2  if the vehicle has had bee go spilled in it, (definitely do not volunteer) and if you do, even if it's hot, wear a suit and veil, you won't
         regret it.  the bees want out and so do you.  LOL!
   #3  if you drive the freeway, speeding is the natural course of action. this will only delay your progress.

    when the state patrol knocks on the window in the state of wisconsin, seeing 2 keeps in veils and realizes there is a vehicle full of bees,
    you will get a ticket. vehicle off, air-conditioning off, 'bee go' suffocation sets in, and drivers license and registration up to the window, and a
    ticket or two for other things they can think of that don't quite fit the driving safe regulations on wisconsin freeways..... like wearing a veil
    while driving.....
     LOL!

   

[LazyBkpr]

LOL!! I cant top that!!

 I would have to say.. NEVER wear shorts.. Just....  dont!

   Dont trust an Ornery old Beekeeper your supposed to be helping.. especially if he says the natural scent of Banannas is very calming to the bees, OR if he asks YOU, the apprentice to pull that board off the shed to see if the bees are CLOSE...

   In the end.. I am glad I was able to amuse him, and hope he is up there somewhere chuckling softly while he works the heavenly bees.