Hi I'm John and I live about 25 mi west of Portland.I started catching bees in 97 but I didn't know how to manage them.I didn't know how to use a computer and all the commercial keepers around me seemed too busy to ask for help. Finally I quit messing with them[stealing all their honey] and just left them alone.When I did that they lived three years.Then I did a walk away split in the end of may,even though I didn't know what a split was.I just wanted two boxes of bees . Then one day I was over at a blueberry grower friend's house,and he introduced me to Terry [he's a professional beekeeper].Terry was also the pres. of the tualatin valley bee keepers association.I told Terry about my one hives and he was willing to take a look at them and give me some advice.The winter before Terry had 500 hives to take to the almonds,but when he was ready to leave there were only 50 alive.He had veroa mites.That fall I gave him my hives and a few months later he gave me 12 quarts of honey.I thought I had won the lottery.There was blackberry,clover,golden rod,and fire weed.Then I got the bright idea to pressure wash my boxes with bleach.That got rid of all the bee smell and I couldn't catch anything for a few years.Then I learned how to use a computer and found you tube.Wow..I watched a video on how to make a swarm trap and use lemon grass oil, and it worked.Now I have 26 still alive.2 are cordovan,1 carni.,6 buckfast,and the rest mutts.I have 4 bee trees,one barn,one fence line and a brick church that I set traps near.Then I also get a few swarm calls from friends and neighbors.That's pretty much it, oh and I'm 6'6" 210 :lol: :lol:
