Author Topic: Hobbyist or commercial (Read 20260 times)

ablanton · « **Reply #20 on:** January 12, 2014, 11:02:07 pm »

Going into my third year, I'm a hobbyist. I have dreams of something bigger, but I'm restricted by space right now. My bee yard is on "borrowed" land, and I don't want to take advantage of the generous situation by loading the whole place up with hives. Also would put me in a pinch if the owner ever needed the land for something and I had to move.

brooksbeefarm · « **Reply #21 on:** January 13, 2014, 12:00:44 am »

I don't know how to classify my operation? i had 92 hives last summer and with 3 robbed out and combining several last fall i haven't given them another count? Kind of like my cattle at the end of the year, after selling some and keeping replacement heifers i don't know how many i have, but i know if one is missing? I just love working with my bees and teaching new beekeepers. I sell alot of honey at the farmers market and out the door here at home (still have 6 five gal. buckets of honey to bottle and sell) I've never sold hives, nuc's or queens, but may give it a try, i have customers and club members begging me every year to sell those items. My wife says it's not like i'm selling our childern, easy for her to say.

Jack

efmesch · « **Reply #22 on:** January 13, 2014, 01:13:50 am »

Quote from: brooksbeefarm on January 13, 2014, 12:00:44 am

I don't know how to classify my operation?

Call it a pleasure cruise.

tecumseh · « **Reply #23 on:** January 13, 2014, 06:23:11 am »

I am registered with two bee organizations as a sideliner.

I typically maintain about 200 hives from myself and another 50 or so for the Texas A&M bee lab. I began keeping bees in about 1962 as a 4H project.

Slowmodem · « **Reply #24 on:** January 13, 2014, 07:04:32 am »

Quote from: tecumseh on January 13, 2014, 06:23:11 am

I am registered with two bee organizations as a sideliner.

I typically maintain about 200 hives from myself and another 50 or so for the Texas A&M bee lab. I began keeping bees in about 1962 as a 4H project.

If you had a dollar for every bee you had seen in your lifetime............

Lburou · « **Reply #25 on:** January 13, 2014, 11:07:51 am »

Quote from: Slowmodem on January 13, 2014, 07:04:32 am

If you had a dollar for every bee you had seen in your lifetime............

The tax man would be happy!

I'm a hobbyist and like it that way.

tecumseh · « **Reply #26 on:** January 13, 2014, 06:12:04 pm »

a slowmo snip...
If you had a dollar for every bee you had seen in your lifetime............

tecumseh..
I would be well satisfied if I had a penny for everyone I have killed.

tbonekel · « **Reply #27 on:** January 13, 2014, 09:56:03 pm »

2 more months and it will be 1 year for me. It's a hobby for me right now. I got up to 5 hives by the fall and all still doing relatively well. Most of the time, I would like it to be more, then there are a few times that I don't think I could handle anymore. I made it my goal to not purchase any and just see what I could get from swarms. It's more of an adventure that way.

Jen · « **Reply #28 on:** January 13, 2014, 10:10:38 pm »

tb- catching swarms are so much fun. Get's my adrenaline going. Last year my husband and I saw a huge swarm lift up and leave my hive it headed over the fence and into the next street over from us. We grabbed the truck keys and went in search of it, but alas it was gone. But it was great fun trying to find them in the neighboring trees.

efmesch · « **Reply #29 on:** January 14, 2014, 03:51:04 pm »

Quote from: Jen on January 13, 2014, 10:10:38 pm

- catching swarms are so much fun.

It's hard to say which is more fun---catching a swarm or watching a swarm "catch" itself for you by moving into a bait hive you've set up.

There's no question as to which is easier!

tecumseh · « **Reply #30 on:** January 14, 2014, 07:14:48 pm »

I was casually speaking to someone in a very population location who liked the idea of bees for her garden but she really didn't have any reasonable good place to set one. She did have bee in the vicinity and I suggest that she should hang a couple of swarm traps and see if she caught anything. I have casually come to think that swarm traps are a much unappreciated item for beekeepers... new and old.

I am thinkin' I should set out some myself and see if I catch anything of my own.

rrog13 · « **Reply #31 on:** January 14, 2014, 08:59:38 pm »

swarm traps .......much unappreciated

I'll always appreciate free bees!

Jen · « **Reply #32 on:** January 14, 2014, 09:29:34 pm »

tec- scratching my head on that one, surely you mean 'much appreciated'

I don't think mines going to swarm this year, but it's better to be ready if it happens. Ya Never Know!

Jen · « **Reply #33 on:** January 14, 2014, 09:31:59 pm »

ef- ""catching a swarm or watching a swarm "catch" itself for you by moving into a bait hive you've set up.""

Or standing right in the middle of one, soo magical!

iddee · « **Reply #34 on:** January 14, 2014, 09:37:54 pm »

Jen, I think he is saying people don't appreciate the true value of them. They do not take advantage of the opportunity swarm traps provide.

Jen · « **Reply #35 on:** January 14, 2014, 10:00:24 pm »

That would make sense, Thanks Iddee

Gary · « **Reply #36 on:** January 14, 2014, 10:10:28 pm »

Professor and beekeeper from Kansas State University is a guest speaker at our first area beekeepers club meeting Thursday night. He is an expert at building and placing swarm traps. Makes his own pheromones. He says he has a 40% catch rate each year. I'll share his info after our meeting.

efmesch · « **Reply #37 on:** January 15, 2014, 03:00:00 am »

Quote from: Jen on January 14, 2014, 09:31:59 pm

.....Or standing right in the middle of one, soo magical!

I hesitated to say that, but you are so right. It's also a great show for non-beekeepers to observe. They can't believe the sight of someone standing in the midst of a cloud of bees and not getting stung by those "ferocious" warriors.
I particularly love their music. I call it the swarm symphony.

tecumseh · « **Reply #38 on:** January 15, 2014, 06:29:02 am »

kind of interesting that you should compare it to a symphony Efmesh..... I sometimes compare it to 'how you should feel when you are in church'. the low hum and the bees drifting past almost give me a feeling of weightlessness.

of course no self respecting beekeeper allows his own bees to swarm!

lazy shooter · « **Reply #39 on:** January 15, 2014, 08:48:07 am »

I'm a pure hobbyist, and have kept almost three years. Presently, I have four hives on our ranch, and two hives at my home in town. Hopefully, I can build up to 10 hives this year. That is about all that I want. I don't intend to ever sell any honey, as I will give it to friends and charity.

I have worked in the oil patch the last 48 years. As such, I have been painted with the broad brush as being a notorious polluter. Having bees is my way of giving something back. My goal is to help replenish honey bees in our agricultural world. I never intend to make a dime from my bees. So far, I have been very successful.

Like Ef, I surely love and enjoy my only two grandsons. Just two. My contribution to all of you is that I have raised two good men. My sons work and pay their bills, and they will greet you with a smile, and if they tell you they will do something, you can carve it in stone. They love their Lord and their parents, and the above is all that I ask from them.