How's everyone doing with their bees? Mine are having quite a productive year so far. I've caught four swarms so far and am out of hives to use. I'm looking at woodenware now to order. I just wondered how some of the guys that broke into the hobby were doing as I recalled the threads we had here last year.
Been wondering how well the bees are this year. Our fruit trees are loaded with blossoms beyond belief this year but don't see a lot of bees other than bumble bees. Saw a sign out one of the roads I take to work that was asking for land to be donated for honey bee research.
I began my first hive last Tuesday, they're building comb currently. Sure I'll have lots of questions, a very interesting hobby so far!
I have an old apple tree that's loaded with apples and two peach trees that have peaches clustered like grapes, lol. The peaches are dwarf trees and are only three years old so they look pretty off being so small and loaded with fruit. I think I'm going to try all plastic frames and starter for a change. My old stored equipment was about all rotten and eat up from rodents. It was all old as heck to start with though.
I used to watch a beekeeping series on RFD back years ago. They were old but very informative. I knew the videos were available for purchase but I never bought them. Just this morning I was thinking about that series and it hit me to check to see if they were posted on youtube. Everything is posted on youtube, lol. To anyone interested, enjoy and covet these vids and keep them bookmarked for reference, you'll find yourself going back to them throughout your beekeeping experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjrdwXXEtLo&list=PL1B40EEB50DF804A0
I have a question for the beekeepers, I have read stories lately about losses of up to 40% of the population of honeybees in the US. Have hobbiest beekeepers seen the same level of losses? What is the normal % of honeybees that die over wintering?
It just depends on the area and the beekeeper I think. I had about 40 hives at one time but intentionally reduced down to 10 hives when my row crop acres got over 300 acres. I've pretty much maintained that for the last few years. I generally let the colonies split on their own and I catch more of the swarms than I lose so my colony numbers have gone up and down accordingly. I generally lose a colony over winter, usually coming into spring with temp swings. I don't do as good a job managing them as I used to or as I should though and what happens more often than not is the one I lose is due to a bee raid from another hive to get to the honey stores. It happens when you have several colonies close together. If one colony gets a little weak and another one is aggressive, they'll wage war and the weaker one generally gets screwed. By the time you notice the problem it's too late to do much about it. When verroa mites first came in, back in the early 90's here, my uncle lost about 70% of his hives in two years. I think it was mostly because the bees didn't have any immunity or tolerance to them. I get along fine and don't even medicate mine. Our local bees (feral bees) seem to be healthy and productive. I find bee trees and see wild swarms pretty regularly here. I've been thinking of going back into bees heavier though here lately, I guess because it's too wet for field work, lol.
I find it really interesting how in California they have traveling colonies that they move from farm to farm to pollinate the fruit and nut trees. I worry about bees more than climate change.
Yeah, it's a big deal. Over on another forum I frequent, a tractor forum, there's a guy that is a california almond producer. It's crazy how many bee hives they move around and utilize out there. They also pay crazy amounts to bee keepers for the use of the bees.
I was on a small wildfire one time a guy was tending his bees and when he went to light the smoker he had an issue and started a fire. The guy wanted us to save his tractor first then his hives. Kinda funny to watch firefighters so nervous putting out fire by the hives. I told the newbies that their nomex is bee proof, stings can't go thru the fabric. Was kinda funny at the after action review when they asked about how I knew nomex was sting proof. The property owner explained a lot about bee keeping pretty cool when you get a new queen and a piece of hard candy is the difference between life and death for her.
Lol, yeah some may see it that way. There's a big difference between the romanticism in the idea of keeping a few hobby hives and the arduous and demanding (and sometimes very disappointing) chore of commercial bee handling. I can't even imagine how the big guys handle 2500+ hives. Most of those folks get so callous in working around bees and equipment that they get rough enough it looks like they'd kill a few thousand bees every time they work the bee yard. Let alone I'm sure they have to have permits and licenses out that wazoo.
Haha, yeah I always hated requeening. Queens are so expensive now that it makes a dead queen all the more sad and disappointing. I haven't bought a queen in six years and they were getting pricey back then. I just went around and checked the new swarms I caught this year. All of them have at least four frames of comb drawn out.
Okay so just as an update, the last two days I've ordered about $1000 worth of new bee stuff, frames boxes, lids, bottoms, feeders and feed. I'm trying something new, all plastic hives. I have two complete hives that are plastic from the lid down to the bottom board, no wood in them anywhere at all. I pulled my old bee stuff out of storage the other day and most of it was trash from mice and termites. Many of my old hives still in use are getting pretty rough also except the parts that were plastic. I had a few lids and a base that are over ten years old, that base is probably closer to twenty. I realized that if I was going to get back into it and invest so much money that I might be better off investing it into stuff that though is a bit more expensive...will last for years without worry and can be completely cleaned and sterilized when needed. Half of the new boxes are wood, I didn't want to get too wrapped up in the plastic until I laid hands on it and tried it. I have 10 wooden medium super bodies, five medium plastic bodies and five deep plastic bodies. All frames, foundation, lids and bottom boards are plastic. I'm excited, I'll post pics when I get it all.
