Beekeeping...for those interested!

[me&thegals]

Natalie--Thanks for that incredible response. I appreciate the time you spent on it!

My gut is saying that I need to learn WAY more before I jump in. But, I'm also feeling a little panicky about no bees in our area next year. I know there are other pollinators, but still. I really noticed it in my gardens and fruit trees last year when our local honey guy got them in late.

Maybe I need to just buy a mason bee kit for my gardens this year and spend another year learning. I can't find a very local bee club, but I will try to find one within a reasonable driving distance anyway, get together with my friends who do this and pick their brains like crazy. I am in 1 session of beekeeping at an organic farming conference the end of Feb, so maybe I find some local folks there.

I hate jumping into things too quickly, especially with so much money and living creatures involved. The last thing I want to do is cause bee death by ignorance when bees are already facing tough odds these days!

So, again, thank you. Incredibly helpful. I haven't even seen what my older friend has to offer, don't even know all the terms of the equipment yet, so much more to learn.

 

[the simple life]

Its quite alot to digest and can be very intimidating, all the stuff you need and the different methods of beekeeping.
Even on the bee forums, they are split into camps on using chemicals in the hive and the non chemical beekeepers, foundation users and foundationless methods, everyone has their own preference and can work either way but some people get very upset when you choose to do something that is not the way they do it.
You really need to do alot of reading and educate yourself on how you want to keep bees, otherwise you will join a club, go to a school or find a mentor that will only teach you to do it they way they do it.
I am actually keeping bees the complete opposite of many in my club or even most in my club and its not what the school is even teaching.
If I had just signed up for the school and did what they told me I would have had to change everything over later on when I realized its not how I want to do things.
I am extremely grateful that I learned on my own how I want to do things and then attended the school. The school is still a good way to make contacts and such but I would not do what they say word for word, at least not for myself.
If you end up waiting, Brushy Mountain Bee farm is a supplier who offers free shipping to alot of areas during the month of December.
Shipping is a huge issue, unless you have a local place you can buy your supplies at.
I ordered 105.00 worth of supplies one day online and they wanted 80.00 for shipping .
I told them to forget it. Save up your money and make the purchase in December and save a small fortune in shipping.
This will give you a couple of months to get everything sanded (if it needs it) assembled and painted before you get your bees in april or may. Just a thought.
Good luck with it all, and read read read.

 

[MyGardenHelper]

I had mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to wait until next spring so I can research. There was a craig's list post from a beekeeper.
See article:
http://www.moremarin.com/buzzhome/2008/10/where-are-the-h.html

It's $570. He supplies the hive, bees, maintaining and training for 1 full year. He also gives you 10 lbs. of honey in the beginning and then harvests the honey for you to keep. I thought this was a great deal and more importantly, I can start now without the risk of beginner mistakes. My hive and bees will be delivered on March 7th.

This would be a great opportunity for an experienced beekeeper to make some money and get bees in people's backyards.

 

[me&thegals]

Hey, MyGardenHelper--What state are you in? What an excellent entrepreneurial idea!

SimpleLife--I'm still straddling the fence. I have a week of vacation next week--yay!!! I plan to do a LOT of reading, hopefully. Also going to an organic farming conference later in the week, 1 session on beekeeping.

Does anybody know anything about mason bees?

 

[MyGardenHelper]

I'm in Northern California...about 60 miles north of San Francisco. He maintains many hives all over the area. He gives a discount if you're 20 miles from where he's already maintaining a hive.

 

[MyGardenHelper]

Oh...and he also brings an extra suit along for you. This way you don't have to buy gear until you're ready.

 

[the simple life]

Mason bees are pretty easy. You send for the kits and you just hang them up.They are inexpensive too.
I think they are all done though fairly early in the spring if I recall. I don't know how often you would have to order more cocoons and when their "season" ends.
I just know that you put up the little house and then fill it with the tubes/cannisters of the cocoons, the ones I have seen hold 25 and 40 tubes.
Gardenhelper, is this guy giving you anything other than the honey, a hive or anything?
Because for that kind of money you can buy a hive and all the equipment you will need, including the bees and all the clubs have volunteer mentors that will do the same thing he is doing for free.
You can join sign up for a beekeeping course for usually $40-45 and it includes membership in their club for the year.
The club members will give you alot of hands on support and training in management and harvesting.
The only thing I worry about when you have one person "training" you is that you learn only that person's way of doing things, which may or may not be what you would normally choose for yourself if you had other points of view and alot of older people have some outdated ways of beekeeping.
Just look into it and make sure its what you want to do in terms of what you will get out of it in the end because you can get most everything you need for free in terms of education and management of your colonies.

Me&thegals,
I understand you predicament, it would be great for you to be able to get into beekeeping this spring but its a tough call to jump right into it.
Thats why I ended up waiting until this year to get them. I wanted to do it before and I could have bought them but I knew I wasn't prepared to do it. I felt better after researching them for a year or so.
I suppose alot of people do jump into it though if they have an opportunity that is too good to pass up.
You still have some time though. Did you ever find out what that retired beekeeper had for equipment or are you thinking of doing all new stuff?
I would still check out the mason bees anyway, you can always have both.
I think those little houses you hang up are cute.

 

[Beekissed]

I might have found someone who has some relatively new but used equipment they will sell here locally. I know some folks frown on using used hives and such, but I'm willing to try it out. I'll try the blowtorch, bleaching, chemical bombing, etc. or whatever is most recommended right now to cleanse the used hive boxes, as I cannot really afford new equipment.

 

[Tallman]

I might have found someone who has some relatively new but used equipment they will sell here locally. I know some folks frown on using used hives and such, but I'm willing to try it out. I'll try the blowtorch, bleaching, chemical bombing, etc. or whatever is most recommended right now to cleanse the used hive boxes, as I cannot really afford new equipment.

I kept bees for several years, and had a wonderful beek who guided me along. I would always admire his clean boxes in his barn all stacked and ready to use. His method of cleaning boxes was to set a barrel of lye water on a wood fire. He would cook all wood to get the old bee glue and such off of it. I used the torch method some, but this hot lye water really cleaned up the equipment as well as taking care of disease.

 

[me&thegals]

Me&thegals, Did you ever find out what that retired beekeeper had for equipment or are you thinking of doing all new stuff?

My friend invited me to come for the weekend, to invite our mutual beek friend over, too. Unfortunately, we head out of town Sun and can't make it. So, still I don't know for certain what all he has. He had a LOT of hives for many decades, though, so I'm assuming he has it all... He's the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back, so I'm also assuming that anything that still functions and is holding together would be ours for the use.