/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>662136
Where do you live that you had swarm activity in November? I'm in the New England area, and my hives start ejecting the drones in late September, and they're pretty much gone by mid Oct. Glad to hear that you were able to save them and give them a good home!

If you buy just the basics, including bees, then you can expect to invest $300-500 to get started. If you make your own hive-bodies and capture a swarm, or get lucky and are given a starter colony, then you will be able to reduce your start-up costs significantly.

Don't bother buying an extractor at this point, you won't be able to harvest honey until the 2nd year, and you can often find another beekeeper who will let you use theirs, or borrow one from your LBA... assuming your hives survive their first winter.

Beekeeping is a wonderful hobby, I could rant for hours about the amazing super-organism of a beehive. 50k+ little silly bugs that are willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the whole, surviving in the wild, and in domestication for thousands of years. My girls fill the air and spin summer's sun into autumn's sweet gold for me, occasionally chastising me with their bitter sting when I fail to understand what they're trying to tell me.

If you've got any simple questions, let me know. But I may well just reply with links to appropriate articles from beesource.com which is truely the new-bee's best friend.

>>659946
congrats on your girls' 1st birthday! I hope you're able to harvest some honey this year, it makes all the sweating in the sun worthwhile to be able to spread it on toast during the cold winter.

... I knew I should have finished the beekeeping FAQ I started working on last summer when the last influx of wanna-bee-apiarists were asking questions... anyhow, here's a quick recap. go check out beesource.com

Assume that you're in the USA, you're fighting the clock, and unless you get really lucky, you'll probably lose. There's an old beekeeper's adage:

A swarm of bees in May, is worth a bale of hay
A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon
A swarm of bees in July, isn't worth a fly

At this point, any new hive doesn't really have enough time to get established to raise new brood, draw comb, and pack away stores to overwinter. A hive needs to have 40-60lbs of stores to have a reasonable chance of overwintering successfully.

I'm in the northeast, and my hives swarmed ~ 4-6 weeks ago. This is the easiest way to get a queen and start a new hive. Otherwise, you're looking at purchasing a 3-pound package from a supplier, or a Nuc (Hive Nucleus = 1 queen, several thousand worker bees, 1 frame of brood, 1 frame of stores, 1 frame drawn comb for the queen to lay in) for $100-$175. In my area, packages and nucs for this year were 'sold out' by last thanksgiving. We were expecting packaged bees to be delivered mid-april, but they were delayed into mid-may by weather. YMMV.

My general advice to people looking to get into beekeeping at this time of year, is to start your research now, order woodenware and a 3# package/Nuc for next season (~$100-150), and JOIN YOUR LOCAL BEEKEEPER ASSOCIATION, and plan on going to a bee-school in your area next spring (if possible). If you can't find a LBA, then plan on spending a lot of time reading on sites like beesource.com or similar.

For the hive itself, you can either go DIY and make a top-bar (Kenyan) hive or purchase a Langsthroth (standard) beehive (assembled or as a kit). Expect to spend 250-350 for a starter kit (woodenware, basic tools, protective gear, but NO BEES), and I'd really suggest going this route.

>>482276
Que lindo! that looks like a beautiful site for an apiary, I hope your girls like it too! They will also appreciate the bowl of water & pebbles you put out for them. My bees like my neighbor's pool. My neighbor likes the honey I give him every fall. Everything works out in the end.

The bees you bought are well established on that comb and probably have brood. When we 'install' a commercial 3-pound package of bees we normally pen them in for a few days and feed them extra sugar-water to help push them to produce comb for the queen to lay into. This is normally called 'shaking a package (into a hive)', but I prefer a 'no-shake' method similar to this. If anyone's interested, I'll find my LBA's handout on our super-secret no-shake method which is similar to this:

(got banned trying to post links, sorry...) yooootuuuube watch?v=DNaQNma_t0U -

As your colony is already established, you don't need to feed them. But if you give them a free ride for a while, a fresh swarm is primed to make comb, and will gladly drink syrup to help them draw out foundation or even empty frames with starter strips. At the end of winter, before spring's warmth pushes the flowers up, I feed my hives pollen/protein supplement patties. This provides an early protein source before natural pollen is available. The protein is necessary to actually 'make baby bees', while the remaining honey stores and extra sugar syrup provide carbohydrates for the bees to eat and turn into heat as they need to warm the brood chamber in preparation for spring.

We also put lemon in the syrup (~ 1 ml lemon juice per liter). The lemon's acid helps keep the syrup from going 'sour'. There are many people who use cream-of-tartar to make 'invert sugar syrup' which is closer to honey's chemistry and easier for them to process. However, you have to be careful not to boil the syrup, or you will end up poisioning your bees.

wvbeekeeper d0t bl0gsp0t d0t c0m 2008/01/making-invert-sugar-syrup.html

>>482293
>>482298
>>482323

I have two copies of the imposing 'ABC-XYZ' tome, my father's original and new one as a gift from wifey. There is no doubt that its jam packed with wonderful bee-knowledge, but if you drop it on a newbee, you'll break their foot.

I suggest getting & reading at least one of the books you metion, or one of the following before you get started/invested:

'The Beekeeper's Handbook' by D.Sammataro and A. Avitabile
'The Backyard Beekeeper' by Kim Flottum
'Natural Beekeeping' by Ross Conrad
'Beekeeping for dummies'

These books provide an organic curriculum for someone interested in beekeeping, and are much more approachable and immediately useful to a newbee. I'd suggest getting your copy of ABC to XYZ late fall of your first year. This provides reading/reference material for the long winter you're going to spend planning for your girl's first spring of honey production. ABC-XYZ is a great way to get answers to questions that come up, and describes many different beekeeping practices which you might not otherwise know about or see demonstrated and explained.

As always, I'm going to shill for your local beekeepers association, who have experience and can tell you which practices work best in your unique environment. I'm not going to shill the book for Beekeeping in Ontario's winters to someone who's looking to start a hive in southern California, the locals know best.

>>476742

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=hive+beetle+trap

I've heard mixed results with the cloroplast/jewelcase traps, and nothing about the commercial 'hang-between-frames' traps that are filled with oil. There are also treatments that you spray on the ground _around_ the hive to keep the beetles out. Take a look at beesource for more options on how to deal with the little buggers.

>>478601

if your timing is right, you can split a strong hive going into it's 2nd year/1st-spring and get 2 new hives in addition to your original. Extra drawn frames are like gold, know when you can convince your girls to draw foundation or fresh comb, you'll be glad to have it when you start of a fresh split or need to anchor a swarm.

here's a shot of some burr comb my girls drew last summer when I left them too much space and not enough frames.... I felt so bad destroying their hard work... /cry/

>>478601
congrats on your first hive! I hope they like their new home! Show us some pictures once they start drawing comb, it's magical! Assume you're feeding them and will have a restrictor/net over the entrance for a few days? How did you get them, and from where? How much did they cost? How do they packages bees/nucs in Portugal? Let us know how it works out!

>>476731

you've got a few different things at play influencing swarm/colony nesting behaviors.
in most cases, a swarm will have sent out scouts to survey possible locations, and the scouts check out each other's finds, and come to a consensus on which one offers the best conditions. however, pheromones are a huge factor in bee behavior, and can effectively override the natural process.

swarms are attracted to the 'smell' of old/used brood comb. This is due to the pheromones which have impregnated the wax in the comb. Old hives without comb may also have enough residual bee-smell to attract a wild swarm.

there are also commercial swarm lures and a pretty good DIY formula. Most 'natural' swarm lures are based on lemongrass oil, however some supplement it with nasonov (queen) pheremone or other agents.

>>476146
whoohoo! positive feedback! thanks!
you've already done your homework, so you're ready to go, hooray!

It sounds like you've done the research into what's available locally and some nice tax deductions to help fund your hobby if you want to stick with it!. I'm sorry to hear that the multi-week course isn't a good option for you. I attended a bee-school (1 night a week x 3 months) for my region worcestercountybeekeepers dot com and they provided an _excellent_ introduction into the mechanics of beekeeping, our role as beekeepers, and how to understand what drives the behaviors of a colony. I took it more as a refresher-course, but the class was very informative for someone new to beekeeping. They also provided several opportunities to go out in an apiary and see what the inside of a hive looks like, and _sounds_ like. I hope that you are able to connect with some similar local resource, or get to know and learn from other beekeepers in your area. If you cannot meet with other beekeepers in person, then do so online, perhaps www.beeswales.co.uk or naturligbiodling.se are more your liking? take a look at plans for making a Top-bar hive. Find plans you can build with the tools you have access to and hop to it!
local beekeepers will be able to tell you how to get bees and what the remainder of your season will look like. Beekeeping forces some zen into your life and is rewarding in many ways, I hope you enjoy the magic of the hive as much as the rest of us beeks. Let us know if you put together a hive and get several thousand girlfriends of your own

>>476170
whooohoooo! congrats on capturing a swarm, nothing beats free bees! Where were they and how did you capture/transfer them? Is this your first swarm? how many hives do you have?

And here is a pic of a super I put on 2 weeks ago. they've already got it loaded about 1/2 full. no evidence of capping yet as it's been humid.

>>475811
...cont

and yes, bees have been cultivated and 'domesticated' over thousands years, but are still very resilient creatures. Let to it's own devices a wild swarm will send out scouts to find a new home that meets the needs of the colony. Assuming they can get established and put away enough stores for the winter, a wild hive may thrive and throw off multiple swarms to found new hives in a year or so; thus completing it's life-cycle. they've been doing this successfully for millions of years.

To address the issue of healthy vs bitchy bees, we've got all kinds of bee plagues out there, but we seem to bring them on our selves, and our bees... Don't get me started on the artificial-24-hour-ibiza-party-lifestyle of the tens of thousands of hives trucked around the country like a carnival in the name of commercial crop pollination.

If you really want to make your hive a naturally healthy self-sustaining colony with the best odds of survival:

A) be _very_ picky about your hive's location.
-Temp, Weather, wind, humidity, solar exposure in summer & winter.
B) Get locally bred queens or splits if possible
- i'm in the NE, but most packaged bee suppliers ship georgia-bred southern queens from gene-stock from a more temperate environment. I prefer locally bred queens that have survived winters with 3' of snow, and multiple thaw/freeze cycles.
C) Look into small-cell foundation if you're not going foundation-less
D) Think about getting two hives so if one dies you've got a backup. You can then pull frames with fresh eggs for splits/requeening. managing two hives isn't much harder than just one, and the benefits are huge.
E) Look at beesource.com to see how 'beekeepers' do stuff, and take a look at backwardsbeekeepers.com to see another perspective on it.
F) Get involved with your local beekeeper's association/4-H/apiary-inspector

any questions?

>>475811
...cont.

If you're interested in a garden hive, then there are plenty of neat things you can do to either 'dress-up' the hive and make it a beautiful focal point in the garden, or possibly camoflague it for safety/security. somewhere there is a hipster making a killing selling 'artisinal hand-crafted copper-roofed beehives'. Once again, you will need to determine the best location for a hive in your yard, based on neighboors, shade, weather, plantings, and access. I am currently a fan of using putting my hives on sturdy pallets to raise them off the ground. I've seen other folks put their hives behind trained ivy and or fences to hide the hives themselves and alter the bee's flight path to keep neighbors happy.

The only thing you still need to worry about 'buying' are the bees.
Once again, you can either test your luck with a swarm lure (if it's still swarming season wherever you are), get a split/nuc from another friendly local beekeeper, or see about purchasing a package of bees.
As always, I suggest that you get in touch with local resources, who may be more than willing to give you a swarm, or an extra split from an established bee-yard.

Langstroth frames, and thus hives, are the 'standard' for folks who want to extract honey with a 'centrifugal/radial extractor. If you end up with an abundance of honey in a TB hive, then you can remove a few frames and use the 'crush & strain' method to extract it. I always like comb honey, so I keep a few frames worth of cut-comb in the fridge for special occasions or deserts.

>>475811
whoohoo! some real interest!

if you're just looking for pollination and not focused on extracting honey, then a top-bar hive is a _great_ solution. As I'm sure you've found, you can DIY a top-bar much cheaper than buying, or even DIY'ing a Langstroth design. Top-bars are easy to manage, and a great way to get started. I would still suggest purchasing a proper veil/protective gear, a smoker, and a hive-tool.

Even if you don't plan on extracting honey, you really need to plan on doing at least a minimum of 'hive management' or you risk being caught unaware of problems in the hive.

This is often described as the difference between 'bee-keepers and bee-havers'. Bee-keepers try to stay aware of what's going on in the hives so they can pro-actively make changes to keep the hives happy and stable. A bee-haver will start a hive and 'have a beehive' until they miss the signs of swarming, or wax-moth, or VM, and suddenly find their hive dead and empty.

You can probably get away with peeking in on the hive every 2 weeks in the heat of the summer, and possibly every 6 weeks in the spring/fall. After you get familiar with the rhythm of a hive, it may be enough to just watch the entrance for a bit and then pry off the lid to peek at a frame.

If you are unwilling to take responsibility for your hive, like a pet, then you probably shouldn't invest the time, energy and money in starting one. A common nightmare for all beekeepers
is a well-intentioned 'bee-haver' who's unchecked hive develops foul-brood (a communicable disease) and infects all the other hives within several miles. At which point the local apiary inspector will end up having to put the torch to any infected hives, reducing seasons of work and managed bloodlines to a greasy plume of smoke.

>>470881
and yes. this... very this

>>470734
>>What happens if my neighbor is a large non-organic farmer?

it's entirely dependant on what pesticides are used, and when. There's also an issue in monoculture farming areas where you may find yourself surrounded by plants that your bees won't be able to pollinate/harvest. ie: wheat and corn do not meet the pollen/nectar needs of a beehive. however, I doubt few newbies would find themselves in a predicament like that. But, this is exactly why I suggest getting in touch with your local beekeeper's association, they'll be able to warn you of similar 'not on the radar' issues.

Once you've tasted local honey, then I guarantee you will never take 'retail' honey seriously again. For that matter, most of what you get in the supermarket isn't really honey, it's adulterated sugar-water from china, which has been filtered to remove all possible traces of pollen that provide a fingerprint identifying where it came. There's also the fact that most foreign honey producers are using horendous amounts of antibiotics and medications banned by the FDA. China had foul-brood issues a few years back and started pouring all kinds of unapproved meds into their hives. India is also a big producer, and has similar issues.

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/tests-show-most-store-honey-isnt-honey/

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/08/honey-laundering/

and don't get me started on Monsanto & RoundUp/Neonicinoids. You'll find out about that nasty clusterfuck soon enough if you get interested in beekeeping to any degree.

I forgot to mention that if you're looking into beekeeping purely based on getting honey, then you should know that you really don't harvest honey from a hive until it's 2nd season.
A new hive will need to expend most of it's effort on building the hive the first season, and while it will product some honey, you are best off leaving it on the live as stores for the 1st winter. An established hive in it's second year, or later, will produce considerably more honey; enough for you to harvest some and still leave them sufficient stores to overwinter.
If you're thinking about getting bees to get honey to make mead, then your best bet is to find a local beekeeper and buy your honey from him. This way you can make your mead this season, and find out how your new beekeeper buddy suggests you go about getting into the hobby. Ideally, you should join a local beekeeping club as they generally are an excellent resource for newbees, and will usually run several events a year that provide an opportunity to visit an apiary/beeyard/beehive and find out of the hobby really appeals to you before you invest several hundred dollars in a hobby that really doesn't 'pay-off' for at least a year.

FYI: I'm running 3 hives in the new-england area, and I pulled ~ 40lbs of honey from one of my robust hives last year, and I could very likely have gotten more if I'd been more hands-on in my hive management. My local mentor sells his honey for ~ $6-8/lb in some local stores, but I enjoy gifting/giving mine away to friends & family instead of getting into the retail/farmer's market end of things. While there is money to be made in honey, you have to understand the marketplace and who you're selling to.

I've been keeping bees for the past 3 years, getting back into it as an oldfag. Initially I helped my father manage 2-4 hive when I was atalented /diy/erteenager. If you're interested in beekeeping, I have to suggest that you go check out beesource.com and spend a day or so looking through their FAQs/beekeeping-for-newbies resources to get an understanding of the terminology and commitment required. Unless you are lucky enough to have a friendly local beekeeper willing to set you up with spare equipment and a colony/split/nuc, then you can expect to pay $200-400 for enough equipment to get established for your 1st year. Acquiring the bees themselves is another issue, as everything is tied to your local seasons/conditions.
1) take a look at beesource.com to get familiarized with what beekeeping really entails.
2) find out what local resources you have available (ie: local beekeepers/apiary-inspectors/mentors/local-beekeeping-club/4H/etc.)
3) decide if you really want to adopt a buzzing box of insects which could run you afoul of your SO/housemates/neighboors/laws
4) determine if you can reasonably expect to start a hive this season, or if the window of opportunity has closed (which really just gives you plenty of time to get stuff prepped for next year.)
5) impress all of your friends by casually mentioning how you risked death by sticking your hands into a buzzing box of angry bugs.

personally, I love the hobby and find the payoff in both materials (honey/wax/etc) and mental health (nothing develops zen-like focus like knowing that your mistakes will be repaid with angry stings).

and here's a pic of two hot underage chicks I was hanging out with last year in my backyard. My wife always said she wanted girls, just not 50 thousand of them...

one last bump before I let this die, along with my hopes for getting any other input from fellow beekeepers here in /diy/... see you in a few weeks.

any other questions on the general format? anyone? anyone have any questions?
...
bueller?
...
beuller?
...
beuller?

- you need equipment, some of which you can fudge, some of which you really should get through a beekeeping supplier. Find someplace local, or order online. Unless you're MacGuyver and know that your sewing stitches are bee-proof, then expect to spend $100 on some basics like a veil+hat, a smoker and a hive tool. this assumes you make your own hive bodies, and get a free swarm/split/hive. On the other hand, you could probably find a local beekeeping supply place (or online vendor) who can load up your car with 'the beginner's kit' with woodenware, frames, foundation, nails, protective gear, smoker & hivetool for $250-350/400. this doesn't include getting the actual bees.
- bees, when available, can cost $80-$100 for packages, and $100-150 for nucs. Queens for requeening/splits can cost $20-$35. Paying the horrendous shipping charges will hurt, but think about laughing at the USPS crew who cowered away from your buzzing shoebox of stinging bugs. who's the boss now, punks!

Basics:
- where to put a beehive (airflow, access, security, neighboors, flightpaths)
- how to setup hivestand/base/IPC, preparing to install bees
- installing the bees, or "why I made a box of buzzing insects very angry." - how will your queen get out?
- next 2-5 days, watch & wait, releasing the queen if necessary.
- what to watch out for, waiting a week before 1st inspection.
- what to look for at week 1 & week 2 inspections? inspections vs. leaving the hive alone
- learning the lifecycle of the bee, and why it's so important right now.
- roles/genotypes in the hive ; workers, drones, queen

- beekeeping is animal husbandry. A wild, beautiful, magical (& potentially dangerous) creature lives in that box. you need to learn how to take care of it and help the colony thrive. you will need to suit-up and go into the hives many/several times over the season.
- you will get stung, deal with it, the fringe benefits are awesome and totally worth it.
- You shouldn't plan on harvesting any honey in your first year of beekeeping. it doesn't 'pay-off' with honey until the 2nd season's harvest. If you want to make mead now, don't bother looking at beekeeping. find a local beekeeper, buy his product, and see if you want to get started as a beekeeper yourself.
- you _really_ should get in touch with other beekeepers in your area. your local beekeepers are a great resource of behavioral, seasonal, weather & blooming information that can help you anticipate the needs of your hives before things get critical. there is probably a bee-school or intro-to-beekeeping event in your area . All else fails, you can get an ok education online.
- there are _many_ different theories on bee management & methods. There are different, and sometimes opposed, views on how to handle different aspects of beekeeping. Look to others around you who are successful and start with the methods they use and have proven. Do your own investigation and take everything with a pinch of salt.
- genetic stock is also a factor, learn the temperment of your hives, and know where your queenstock comes from.
- beekeeping is _very_ dependant on weather and season. in most climates you will have a limited timeframe to start a hive in the spring so it will have time to prepare for the winter.
- Figuring out where and _WHEN_ you will get your live bees (ie:3# package, nuc, split or relocation) is probably more important than getting the woodenware. Alternately, you can hope for the best, put out your empty hive and user a swarm-lure, or try to get on the local 'swarm-list' in your area.

you just missed a previous thread which devolved into me promising to put together some kind of a beekeeping FAQ after the last 3 times someone brought the subject up.

here's the draft of the sylabuss & synopsis before breaking down the elements. ----

/diy/beekeeping/faq

another slanted recounting of different ways to get involved with beekeeping.
ask any 2 beekeepers one question and you'll get 3 answers.

keeping bees? WTF? I'm no Nicholas Cage?

beekeeping is an ancient form of animal husbandry that goes back more than 10,000 BCE. We have lived in harmony with the simple /Apis mellifera/ for thousands of years, and domesticated them for our benefit. More than 1/3rd of our foodstuffs are dependant on crops pollenated by bees. However, when most people think about bees, they think about honey, the golden natural sweetner. if you live in a temperate climate with a backyard/greenspace (and cool neighboors) you might well be able to keep a beehive or two, or more! This FAQ should be enough to help you figure out if you want to get into beekeeping and what it takes to get started. Please note, YMMV, please check with your local beekeeping association, both as a great source of good information, and as a connection to whatever inspectors/pest-control folks you might need to interact with.

ok! archive swarm is go! will produce the docs for the betterment of beeks everywhere. Anyone have immediate issues or questions? I'm in the NE with 2 strong hives that have overwintered well. looking to split my strong hive to stave off last year's swarm, which worked out very well.
I believe that our packages/nucs/queens from georgia were delayed until at least last week, again this year. Mother nature and lucky management gave me two strong hives and a nice surplus of honey to harvest. both hives look good. time to see what the second season with these two very differently tempered hives will bring. I hope to split for a friend or two, but not sure about how much I can expand without finding an out-yard...
Does anyone have some immediate questions? fellow beeks, sound-off? how do your ladies fare? will post gratuitous spring beehive pr0n if prompted. vaguely warm freshly hatched chicks, lots of 'em.