Thinking about beekeeping

[mbrown]

I have been thinking about beekeeping as a hobby. My deceased father-in-law kept bees for about fifty years.

Does anyone know of a good book for a beginner.

Mike

[downinmyback]

This is not a book title but the channel RFD (Rural Free Delivery) has a hour a week on beekeeping. IIt is on my Direct Satellite but i think it is also on most cables company now. I have watched the show and do not plan on keeping bees as it is that interesting. Hope this helps

[Alan]

I didn't know RFDTV had a show about bee keeping, i'll have to check that out. My father and I like the Classic Tractors show and the show about Steam Engine trains.

[mbrown]

Thanks for the info about RFD TV. Did not realize they have a beekeeping show.

Mike

[hoosierheightsfarm]

I've been thinking about bees too. I was reading online about them lastnight. My wife saw and said "No way". I told her they didn't have to be in the house.

There used to be a hive in my grandparents house. When my sister and her husband were refurbishing the house they had a guy come and collect the bees and honey.
He was an old man, he lived near us. I think he might have died. I'll go check with his family.

I remember seeing those bees swarm once. It was quite a sight.

Patrick

[doccat5]

We also have been thinking about getting into bee keeping and I'll check out that satellite site. Thanks

[cff]

Painfully Easy

[Alan]

Wow! Nice swarm and absolutly beautiful pics of those bees, sorry I missed this post before, I think that is a beautiful sight right there, at least in my opinion.

[sandbar]

When it comes to bees, CFF has a lot of wisdom on that subject. I've enjoyed his past posts on this subject.

[cff]

I'm just a hobby beekeeper, My grandpa got me started with two hives and after he past away I inherited about 20 hives from his farm. I soon found out I didn't know a lot about beekeeping without grandpa standing there offering his advice.

I count myself very lucky because I have had the pleasure of meeting several beekeepers with 50+ years of experience when I really needed a helping hand. Currently I maintain about 100 hives of Russian bees.

Anytime I meet someone with 50 + years of experience at anything I want to find a chair and take notes

sandbar said:

When it comes to bees, CFF has a lot of wisdom on that subject. I've enjoyed his past posts on this subject.

[sandbar]

You really like the Russians, don't you? I've heard they have a much gentler temperament than the Italians. Is their honey production comparable?

Also, if you have an Italian-queened hive, can you successfully replace her with a Russian queen? If that does work, will I have to provide a bi-lingual translator for the workers ...

Also, do you re-queen your hives every other year?

[cff]

The Russians I'm using are very easy to work with, and do seem to be as productive as any race of bee I've had in the past.

When you change the race of bee while re-queening the hive it can be a little more difficult. Its almost always successful if you follow these steps.

1. Day one remove the old queen, in the spring look careful, I've seen the queen and her daughter in the same hive laying on the same frames, one will become a swarm queen later so check every frame even if you think you've already killed the old queen.

2. Day three return to the hive and search for queen cells (remove all of them) then place your new queen cage in the hive with (both cage corks still intact)

3. Day six remove the cork from the candy end of the cage and check a second time for queen cells that may have been missed on the first inspection (don't poke any holes in the candy end of the cage).

4. Day eight check the cage; the queen should be out, if not lift the wire screen and let her walk into the hive.

I normally have 100% acceptance using this method, I do hear about a lot of lost queens who are place in the hive the same day the old queen is removed with a hole in the candy end of the cage.
Don't get in any hurry and you'll find it easy to change races, bi-lingual translator aren't necessary. In just a few weeks she'll teach them all a new language

When I do my hive inspections I check the brood nest to see how productive the queen is, if the brood nest has a quality amount of brood I don't consider replacing the queen. Right now I have some fore year old queens that are just as productive as any.

If I think the queen is failing to be as productive as the rest of the hives in that area I mark the hive with a stick pen. I raise a lot of queens so on the next inspection if the hive still doesn't look up to par I'll add two ripe queen cells and remove the old queen. Age is not as important as productivity, I've seen young queens fail sitting beside 4 year old queens. As long as she doing a good job she has a home.

sandbar said:

You really like the Russians, don't you? I've heard they have a much gentler temperament than the Italians. Is their honey production comparable?

Also, if you have an Italian-queened hive, can you successfully replace her with a Russian queen? If that does work, will I have to provide a bi-lingual translator for the workers ...

Also, do you re-queen your hives every other year?

[cff]

Tee shirt / no bee hat / no gloves and both hands full of bees.

Nice bees

sandbar said:

You really like the Russians, don't you? I've heard they have a much gentler temperament than the Italians.

[sandbar]

Wow, that beats the living tar out of sweating like a pig in my bee keepers garb ...

So, do you sell queens?

[cff]

Everything but the wife/kids and farm is for sale here

But just shoot me a PM this spring and I send you a few to test drive free of charge.

sandbar said:

Wow, that beats the living tar out of sweating like a pig in my bee keepers garb ...

So, do you sell queens?