My sweet adventure...into beekeeping

[seedywen]

Have wanted to learn how to make wine and keep honey bees for years.

Last fall I made the first wine and this summer, my sweet adventure begins:)

Maybe some posters are experienced and can add to this thread from time to time. Maybe newbies like me, might use the thread to ask questions.

As mentioned on another thread, I'm learning from an experienced bee-keeper, which is great! As we're going through the process step by step through the season, and it's making the endeveavor much more achievable than if I was to attempt this adventure on my own.

Since two acres of my farm is electrically fenced plus my gardens are full of nectar rich plants, my beeguy was interested in the location. He's also a retired teacher, who's taken up full-time gardening and keen to turn as many people on to beekeeping as possible. We've already been working together on various seed-saving projects, Seedy Saturday over the past few years and a film this summer

But I digress. Back to the bees.

In early June, beeman brought a new hive to my farm. My job was to give them a Mason jar of concentrated sugar water every 3-4 days until the natural nectar flow got really going. It's been an unusual wet, cool spring so many plants, shrubs and trees are several weeks behind their usual performance.

Yesterday, beeman came back with another super to add to the hive. After removing the lid, the bees were gently 'smoked' and several of the trays already thick with brood were pried out of Box #1 and placed into the second super. Several empty trays were then placed in the bottom super. He got me to try to spot the 'Queen'.

The bee with the big butt?

So it looks like the hive is settling in nicely.

A huge Acacia about 100' away from the hive is just done two weeks of blooming. Beeman says next year, we'll extract some honey at this time, to see what Acacia honey is all about.

[mickey]

I haven't seen a bee for two years or better. but I haven't sit out in the garden looking for them ether. A guy i used to work with got into bee keeping but he lives to far away from me now. I hope they find out why the bees are disappearing. I wish you luck in your bee keeping.

[mnjrutherford]

Acacia honey is lovely. Wanna know my fav honey? Poison oak... I've only known a single keeper that ever extracted it. It's the palest amber and the flavor is light as a feather, delicate like the last days of sunshine on a clear spring day. VERY spensive!

[raymondo]

I'm hoping to follow a similar path. There's a guy in town, very experienced with bees, who runs workshops from time to time. I did a hive building workshop with him some time back. We built Warré hives or a variation thereof. I have to finish mine off before spring to be ready should there be a suitable swarm. Looking forward to it and looking forward to hearing more of your bee adventures seedywen.
Don't think we have poison oak here but we sure have plenty of acacias. I have four in my yard.

[seedywen]

raymundo, I'm a fan of growing black locust for other reasons too.

And lately, found a thread on a permaculture forum called, 'All Things Black Locust' which provided even more information about this tree.

www.permies.com/bb/index.php?topic=4078.0

Good luck with your own bee-keeping adventures.

[seedywen]

While waiting for the bees to arrive in June, I interplanted some plants, specifically with their nectar needs in mind. Chief among these, was buckwheat between seven 50 foot rows of corn.

However the cool temps allowed the buckwheat to flourish, the corn, not so much making me Do I go with the corn or the buckwheat as the primary crop? Or let the two species duke it out?

As an early experiment I had cut some of the buckwheat down and left as mulch between several corn rows. However it failed to suppress the weeds and two weeks later, there was a serious 'hoe-down'!

With the remaining stands of buckwheat now coming into flower, nearly overshadowing the corn, I walked between the rows, gently pressing down each stalk close to the ground filling both the rows themselves and the gaps between the corn plants. This way, am hoping that the buckwheat continues to flower and draw the bees, while the corn grows higher.

And the buckwheat continues as a covercrop that effectively crowds out other weeds which it was effectively doing for the past weeks.

Meanwhile the blackberries in the surrounding hedgerows, forests are blooming madly. Red balm has recently joined purple buddelia and a host of other bee plants in blooming profusion. Hoorah!