Honey Bees

giggles26 said:

Lol ya I feel ya, I don't care for wasps either. I've been stung one to many times to care for them. I have to kill hundreds of them every year at my place. My best child hood friend got stung like 5 or 6 times once. I remember it we were at his house and they had a wood gate to their backyard and we were walking in and I saw it the moment we walked up to it and I was like ah fuck this I'll go the other way and he decided to go that way and well long story short he got stung multiple times in the neck...

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Damn, that's no good. On anyone getting stung in the neck is no joke. My sister got stung in the throat when she was a kid, like she swallowed a bee that was in her drink I think. I remember I was at the pool once just by myself, and this group of kids were laughing at their buddy because he had some "shit" on his back. He asked me if he did. He had a big red wasp on his back and it was literally like 1.5" long. It must have just stung him because he was bleeding. This kid was freaking the F out after that. I told him it was a big ass bee but at that point it was too late. I think it was a cicada killer bee or whatever. I see them sometimes around here.

new hobby=

wow....ouch

Let us know if you get any. I was thinking about getting some also when more of my landscaping is done and I have more flowers to keep them around.

My neighbor has an orchard and raises bees so for now we barter with him for honey but it'd be nice to have my own.

My great uncle used to keep bees. One time when I was over there he was like "wanna take some home w/ya?" I was like 10 years old and always catching bugs and critters and bringing them home as "pets". So I was like sure. I watched this crazy old coot walk up to the hive, bees coming and going he squatted down and waited. Then he reached up and caught one w/his bare hand and put it in a lil' box. He did this a few more times and came back smiling. He never got stung once. I was in awe.

Well as it turns out he was waiting for a drone to land and those were the ones he caught. They don't have stingers he told me. 25 some odd years ago and I remember like it was yesterday.

hornedfrog2000 said:

id fightem. did you even try to stand your ground? Bees can smell fear, if you stand up to them they won't sting you.

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Not true, they will still sting you.
Stay calm, yes, but they will still sting you.

One of my good friends is a commercial bee farmer. He gets stung all of the time.

If you kill one, you will attract more. You have to expect to get stung.
They will land on you and crawl all over you, but if they feel threatened
in any way they will get you.

Well update got my New queen with a few workers a couple of days ago , today she made her way out of the little box she came in,So colony and queen happy in there new enviorment.

There is a interesting video by John Kohler on YouTube about organic beekeeping
search his channel growinyourgreens.com

I'll forewarn you,it does plug this woman's book a couple times but there is a lot of good information in the video otherwise.

Took care of some once on a co-op..they're really cool as long as you know wtf you're doing, it's pretty easy though, just read up a bit.

neosapien said:

I think I want to keep some bees. Since they're all dying. Plus fresh honey would be dank. I have a nice little wooded area next to my place that would work good I think. Any beekeepers out there or anybody thinking of trying it?

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I was a bee keeper for 3 years. This is my advice from keeping bees in Canada.

- Make sure you have lots of space, you dont want bees near the house. I lived on a 100 acre farm, so there was lots of room for the bees to roam.
- A good smoker is key. It confuses the bees so they dont attack you. If you master the smoker, then you might not even need a suit.
- Hive tool is essential.
- Not sure what mites or worms are in your region, but you will probably need some chemicals to prevent your hives from dying.
- My boxes were 2 brood on the bottom and 2-3 honey boxes on the top. I also used a queen blocker between the brood and honey boxes.
- You will need an extractor for the end of the season or rent one.
- Expect to get stung sometimes.
- If you already have a strong queen, check for queen brood growing in the hive and kill any you see. Only one queen can be in a hive at the same time or else they will kill each other or worse leave the hive with a swarm.
- If you live in the north or get snow, then you need to insulate the hives in the winter time.

Thats all I can think of now. If you have any problems feel free to PM me.