Bees, wonderful bees!!

[lesa]

If I got 15 stings just standing near my bees, I wouldn't be a beekeeper much longer! I've been working our bees for a couple of years and not been stung once! True, I approach with caution and respect. We use the tractor around them all the time and usually have been working in the garden all day- so are anything but "freshly" showered!!!

 

[JimWWhite]

Re-Queening with an Italian Queen from a reputable source will probably help calm down your hive. I've spoken to people in our beekeeping association and they've told us that ex-feral bees do tend to be aggressive around their hives and that re-queening usually does the trick.

 

[JimWWhite]

If you got stung 15 times then I'll bet you were wearing a black shirt or jacket or something dark in color. Bees see black and they think 'Bear!!! Get 'em'! When we're working our hives we always, always wear white or light colors. That's why bee suits are always white. We've had our hive for a year now and we're about to set up 3 more when we get our new bees in late March. We harvested honey last fall and we've taken the hive all the way down to the hive body and have had 50,000 bees swarming all around us and neither of us has ever been stung even. Teresa has the only suit and she does most of the work but I'm close by handing her the tools and taking things away and they've never stung. I've gotten up close when she's working the hive with my camera and put the lens right inside the hive and still came away clean. Like someone else said, work slowly and carefully. Remember to wear white and for God's sake remember your best friend is your smoker.

 

[KevsFarm]

Thats a smart idea Ariel301 to consider re-queening and getting the beek who sold you the bees to work them with you.Some hives are just hot, and need to be requeened, they don't have to be Africanized...Yes, it was a little depressing losing my bees.I found someone near by who may have a couple 3lb. packages for sale.I'll just start over agian...
Hoodat, glad you got a good laugh about passing gas near beehives...! I swear it true...lol
Not sure exactly what i was wearing that day JimWWhite...i don't usaully wear dark clothes in the summer.Seemed to me, some days the girls were just a little ugly/moody....I've gotten stung several time rototilling my garden a good 100ft from my hives! I guess my Italians weren't the mellowist bees around..oh well, their gone now, maybe my next hives will be real darlings...

 

[JimWWhite]

We have our 2nd hive set up and ready to go. We're getting 3 packages of bees with a queen in each on April 9th from Brushy Mountain Bee Farms up in N. Wilkesboro, NC. These are 3 lb packages with about 12,000 bees as I remember. With the queen each package costs $80. Now I've got to get the other 2 hives built and painted.

I went out to the hive yesterday and they were coming and going very quickly. Many of those coming back in had their leg sacks filled with pollen. Must be the redbuds, poplar tulips, and whatever else is out there right now. We'll be going into the hive next month once it warms up nicely to see if they're making any queen cells. If they are it's a dead giveaway the hive may split and swarm so we'll have to be on guard and move them over to a new hive to head 'em off.

Hope no one minds reopening this thread...

 

[sunjoy]

Does anyone on this thread have experience in making cremed honey, I have some leftover honey 4 lbs. from this last summer and a jar of crystalized from the summer before? I want to creme this because some of it was not as dry as it should have been when we took it off and I figured this might help it!? :bee

 

[lesa]

Jim, glad your bees survived the winter and are already collecting pollen. We have our new hive built as well. Our bees have survived so far- but spring is still far away up here in NY. Keep us posted.
Sunjoy, I do not have any experience with creamed honey. If you want to re-liquify your crystalized honey- just put it out in the sun for an afternoon.

 

[lesa]

And "Welcome" sunjoy- just noticed that was your first post! Tell us about your gardens and bees!

 

[JimWWhite]

Does anyone on this thread have experience in making cremed honey, I have some leftover honey 4 lbs. from this last summer and a jar of crystalized from the summer before? I want to creme this because some of it was not as dry as it should have been when we took it off and I figured this might help it!? :bee

Yeah, welcome aboard!!! You'll find a lot of really helpful people here and a lot of great info for your gardening.

 

[Ga Chicken Mom]

Just read the whole thread and am interested in more thoughts on top bar hives. DH and I took a beekeeping class last month and didn't mention that we had purchased a top bar hive since there seems to be some prejudice toward them. One of the reasons for our choice was the ease of removing the frames to check the queen, brood frames etc. without removing heavy supers. The bee club is all about checking the bees at least once a week. Our main purpose is garden pollination and hopefully contributing to bee populations in our forest. Some honey would be an extra. Our understanding is that the spacing between the top bars discourages the bees from gluing the frames together with propolis. Well, the hive is set up and the bee package with an Italian queen is arriving in mid April. Wish us luck.