Quote:
Originally Posted by BigAsh
Intrigued...I like the "bee words" like "apiary"...I'm simple like that...Serious question: Is "honey" the point?...I like honey...and cake...
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Honestly, Grace & I were just looking for a low key hobby. Honey bees have always seemed interesting to me. The dynamic of the hive is fascinating. Add to it that it's an environmentally friendly endeavor. Honey bees are responsible for pollinating something like 70% of our food, and the bees are dying off for some reason. No more bees = way less food. If I can't have proper breakfast due to food shortages, you know that's going to be an issue, so I'm doing my very small part. The honey comes third. I'm actually most apprehensive about that piece of it. A healthy hive in ideal weather conditions can produce 120+ lbs of honey in a season. For perspective, a twelve ounce water bottle holds about a pound of honey. I don't have a strong desire to fill nearly a gross of bottles then figure out what the hell to do with them all. (On the plus side, honey does not go bad. It will crystallize when cold, but returns to it's gooey goodness when warmed.) In my reading, I came across a passage indicating people don't leave the hobby because of the bees, they leave because of the honey. So the short answer to your question, "is honey the point?" - I'd say no, at least for now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bonjing
Does the colony/hive eventually grow or outgrow their home?
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The hive definitely grows! I started with about 10,00 bees. (Actually 9,874 but I think I miscounted a few.) It takes 21 days to produce new worker bees, and the amount of hive growth depends on a number of factors: supply of resources - nectar, pollen, water and is there room to grow? If we have a poor spring (wet/cold) and flowers bloom late, the hive won't grow as quickly. But if resources are in abundance, the colony will grow in size. If I'm doing things correctly, I'll be monitoring this and adding a second box of frames to accommodate the growth. A typical two-box hive ultimately supports 40,000 - 50,000 bees. And if they continue to grow the colony, that's when you can potentially have them swarm; not in a horror movie kind of way, but literally the queen takes half the colony and swarms out to find new digs. The other half of the colony remains behind, and having lost their queen, the workers create a new one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 8lug
Vin,
Very cool, best of luck. When you expect to have a surplus of honey?
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With a brand new hive, it wouldn't be uncommon not to get much honey this year because the bees need to draw out all the comb for the new hive and fill their stores first. If we have a nice spring and a temperate summer, maybe we could see some excess late in the summer, but the key for us is making sure the bees are well stocked and fortified with a strong, healthy hive heading into the late fall because it's not unusual for beekeepers to lose 50% of their hives over the winter. That's fine, I guess, if you have 10+ hives. I just have one, so the bees eat first -- I can wait on the honey.
I am brand new to this and really just parroting back what I THINK know from the reading & research I've done as well as the 7-week bee class I attended. Yesterday was my first time do any of the stuff you see in the photos. Again, I THINK I'm doing things correctly, but if there are seasoned beekeepers here, it would be cool to hear from them.