New Hobby: Bee Keeping

[massphatness]

Originally Posted by OLS

I almost think that you should just let them keep all their honey, at least to the point where you end up with more
than one hive. Then maybe start taking some for daddy. I don't know if anyone really knows just how to keep the
bees around forever when they can't figure out what's really going on yet. In any case, you are a guy that goes over-
board to be kind, I am sure it will work out.

From my as yet very limited understanding of honey bee dynamics, bee keepers are taught to only harvest the excess honey. There's not a "brood hive" and a separate "storage hive" -- if I have two hives, I potentially end up with 2X the honey. I'm nowhere near the point where I want to manage two hives, although some instructors recommend starting out with two because it can be easier to deal with problems in one hive if you have a second. But I'm going with one for the time being. I don't want so many bees that icehog won't set foot in New England much less Mass.