When I called the town code enforcment officer he said that I need to have at least 3 acres of land. I have 1 acre property. This is Southington, CT.
Bee Keeps?'s
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Had the local bee Keeper bring me our first hive last year.. they fed on Golden Rod as my 50 apple trees lost their buds in a late frost last year.. I can tell you the honey was out of this world... Very cool extraction was used as to not kill the enzymes in the honey... We sold every jar that we wanted to give up... plus we left plenty for the bees to have for the winter over... Now we are thinking of going big with the bees... I'm going to learn more from my bee keeper friend this year... He's up there in age so I want to learn everything I can.. Nicest easy going guy you'd ever meet... loves his bees... He just wears a head Vail and that's it... He said the bee's can tell if your afraid or not.. He rarely gets stung.. He's got some big equipment from his heavy production days.. I'm going to see if he will part with some down the road... I face my bees to the south and they have shelter , a hedge row on the West side, prevailing winds here,, plus I put straw bales around the hive for the winter leaving the front open.. They were out the other day when it was 50 degrees.. Oh yeah,, never stand in the entry way, front of the hive,,, first thing I was told.. That's a sting area... Best time to work on the hive,,, when it's hot out and they're busy,,, then they're doing their own thing not sitting inside ....I thought just the opposite when it would be cool..
I let a guy put a couple hives on my land. They stayed there until one hive swarmed. Had a hell of a time getting them back. Then they had mites, then just died off. The owner got old and stopped his bee activity. If you have an experienced person available, stick to him like glue. You will learn how to handle them. I swear my garden was better when we had a bee hives.
When I built my TBH I used small triangular shaped pieces of pine on the bottom of the oak bars. There were many ways to promote the hive construction, but that pine idea worked just fine. Tacked them in with a small brad nailer and did nothing else. They built quickly and straight off those guides. You making a queen limiter for this?
Dont sure what that is. I have sections to choke down the area they can work? Starting with 5 bars.
Queen limiter will disallow the queen entry to part of the hive. What that does is create a "honey storage" only area. That makes life easier for you if and when you harvest the golden syrup. It can be a simple plywood fin that fits to very tight tolerances on all sides (-1/16, my guess) and has a slot that is large enough for worker bees, but too small for the queen. The workers will be aware of her inability to access that portion of the hive and will only use if for honey. Your plans should have a solid bottom and screen bottom. Use the screen bottom except during hibernation/cold climate periods. The screen will allow the mites that the bees shed to fall out of the nest. If the bottom is solid, the mites will be picked up by other bees crawling along it. Bear in mind that everything you put together willl be sealed by the bees with a glue like substance. That makes swapping the bottom difficult unless you design an add-on solid piece for the off season.
Yes, I have two of those (Queen limiter ). Yes the screen is order and on its way(One piece of gutter guard) . Just not good with bee lingo yet. I will post pic's as get things done let me know what you think. There going to be here next Tuesday (I took it off) so there no turning back now.
Its 42 inch's long and the roof will be 48 inch's with a peak.
Did the UPS man punt them off the truck? As for advice, Dont drink any beer until you get them inside!
No, in all reality, I would consider giving them some sugar water to feed on due to the lack of anything activly growing around here yet. Thats all the advice I got for ya!
Dont drink until you get them inside!
She is spraying them with sugar water every couple hours(There still in the create)
. I will finish the feeder to night and will feed at-least through April. The no beer thing Not going to happen!
I got home at 7:15 and decided I better run through the instructions again. Glad I did........Setting up for this evening. Weapons two spray bottles one with sugar water the second with liquid smoke!
This one about 15 mins ago............Two days after install!
And i am going in after dark to make sure the queen is out of the box.
I had to check on the queen still not sure if shes alive. I went in once at about 3:00 pm and they where out in full force and I back down. Didnt use any smoke they only been in there for 2 days. Next time I will but hope thats a couple weeks down the road. Queen box is diffidently open but there is 5-6 dead bees in there done that look like a queen. Got my fingers crossed to say the least.
The guy helping me uses a smoker as well,, uses a piece of burlap and dried up grass for the smoker.. He keeps a little bag of dried grass together for the smoker fuel. He just wears a Vail and that's it, short sleeve shirt. Amazing , I think the bees know he not afraid to get stung... First time he was checking my hive I got stung...nothing for him... guess they're breaking me in
The guy helping me uses a smoker as well,, uses a piece of burlap and dried up grass for the smoker.. He keeps a little bag of dried grass together for the smoker fuel. He just wears a Vail and that's it, short sleeve shirt. Amazing , I think the bees know he not afraid to get stung... First time he was checking my hive I got stung...nothing for him... guess they're breaking me in
Well I went in 2 times with the short sleeve shirt no smoke on vail and one sting.....Not the smartest thing I have done but just shear fear that i cant find the queen.
Well I went in 2 times with the short sleeve shirt no smoke on vail and one sting.....Not the smartest thing I have done but just shear fear that i cant find the queen.
Queens are cheap if you gotta buy another....at least its early. See any queen cells? (probably too early for it but you never know) Read this.....VERY informative. (broken link removed to http://www.wbka.com/pdf/a012queencells.pdf)
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