Honey Bees

[BigCountryQ]

The wife and I decided to be beekeepers. We're starting out small this year with just 2 hives. We're really enjoying it and having a great time. Does anyone else here keep bee's? I'd love to chat about bee's / bbq / homebrew as it relates to fresh homegrown honey.

Here's our setup


and here's the queen bee from the hive on the left. If you look closely, you can also see her eggs in each of the cells.

[smokin fool]

Congrats.
Bee Keeping is a dying art.
With the way Honey Bees habitat is being wiped out you may be on a wave of the future.

[Attjack]

My sister has bees. There's a bee guy she knows that keeps bees in people's yards. He comes and tends the hives and splits the honey with homeowners.

[ComfortablyNumb]

I'm taking a course by the Inland Empire Beekeepers Association in Spokane. Mrs. Numb said no bees this year, however I have the green light for next. Accomplished homebrewer as well, but haven't had time to do it in years. Hoping to fix that soon.

BTW, I started a thread 'To bee or not to bee' earlier this year, try to find it as a few members said there they keep bees.

[Donw]

We use too but moved to an area where weekly mosquito spraying is a fact of life, and a necessity.

[RonB]

First thought: Yer gonna need a really tiny rotisserie to smoke them buggers.

It's neat that you are doing this. We need more beekeepers. You might want to put a cinder block or something heavy on top to keep critters out. I have heard that raccoons love honey.

[TheQuietOne]

We work on habitat for native bumblebees and blue orchard bees. No honey, but lots of pollination for our fruit trees and lots of relaxing times watching bumblebees on our native plants.

[IowaGirl]

I have three top bar hives and have kept bees for over 5 years. I can say it is WAY more economical to buy honey from other local beekeepers, but the hobby is interesting. I love the warm hive smell as the odor wafts over my yard at the end of a hot day.

[gcdmd]

I had several hives, including an indoor observation hive, years ago when I was stationed in San Antonio. I had to sell them when I got transferred and never got back to it when I returned to Texas after getting discharged. It was a lot of fun, though.

[Scott H]

I used to have a couple of hives, but I Lost them to mites one year and got to busy at work to get back into it. A lot of fun, but not the cheapest hobbie i ever had!

[RichieB]

I would like to have bee hives. But like bird feeders black bears will look at it as a smorgasbord of fine dining. Had bird feeders. A 450ish lbs. male black bear last year year bent a feeder pole like it was taffy and consumed any food on the pole. I do have pictures and video. I'll pass them along. Should be tomorrow.

A neighbor still had feeders out until early this week. Posted a video that a male feasting on their feeders. No more feeders.