OT - Any Bee Keepers Here? - OT

butt_juice

@Kayak the first resource online that I found suggested to get two hives and go full on "treatment free" That was not good advice for starting out. I found the links that @alaskanassasin posted to be very helpful and practical for starting out. I plan to use comb to make some products for home and for my wife to make some products. I don't want to use control methods that would contaminate the wax/honey. It's good to learn that there are products to control Varroa which leave no residue in the hive. Sounds like with proper management one can have both a healthy hive and bee-byproducts that remain uncontaminated as well. 

alaskanassasin

@Kayak I am not sure about your neighbors goal but it is close to impossible to claim you have "organic" if produced in the USA, there are just too many bad things our bees can get into and carry back to the hive. I don't think the USDA has any Certified Organic honey producers.

Kayak

His only goal is to get honey for personal use. "Organic" is a cachet that most people imagine is better for them and the environment, so that's what they want.

butt_juice

@alaskanassasin agreed, you would have to own a very large ranch and have the 4 or 5 mile radius around apiary be certified organic property. Even then, things drift in that would contaminate. Definitely is more of a word used falsely for advertising purposes, rather than accurately defining a product. 

alaskanassasin

@butt_juice all the honey I harvest is taken from the supers and they are removed during application. Regardless of what the label says. 

  If you want good comb honey the idea is for the wax to be really fresh and recently drawn. In order to do that remove a frame from a super strong hive that has almost filled a super during a flow. Drop a foundationless frame or a comb honey specific frame like Ross rounds. Hopefully they will have it drawn and capped in a week or two and you have good stuff. Don’t use foundation.

   Everything mentioned above is just my opinion there are endless ways to keep bees and nobody knows everything about them. Heck only in the last few years did a researcher realize that varroa is feeding on the bees fat bodies not the blood that everyone thought was their food source for decades. 

  Ask two beekeepers the same question and you will get three answers 

butt_juice

@alaskanassasin do you use foundation in your brood boxes? They guy I bought my equipment off of included a bunch of it for frames. He has some nice one or two year old drawn comb on foundationless frames too that I thought about using in my brood box to help them out getting started. After reading the links you provided earlier, I will check the used comb for any previous signs of disease...I obviously don't want to be introducing anything negative to the hive right off the bat. I think having some nice clean and drawn comb will help them out on year one though. 

alaskanassasin

I use wired wax foundation in almost all my frames.  Some brood frames I have dropped in with a starter strip and let them draw it out especially on a strong hive I am robbing brood or something from. 

    If you do foundation less frames be sure and put them between drawn frames or the bees will draw them however they see fit and it can turn into a huge mess.
   For supers I will do a few foundation less frames for comb honey but the majority will be wired simply because most extractors use centrifugal force to extract and you will want the extra support. 

 If you have good drawn frames you can drop into a new hive that is a huge head start, they will clean them up in a day and the queen can start laying immediately 

butt_juice

@alaskanassasin awesome. Yup I should have specified that these frames have a vertical wire spaced every couple of inches for added support of the drawn comb, not sure if they had a wax foundation or not. That is what I was planning on using. I'm not sure if there is was foundation in the stuff I bought. I believe the majority were wax dipped plastic foundations. Thanks again. 

alaskanassasin

butt_juice said:

@alaskanassasin awesome. Yup I should have specified that these frames have a vertical wire spaced every couple of inches for added support of the drawn comb, not sure if they had a wax foundation or not. That is what I was planning on using. I'm not sure if there is was foundation in the stuff I bought. I believe the majority were wax dipped plastic foundations. Thanks again. 

 Typically  “wired foundation” has crimped wires running vertically in the frame. Some beekeepers will run wire horizontally across a frame for extra support
   I have never used plastic frames but I know a lot of people do.

MaskedMarvel

I’ve Been keeping backyard hives for a number of years now.  

The adage  of two beekeepers giving three answers is really true. 

Varroa destructor, wax moths, hive beetles, trachea mites... hell - BEARS.. the list of chances working against honey bees is extensive. 

A recent report announced there are no more true feral honey bee hives in the United States. :(

And: One out of every three bites of food you put in your mouth are because of bees and pollinators. 

.... I haven’t ever used any synthetic treatments in my hives and they have survived. I practice “Integrated Pest Management” and feed sugar water right in the hives with organic essential oils. Wintergreen, thymol, etc etc.. works for me. If I’m going to run a honey super  I’ll stop the feeding. 

I powder the ground under the hives with diatomaceous earth (DE) regularly, and run open screened bottoms when it’s warm. 

I’ve caught a few swarms, and only one has been easy. The adrenaline rush makes me look forward to the next one I stumble across. I’ve had hives swarm, and it is DRAMATIC when they get moving. 

.....I’m starting to agree that a major strength factor for your hives will be to put them in a place where they’ll get the most direct sunlight possible. The hives I have in more sunlight are more active and more productive, and have far less hive beetles (a major problem for me this year, for some reason). 

.....

gentle bees are marvelous. You can literally pet them. I’m one of those folks that is getting more and more allergic each time I get stung (epipen ready from now on), so staying careful is key. But peaceful
gentle Hives are wonderful. They can really turn your day around. 

— however you do your hives, my best advice would be to do them because you want bees to survive first, and because you want honey last. Professional bee keepers lose a high percentage of their hives every year, and they rely on bees to feed their families. 

Hope it helps! Ask away if there’s anything you need! 
8-D