So I guess I'm the forum's resident beekeeper, which is pretty cool, except I had a bit of a scare today. A neighbour came over and said my bees were swarming and were making them nervous, which filled me with "OHNO" feelings. So I went over to my neighbour's, and sure enough, there was a large swarm about 40 feet up in one of their trees. Went back, checked on my hive, determined the swarm was not my bees, as my hive was full. Called around to try to find a ladder for getting the bees out of the tree, so I can collect them and start another hive and so the neighbours won't be nervous. THEN, another neighbour comes over and reports another swarm. It's a small swarm, and easy to get to, but I don't have the equipment at the moment to deal with two swarms. Also, did I mention this is my first swarm removal?
sorry if my questions are dumb, but what are some of the benefits of having a hive? i honestly don't know much about bees other than the sneaking suspicion that all the "bees are evil" talk is a bunch of hooey. how would you move a swarm? is it safe for the bees? is it safe for you? other than the nervous neighbors, would you usually move a nest (i'm sort of assuming that's what they're doing) or leave it alone? i don't mean to throw a bunch of questions all at once, i just think bees are cool and want to learn as much as i can!
OOoooh, bees! My sister is a colossal bees nerd, so I've picked up some stuff secondhand (mostly manipulating hives via comb and cool emergent-properties stuff).
Hmmm, lemme see if I can answer your questions. I've only been beekeeping for about a year, so even if I don't know the answers, research will give me more experience. A swarm is usually removed using a modified vacuum (modified because high power vacuums will hurt the bees) that gently sucks them all up into a chamber, where they can be transported and placed into a new hive. However, the mini swarm we dealt with tonight (we only took care of the one so far) we just clipped the small branch they were on into nuc box and brushed them off into the box. We need to build actual hive boxes for them to be in. Okay so. Swarming isn't necessarily what people understand it as. It's not when they go into attack mode and chase people around. Swarming is a word used to describe the actions of a hive when it splits. If a hive gets too big and there's not enough room to accommodate, or if there are multiple queens the hive will swarm, either in search of a new queen, or to establish their relationship with a queen. That said, swarms are, well. Pretty safe? Like depending on what stage of swarming they are in. You can usually judge by activity. But most sources will tell you that when bees are swarming its the most docile they're going to be. I am guessing its because they don't have as strong a bond to a queen yet, so they don't get too up in arms to defend her? I actually dealt with mini swarm without a suit on, and was going to wear a veil, just to appease my da, but I took it off. So I dealt with them wearing only gloves. I'll probably suit up for godzilla swarm though. Beekeepers like to be called to deal with swarms, because then they can adopt those bees. And more bees= more honey. Problem is, you can't just throw strange bees from a swarm into an existing hive, so you have to establish a new hive, which is a bit of work.
We didn't make it to godzilla swarm in time. They flew away and found a new home on their own. Mini swarm is doing okay, we're going to put them in what would have been the second super on our primary hive. We just need to build a top and bottom bit for the hive. I guess it pays to have these things built in advance. I'd just go buy the needed hive parts at the local IFA, but theirs are kind of shoddily made.
Do swarms like that generally come from some beekeeper's overpopulated hive? And does the new one you just adopted have a queen?
I'm gonna tell you a secret and that is: I SUCK at finding queens. Like really, really suck at it. I haven't seen the queen for my original hive since she came in her little queen cage a year ago. I've tried to find her a several times, but yeah. I mean my hive hasn't collapsed so obviously she's still there. Next time I actually have to buy a queen I'm going to either buy her marked or mark her before releasing her into the general populace because damn. Anyway I am going to assume there's a queen there until proven otherwise on this venture, because honestly, they were basically effortless and didn't cost any money at all to obtain. If, in some way I am proven wrong and there isn't a queen, and they miraculously don't all fly away before I can get one, I'll spend the 40 or so dollars on one. But there's some big ifs. Possibly? I mean, swarms don't usually happen very far from their original colony, and we don't know of any beekeepers besides us in the neighbourhood, but we're not incredibly social either. Also I think I read somewhere that most honeybees are cultivated rather than wild nowadays. *Shrug*
How much time/effort does it take to raise bees? Ive been thinking about wanting to raise them, but between the baby and the dog...well.
Bees are pretty self sufficient, so basically, you put as much time as you want into taking care of them. They're a little more effort in the spring/fall, because making sure they've survived the winter and harvesting honey are bigger tasks. But if, say, you're out gardening anyway, I wouldn't say it takes a lot of extra time during the rest of the year. My friend Joe, who helped me get started with beekeeping, has his hives at his parents' house and he only checks on them like once a month. I'm a little more... I don't know the word. But I like to go out fairly often, just to hang out with them, listen to them buzzing, watch their silly antics. It's calming.
So, my original hive (henceforth called hive Alpha) actually DID split today. Ugh. Luckily neighbors saw what was going on and came and got me, but I couldnt do anything in time and they ended up swarming. In really inconvenient places, the place where the hose rolls up and the gutter. I got them all out of the trees and gutter by myself but had to wait for my da to come home to get them out of the hose roll. He stopped by IFA on the way home and bought a hive box so we just quickly put them directly in there. Not sure on the queen situation for these ones since they seemed to be breaking into multiple swarms, but we'll keep an eye on them. Hive Beta (mini swarm from earlier in the thread) seems to be doing okay.
How safe is it to keep bees if you're allergic? (I have a fairly mild allergy and thus would have probably half an hour to get to the hospital) What kind of setup do you have? Like, aside from the hive boxes - do you have a fairly large garden? How far afield do the bees generally go?
Are you familiar with the flow frame thingie? I've seen it go around on tumblr with both positive and negative comments on it (and a lot of claims on both sides), and don't really know how the whole thing holds up.
I wouldnt recommend keeping bees if allergic. I've never been stung, but it's still risky. I guess if you were allergic and still wanted to keep bees, then wear a suit whenever you plan on visiting your bees. And carry a pen. Bees are generally very peaceful, but accidents happen, so. As far as Flow hives are concerned- they're an interesting concept, for sure! Harvesting honey is a lot of work, and it does disrupt the hive. I'd like to try the Flow hive out, so I can decide for myself about it, but unfortunately they're at a stage of production where it's kind of expensive. Plus they ship from Oceania. So costs would add up, and at this time I'm not prepared for that kind of investment.
Where did you buy your initial bees and equipment? How much does it generally cost to get started in beekeeping? How does one identify a reputable bee seller?
I got the bees through Intermountain Farmers Association (IFA), which is a chain of farm supply stores. I had to order them through them in the early spring last year and then they called when they arrived at the store a few weeks later, where I picked them up. The bees themselves cost around 15o USD, I think, with the queen and a few frames full off eggs already laid. I think without the booster eggs it would have been $130 Most basic beekeeping kits will include a bee brush, a hive tool (kind of a pry bar type thing), and a smoker. Then you will also need a bee suit, including gloves. And then there's the hive itself. A full Warre hive is composed of 4 boxes, with usually 10 frames per box. The bottom two boxes and the top two need to be separated with a queen separator. (the queen stays in the bottom 2 boxes and lays eggs, the top two, the supers, are where we get our honey.) The bottom of the hive is usually a type of screen to keep out predators, has a slit in the bottom for bees to come in and out. The top of the hive needs to be made of some weatherproof material to keep the elements out. Normally equipment + bees is around $300 but we shopped around and also had materials to build our own hive boxes. Honey extraction equipment is separate from startup costs. I'm not sure on prices for those things just now, but I can go into it later if you like. I guess as goes with any big project, a lot of research is involved. You talk to a lot of people who have experience, you look into things online, before you make your decision. In the process you network and get to know the people, what they do, what their specialties are.
From what I was reading, the worries about that flow hive are (1) that it makes it easy to take too much honey from the hive; (2) that it means that, since you don't have to open up the hive to get honey, the condition of the bees doesn't get checked often enough; (3) that not using wax combs is not good for the bees.
I wouldn't if I were you. The reaction may be mild right now, but the more you get stung the more dangerous the reaction will become. And it can turn into full anaphylactic shock after only three stings :(
With the flow hive, I don't know that taking too much honey would really be an issue. the bees honey stores are in the bottom two boxes, and the honey you harvest is in the supers. Being able to be hands on and checking in on your bees is pretty important though, and would be my biggest concern. The size of the cells has been brought up, and the fact that they're plastic, and it may be an issue, but I'm not sure how much of an issue it is.
Spoiler: not technically related but from a conversation inspired by this thread I'm too lazy to draw it any better and technically it happened over the phone but whatever.
