Beekeeping it’s the bee’s knees

Beekeeping is really cool. Unfortunately it goes on the list of awesome things that 1) I don't have extra money or time for and 2) my wife would murder me if I got into.

"Honey don't go on the back deck right now, the bees are swarming"

 

Queen production on the Big Island of Hawaii. Some of the largest operations in the world are located here in Hawaii. I believe they go for $25 a piece. This frame has about 45 potential queens, thus this frame is worth over $1k.

 

Was doing some survey work and forgot to close my veil and the bastards got me good.

 

Ear sucks also.

 

I do not keep bees but I've been known to make mead from time to time if you've got spare honey.

 

My wife loves working with the bees - she retired a few years ago to help care for our aging parents. Only her Mom is left now and since I'm still working she does more than I do with the apiary.

Fortunately, we have 57 acres of mixed fields and woods so it's not as if we're surrounded with bees - although we see them around all the time.

 

I think it’s neat that the two of you do that. I’m jealous of all that land! I live on a half acre in a HOA that is stripped of most of the original trees. Well, cheers to your hobby!

 

Thanks. We are very fortunate to have been the only of Lynn's 7 siblings interested in her family's summer/retirement place - an old horse farm here in northeast PA. 25 minutes to work in the city and wake up to a little piece of heaven every day. Perfect for bees!

 

I’m halfway considering keeping bees as my retirement “career” in the next few years

 

Recipe??? If you want to share?

 

I am starting now to keep my sanity and prepare for retirement.

 

Wow nice right down 81 from Halstead, use to go to Scranton all the time. There is a manlake in Wilkes Barre, never been to the store.

 

I got to go to the one in Cali. Awesome place for a beekeeper. You guys are lucky to have access to beekeeping stores such as Mannlake. All most all of our beekeeping gear needs to be ordered online, shipped to hawaii either by air or boat which adds an additional 30-40% increase in the cost. We had to order about 2K of equipment, then they added an additional $600-700 worth of shipping costs!

 

There are a lot of great resources online.
http://www.meadmakr.com/meadmakr-guide/part-iii-the-basic-recipe/
http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/index.htm
Reddit's r/mead
A really great website I can't remember.

I just use a basic honey/water/yeast recipe. Should be listed on any of the sites I mentioned.

 

Will be making mead to try.

 

I don't have enough balls to do this. I've been stung at least twice (which probably isn't much in the big scheme of things) and it sucks. How do you prevent them from swarming? Those Africanized bees will come after you.

 

Takes a while for it to age to where it'll taste right. I have a couple bottles sitting since Septemberish.

 

I used the book The Compleat Meadmaker to make a batch a few years ago. Though it took about a year to age before it tasted good.

 

Don't despair just because of acreage! If I remember correctly, honeybees have a 3 mile range. I know people with bees in town that do well. I live outside of town and wonder if the"city bees" have a better chance of survival, especially in drought conditions. You just have to make sure that they are allowed by your city.