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Want to start bee keeping looking for advise

3K views 16 replies 3 participants last post by  Gypsi 
#1 ·
Hello, Everyone and thank you for taking the time to read this. I am looking in to ways to support my large family from home so I dove right in to farming. We are just starting out and have nothing really going good yet, but have to start some where right so now we have 2 goats 3 rabbits i went over board and 172 chicks and 37 ducklings so the start of a lot, but not anything going yet. Also a garden with tomato, okra, peppers, squash, carrots, onions, watermelon, and beans. So we have 12 acres of land and would like to get honey as it cost so much at the store and we love it to sweeten tea but with 3 little boys my husband and cousin all living under one roof sugar goes fast and so does honey. I am looking for a way to make around 10 cups of honey a week that is a lot i think so I am here for advise. So far all I have done toward this project is watch some youtube videos, read some blogs, and priced hives. But i don't know how many hives I will need where to get bees (Texas) and if anything I already have will negatively effect the bees. In the spring there are always so many honey bees outside you cant carry a soda in the yard with out them flying all over you. Can I use these for my hive.
 
#2 ·
welcome aboard..ill be honest and say its gona cost a good amount of money to get enough hives up and running to give you that amount of honey..honey is measured by pounds, so 10 cups a week respectively is 350 pounds of honey a year...I can buy bulk honey from bee keepers in upstate new york for about $4.00 a pound the last time I bought 2 years ago...so price up your equipment and bees and tools and supplies to see if what you want to do is feasible all at once, you should start with a few hives and learn bee keeping and go from there..
 
#3 ·
well i looked around on the internet and found that there are many kinds of hives and found one that is easy to make myself and got to work I have only started the one but it will be a Top Bar hive I just have to make the bars and the lid and done. I am going to make more but how many do you think i will need I was just going to make a lot of them just like this it is around 3 foot long and 1 foot wide so around 3 cubic feet is that big enough to start one in.
 
#4 ·
thats great that you can make your own hives, that will save you a bunch of money, there is no guarantee on how much honey the hive will produce, there are too many factors that come into play. my suggestion is build as many as you can comfortably afford to( I would say to start 4 to 5 hives) and see what amount of honey you get on the 2nd year, as it will take about a season to build the hive up from a nuc, if you know anyone that has a swarm or honey bee nest that wants them removed you can get free bees that way , you also have to leave enough honey for the bees to winter over and have enough to eat, on a hive that size you should leave 60 to 70 pounds and also give fondant through the winter..there is no exact science on this, just what others have gotten in the past and how the bees preform . I personally dont think the top bar is the hive for maximum honey production, as you never see commercial bee keepers using them, but to start and to build up colonies you start with whatever you can start with..
 
#5 ·
I like the other one that is just a box but it was so much harder to build and I did not have the right saw for all the detailed cuts so maybe i can upgrade one day but I want to get started and maybe where they are ready to split in to another box i can get the other kind for them
 
#6 ·
I have done a lot of reading and from what i have gathered the top bar is the best despite the fact it does not expand it is the easier to check on and does not disturber the whole hive when checking on the bees. So I may stay with this as it was really easy to build and i need a lot of them and this is always going to be the cheapest hive. I read that one of the others also produces less honey per quirt then the rest i only found 3 kids but this is looking to be the best so. It is the time of year that bees swarm and so i am going to try and increase bee activity on my property by putting out hummingbird feeders they really like these i have noticed. I have yard full of flowers but nothing has bloomed yet but when it does i have hundreds of flowering bushes roses, jasmines, hummingbird bushes, plus a large garden. What would help bring them by as I know there are always a lot of them in the coming months in my area i just want to get my first hive to have local bees not shipped onces.
 
#8 ·
I have been looking around to see if i could find some local bees and I think I have found some I have to contact them but there is someone about 30 mins from my home that has honey bees and one of his friends and fellow beekeepers talked to him and told me he would be willing to help me with information on how to raise them and show me a few things about honey bees. I have to contact him but think I will in the morning. I was thinking of starting with 3 hives but am unsure where is a good place to order them as Tractor supply only sales queens and nothing else. Most places want a few hundred dollars for there nucs and the frames will not fit in my box as my box is triangle and the frames are square/rectangle
 
#10 ·
okay I have contacted someone and put a pre-order in for a nuc but i have about 5 bees hanging around in my box they are there every time i go out side and it will be like 3-4 inside and 1-2 flying around outside what are they doing. And will this disrupt my nuc of bees when I get them in a couple weeks?
 
#11 ·
Okay so i have found my bees I have found a place that rescues bees and If you have a licence and are willing to take 10 hives a season then they are free. I have to drive a couple hours to get them but it is worth it. I just have to build some more boxes and I am ready to go.
 
#13 ·
my state requires me to get licensed it cost $75. Yes they come with a queen I am not sure how they are packaged but I have to pick them up from there property and all 10 hives at once it did not say how many bees on average in a hive but they do bee rescues to preserve the bee population.
 
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