Subject: Re: Amateur beekeeper

From: [email-masked] (Chris Coplan)
Date: 25 Jan 1996 21:10:23 GMT

I'm in Richmond VA - USA - and 1 hive costs about $100 mail order, bees
and queen for a starter hive - $50 - 100.  This is all new, unassembled
bee equipment.  Giving the bees feed during the startup year is a pain,
along with the medications, but the meds are only 2 times a year - so no
biggie really.  If your hive builds up enough honey stores and you have a
mild winter climate, you shouldn't have to feed after their first year.

I've not requeened my hive yet, but I helped a friend do his last year,
and am NOT looking forward to doing that again.  The bees DEFINITELY DO
NOT LIKE THAT.

[email-masked]
or maybe - [email-masked]

> I'm thinking of starting into beekeeping in about 2 years, but I want
> to research this area (i.e., setup costs, stock, market, hive health,
> etc.) before I take the next steps. 
> 
> What would be a good place to start?
> 
> Thank you for your help.

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From: [email-masked] (Larry Mousseau)
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 18:50:53 GMT

Thank you for your help.

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From: "Theodore V. Fischer" <[email-masked]>
Date: 26 Jan 1996 13:42:03 GMT

>and am NOT looking forward to doing that again.  The bees DEFINITELY DO

There really should be no more problem in requeening a hive than in any 
other normal beekeeping procedure.  I usually requeen most of my hives
every year, and find that the results are well worth the effort.

However, one of the good reasons for requeening is to replace a queen 
that produces overly agressive offspring; therefore one has to deal 
with these very offspring when looking for their mother queen, and that 
can often be difficult.  I like to do this as early in the year as is 
realistically possible so I don't have to cope with a huge hive 
population.  In general, I find that small populations of bees are less 
aggressive than large hives.  

Another tip: Before starting to look for the queen, I separate the two
(or sometimes three) hive bodies and set them apart. I notice which one 
has the most young brood, and start looking through the frames in that
separated hive body first.  That way, the queen can't run up and down
the frames of the whole hive during the inspection - she has to be in
one hive body or the other.  Also, only part of the bee population only
has to be disturbed if the queen is in the first examined hive body.

Yes, requeening is a lot of hard work, especially in the spring, when
my winter muscles aren't used to heaving hive bodies.  But it is one
of my most enjoyable times with the bees, for it gives me the
opportunity to really see what each hive is like, and note the potential
problems and strengths of each.  Now, late summer requeening is another
subject...

Ted Fischer

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From: [email-masked] (BusyKnight)
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 06:52:51 GMT

>What would be a good place to start?

Larry,
   Questions like this are very hard to answer.  There's been entire
books written on the subject.  First off, I trust that you're getting
into it as a hobby.  Beekeepers belong to a very small close-
knitt group (along with kooks, lunatics, fools, etc., etc.) especially
if you're entertaining the thought of "making money" at it.  
   I would recommend that you start off with just a couple of hives,
some good self-help books on mental health and a book or two on
beekeeping.  Start with a local club by all means (assuming there's
one around you somewhere).  Get to know a local beekeeper and
don't let his/her ways scare you off.  Order the catalogues from the
beekeeping supply companies and read and study them.  You can
also plan to spend about 100 to 150 bucks to just get started.  Make 
sure you want to do this....just think how much "store bought" honey
you could buy for $100.   Keeping bees ain't cheap honey BUT it is
the BEST honey you can get!
BusyKnight
Dallas, TX