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Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

Ok I have been seriously considering getting a hive. Yesterday I went to a beekeepers meeting. They sound like a nightmare. From the diseases and pests these guys were talking about. Are they really as much work as these keepers said. I am interested in a lit bit of honey and pollenation. Top Bar Hive seems like the simpler,less disease and fewer pest. So who has bee's and what are your thoughts.

3/12/2007 9:39:50 AM

western PA

PAIN IN THE ASS. Only good part is the honey.

3/12/2007 10:05:59 AM

Boulder County Colorado USA planet Earth

Some times you can rent hives from bee keepers, it's their hive but you get the bees all summer and a portion of the honey.
Call the bee keepers and see if you can rent a hive this yr. this way you can learn how to care for a hive and then next yr get your own hive.
Captain

3/12/2007 12:18:20 PM

Massillon, Ohio

i'll get nick to comment on this thread. i've had a beehive on my bathroom roof for the past yr and a half. grrrrrr :(

3/12/2007 1:19:20 PM

[email protected]

Jim Kuhn keeps bees. He doesn't do email but I'm sure he'd like a "bee call".

3/12/2007 2:17:26 PM

Pocatello ([email protected])

I don't know anything about it, but I understand the situation is getting serious, as a lot of hives are going down due to disease and/or pesticides.

3/12/2007 3:05:03 PM

Jackson Twp, Ohio

Ahh yes bees....

I rather reccomend them at least for a little while, you get attached to the poor little buggers. I am very much an amateur but I have to say it appears that they now more then ever have disease problems and other problems. Yet they are a critical part of the economy and as far as I can tell their are probably fewer and fewer beekeepers each and every year which is likely not a good thing.

I like the idea of renting a hive a lot. If you can do that I might advise it, or find a local beekeeper to take you under his or her wing.

I got bees because my late grandfather had talked for a few years about getting them again. His family raised bees back in the early part of the last century as a part of their income. I must say that he was very happy to have bees as a part of his life again when we got them. I think we got to keep bees together for a summer maybe two before his passing but it is something that means a lot to me.

So anyway, give it a shot, good luck and have fun. But bee patient, you definately can not rush them when working with them.

Nick

[email protected]

3/12/2007 7:37:57 PM

Montoursville, PA

Here is an alternative: ORCHARD MASON BEES are better pollinators, do not sting and have no known other problems.
I used to keep bees until one night they jumpped me and I nearly died.

Go to: http://www.knoxcellars.com/index.html and read about these amazing little bees. I now keep them right on the side of my house by my back door. Not a problem. Anyone with a little reading can keep Orchard Mason Bees.

Sorry they do not provide honey but the supper market does and for no major time or equipment expense. Most health food stores have local honey.

3/12/2007 8:24:36 PM

Montoursville, PA

I meant to say if you want to loose time and money keep honey bees. They have become a major keeping problem.

3/12/2007 8:26:40 PM

New Castle, Pa.

When I was a kid Dad had bees, we lived on an apple farm and in those days all apple orchards had bee hives. Before dad passed away I once asked him what he thought about keeping bees as a hobby, his reply to me was, Tim after you have done and tried everything else, by all means get into bees. Some nights when I get up to pee at 3 am and can't fall back to sleep I wonder is it time for me to get bees or not.

3/12/2007 8:54:18 PM

Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

ahhh I fall right back to sleep so it must not be time to get bees yet.

3/12/2007 9:52:14 PM

Clayton Cal

BEE all you can BEE get the BEES.but be forwarned they are more addictive than pumpkins.once you experince sucses and bring in a honey crop that you will easaly sell. then you start to play monopaly with real money. How cooll is that. get help from the club. beekeepers are always looking for locations to put bees. if you are the one that has his own pumpkin farm.then you can have a inclosed observation hive to complment the farm.be for you now it you will have learned the skills to do bee removal from pepoles barns and houses and get paid.and the bees you may need to replace loses or expand are FREE. start with 4 colonys. and then the sky is the limit.you only live once GO FOR IT. THAD SHIRLEY the ready bee.

3/12/2007 10:56:32 PM