Bee Keeps?'s

Looking to start my first hive. Whats better the box type or top bar? Where's the best place to get your bee's? (And What kind) Any other advice is good to...........

Beesource is a great online forum.
I really learned a lot from Michael Bush http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm

You'll get more honey from the langstrom (box) hive but have healthier bees with the top bar. You are really creative and could easily build some top bar hives.

For bees I would try to find a local seller who has "mutts." I would start with nucs and not packaged bees.
You probably have a local beekeeping group.

Sorry, can't help with your question. Good luck though, sounds fun. You may want to delete the other repeat posts?

Have no clue haow that happend or how to delete it...

Top bar seems a lot easier to build. Cloest bee keeper selling bee's is about 2 hrs away, and hes getting his shipped from GA. Thanks for the link see what i can come up with.

We use 8 frame hives so my wife can lift them. She gets most of the supplies from Brushy Mountain. If you are going to buy a package do it now as they will sell out pretty quickly. We source ours locally. It is a pretty interesting hobby. Her first package flew away after only a few hours. There is probably a local club that you can source some used equipment from and gain info.

If you can only get package bees for Georgia that's fine. That's how most of us started.

Another biggie is the flowers in your area....
Several beekeepers in our area have different fields of flowers that the bees pollinate, and it makes a big difference in the taste of the honey. I think most honey bees start out by pollinating the maple trees, if I am not mistaken. Then the fruit tree blossoms, then onto the fields and flowers. My one buddy has an apple orchard and fields of clover, and lots of box hives. His honey is by long and far the best I've ever bought, it is fantastic. Another local guy has lots of witch hazel in the fields, his honey literally tastes like perfume.....I'm not crazy about it at all.

I get my sweets by making maple syrup, or else I would get into the bee biz a little. Too many irons in the fire. I would do as the others already mentioned and look around for a local club that you can get advice from......they will know the local ins-and-outs and what-nots to help you get started....

I have a small orchard thats really small..(Lol Started from seed a couple years ago) 4,000 square foot garden, few 100 strawberry's and 6 blueberry's. Dropping a big maple Tuesday to make room for a big U shape hill. (Wonder what thats for) That will be planted in wild flowers. Will double the orchard as well this spring. Farms are 360 degrees around me.

Here is my story: http://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/...y-are-beeing-well-behived.86216/#post-1115206

I think I am going to introduce a langstrom hive this spring and either split or transfer the bees. The top bar is more difficult to control and that makes honey harvesting more difficult and upsetting to the bees. I was also told to buy the racks and build the box. Seems to be the most cost effective way.

So I take it the bees stayed in the hive you made? If so, that is really cool.....get me some pics, you know how I like those pics!

No other pics beyond the ones in the other thread. Right now the hive is covered with a dark tarp for heat. Little known fact is that all bees except the queen die over the winter. The bees that will be flying around this spring will be newly hatched.

With honey bees not all bees die. They need a certain mass to keep warm. Bees are always disturbed when you remove the honey. With the langstrom hive you can re-use the comb so the bees don't have to put energy into making it. With the top bar hive, they make natural size cells in the combs with greatly reduces their parasite load. Like I said, less honey but healthier bees. You can also try langstroms with small cell sheets, but they are not always easy to find.

Either way I suggest you look at the long haul and decide what you want. Once you invest time, energy, and money, into a set up it's hard to justify changing. I wish I'd started with top bar, but like everything else I just jump in feet first.

I once picked up a package of bees and went to put them in the back seat of the truck. My son got a little upset so I agreed to move them to the bed

Does using Langstrom hives increase the need to use medicinal products? I was trying to maintain a natural hive as much as possible. I did nothing last year other than building the TBH and providing some sugar water when I plucked the bees from the limb and deposited them in the hive.

The wax sheets you put on the frames have larger cells than the bees would naturally build. Larger cells=more varroa mites. When they bees build without that template they build smaller cells.

My hive had about 28 bars in it. They build on all but 6, and I believe 14 or so were full. I also hung my hive from a large tree branch just to keep it away from predators. Bears are few and far between, but seem to show up at hives.

Here is the basic plan I am using. Any Improvments I should be looking at?

When I used to mess with the bees, I bought pre-cut box kits from Dadant and assembeled and painted them myself. My buddy ordered the bees, but I dont know where from. He did mention the UPS guy was really pissed off at him and it looked like the box was kicked out of the truck to the porch LMAO. If your one hive lives thru the first year, you should have 2 more hives ready for them as you will have a whole hell of alot more bees! Start reading now...there's a crapload of info to learn. Read up on how to identify diseases and such and how to medicate. Our hives were all different as far as attitude towards human intrusion. 1 was really docile. You could stick your head in there and not get stung. The other 2 were not so nice.

Heres a couple pics for ya.....Find the queen in the first one.
The 2nd is a queen cell.

Spotted her quick.

I hope i need a couple more hives next year. This one will be a 42 inch and should have around 25 top bars.

You guys and gals are lucky. I really wanted to start keeping bees this spring, but of course it is not allowed in this @#$%& town.