Boone

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I'm in my 4th year as a beekeeper. A work friend of mine went down to a weekend 'bee school' in Asheville, NC 5 years ago and got some 'schoolin' on how to get started. I have 5 hives in my backyard (I live in a small rural neighborhood that backs up against the woods with a creek as well. I am a 'minimalist' beekeeper. Most expert keepers will urge you to inspect the hive repeatedly throughout the year in case problems are occurring. I figure that the hive itself will figure out how to solve most problems and that they know a lot more than I do about what needs to be done.

This year, had very little time to focus on my bees. I did replace 4 hives with new bees after the original occupants didn't survive the winter (this past winter was actually the first time I had significant losses). Put my honey boxes on in mid-March. Retrieved honey a few days ago. I probably only pulled 20 frames or less but they were absolutely loaded. The wax was the cleanest I have ever seen, and the honey was much thinner and lighter than usual. We had a ton of rain in April and May and I'm thinking that this washed away a lot of the tulip poplar nectar which is usually their primary source here in NC and which typically makes a very dark and thick honey.

Fewer frames this year as I ONLY took extra honey frames and did not *raid* the actual next boxes for honey as I have some years. This is better for the bees as it leaves them with a lot more honey.

As mentioned, the amount of honey and comb on each frame was much greater this year. I have started to put 9 frames instead of the usual 10 in the honey boxes which gives the bees more space to fill them up with honey. I had a number of them just loaded like this one.

I use the 'crush and strain' technique to harvest. Basically scrape all of the wax and honey off the frames, hand crush it, and then filter out the wax.

I've never had honey this light in color. Bees are weird :) It's absolutely delicious.

Final take for this year was 6.5 gallons. I may be able to harvest more in a month or so as I left boxes on the hives.
 

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That is really really cool.
 
Bee keeping is something I want to get into later in life when I have a bit of land and free time. Very cool!
 
I put the scraped frames and containers on my back porch. Here's the scene 10 minutes later :)

[video=youtube;SByJ6fs-QfQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SByJ6fs-QfQ&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
Very cool. I’ve always been fascinated by bees. A neighbor has a couple of hives. We are in an old suburb but very much inside the city.
 
I’ve always been interested in this just never bit the bullet. Enjoyed your post.


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Very cool!!!
 
Seriously cool of you. There isn't much better than fresh honey.
 
Thanks peeps! If anyone decides they want to take the plunge one of these days, glad to talk you through the basics. Also highly recommend a 'bee school' to learn the basics. One thing about beekeeping, it's a lot like golf. You ask an 'expert' a simple question, you'll get 3 complete different answers while all will swear their way is the only way to go...lol...
 
My wife and I are also bee wranglers. I lost count, but I think we’re running upwards of 20,000 head now.

It’s a super neat process. We’ve since gotten our daughters into it. So. Much. Fun. to watch those little boogers.

Yes, my queen...




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My brother in law started a couple of bee hives outside of Portland a couple years ago. He took us out to show us when we visited and talked about the whole process and it was super interesting. It's a really fun hobby for him.
 
Sure would love to have a pint of it for breakfast with a hot biscuit! Awesome, I can’t do bees because I’m allergic to the honey bee sting, but love the product.
 
After losing all of my hives this past winter, had to start over. Ended up buying new bees for 4 hives, and captured a swarm for a 5th one this spring. Often, you don't get honey that first year or you may elect to leave it all for the bees (I tend to take it the first year if they produce a lot and then feed them in the fall and winter).

Checked my hives a few weekends ago. 3 of them are building very slowly and aren't going to produce extra honey this season. But 2 of them were booming. I decided to harvest from the strongest hive which had filled two honey supers (the smaller boxes stacked on top just for honey storage). Here's the result - 4.5 gallons of super light honey from that one hive. Normally, here in NC, my honey is very dark due to the primary nectar source which is tulip poplar. I think it rained a lot during tulip poplar bloom time, so this is likely mostly blackberry honey.

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Freaking awesome man.
 
That is awesome. I just recently started liking honey. I’m petrified of bees, but I have major respect for the art of bee keeping.
 
I'm at my friends tobacco farm in Oxford, NC, just north of Durham. They have to "rent" bees to help pollenate their crops. This might be a way to help offset your costs beekeeping!
 
My sister lives near Greensboro and she has 4 hives that she maintains on her property. It is really cool.
 
That is awesome. I just recently started liking honey. I’m petrified of bees, but I have major respect for the art of bee keeping.

It's surprising - as long as you are not being really rough with the equipment, and use a smoker, it's very seldom you get stung. Last time I got stung was over a year ago, memorably, right in the groin :) I don't really find honeybee stings very painful, but they itch like hell for a few days after. That is more annoying than a sting. But they are generally pretty calm. They're not too happy when you take their honey harvest though.
 
It's surprising - as long as you are not being really rough with the equipment, and use a smoker, it's very seldom you get stung. Last time I got stung was over a year ago, memorably, right in the groin :) I don't really find honeybee stings very painful, but they itch like hell for a few days after. That is more annoying than a sting. But they are generally pretty calm. They're not too happy when you take their honey harvest though.

I can’t blame them, they worked hard for that, but they should know their work is greatly appreciated.
 
I told your hubby - fresh honey is an amazing bbq additive :)


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