Beekeeping

[momomom]

Today I attended a one day introduction to beekeeping seminar designed to help one decide if this is something one wants to do and to know enough to put in orders and obtain needed supplies so one is ready to open operations in April if the answer is yes. My answer is very likely yes. This is the wonderful group I have joined

Comments

[momomom]

Yes, the mentorship is really reassuring. Now I am mostly worried about can I handle the weight of the boxes during inspections. I will learn more. There is a pot luck dinner Nov 8 that I'm going to with the club, unless I'm busy with the new grandson.

My DIL is expecting our first grandchild due Nov 5. It could of course happen any time now. I expect to be hovering the first few days (with her blessings) until breastfeeding is well established. So excited.

I realized today I am doing a lot of nesting like behavior. LOL. Even soon to be grannies must get hormonal.

[lometa]

I would have no idea on how to be a bee keeper! Sounds like fun :)I'd like to hear about it too.

After the Dust Bowl; when soil management emerged to help farmers, my grandfather planted clover to rest his fields. He kept several hives around the farm for the clover honey. Someone in our family got his old smoker.

[momomom]

I had a great uncle who kept bees and I always thought it was neat.

I would have no idea either prior to this class but I think they did a great introduction.

[greenshadows]

My grampa was a beekeeper and I got a Boy Scout merit badge in beekeeping. Forgotten almost everything I knew about it, though! (except how I loved chewing on a hunk of honeycomb - my favorite kind of "extraction"). Have fun, Carla!

[momomom]

From what I read there are complicated frames with built in dividers to allow standardized honeycomb to be removed, probably still capped. I don't know much yet. But because of my back I am very worried about the currently more common Langstroth hives and the weight involved in lifting when working them. So I am now fascinated with the top bar hives where the comb forms in a natural curve hanging down. The pure honey can be extracted with multiple filterings or even putting it in a sleeve and centrifuging it but why would you bother??? The comb is totally the best!

[momomom]

Oh and one only removes one "top bar" at a time, maximum about 7 pounds.

[kabuldur]

Hi Carla. My first comment on your lj! I do think we will have many things in common because you're thinking about getting bees, like me! Also, I'm a grandma and you're expecting to be one soon! I hope everything goes well. I saw you're very experienced in the area of breastfeeding etc, so that should hold you in good stead. Who knows, you may be busy with that right now

[momomom]

Hi Beth,

Beekeeping clubs are the best way to learn I suspect. The one here even shares the equipment for harvesting/extracting the honey but I suspect they are not into the top bar type hives.

They did mention the small beetle problem and some solutions in the class. If your club doesn't cover solutions let me know and I'll go back through my notes. It involved a screen area on the very bottom of the trap over a tray that holds oil to trap them as I recall from memory.

They talked a bit in the class about bees forming the comb by hanging in clusters together to space it out.

Carla