Any bee-keepers here?

barton

16 years ago

I signed up for a class this spring. I have no bees, no hives. So far just books. They are fascinating little critters.

Gayle

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Comments (4)

Okiedawn OK Zone 7
16 years ago
Gayle,

I think Randy keeps bees.

Dawn
rjj1
16 years ago
I love honey bees. The bees here on the property belong to a friend. He maintains the hives and I get a percentage of the honey. Having bees very nearby means just about anything that blooms will fruit. That's a good thing and a bad thing. Bad only because I have Bois-d'arc on the property.

George has told me many times my location produces some of the best tasting honey he collects. I think a lot of them fly over to the Norman Airport and work the tamarisk trees that have spread over the old WW2 tarmac. Tamarisk is said to produce some of the best tasting honey in the world.

randy
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While Richard Taylor's books are a pleasure to read, they are out of date. Since the introduction of varroah mites in the mid 1980s, beekeepers have had to face challenges that did not exist before then and are not discussed in older books, and if you don't face these challenges with mites and other parasites, you will lose your bees. So start with up to date books, and read people like Taylor for the pleasure of it after you have gotten the most recent practices under your belt. I would recommend, besides the dummies book, Kim Flottum, The Backyard beekeeper and Sammataro and Avitabile's, The Beekeeper's Handbook, 3rd edition. There is an enormous amount of information on the web, and you will, unfortunately find quite divergent views, since beekeeping is an area where there is considerable disagreement. Even better, join your local beekeeping club; it seems most counties in the US have them. And if you are planning to start bees next year (now is rather late to do so), see if you can tag along with some of their members when they work their hives. This is what I did last year when I was at your stage of the game, and this year I am now keeping my first hives. Good luck with your beekeeping; you should enjoy it.
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You may want to checkout the list of florida beekeeping associations. One close to you might be able to point you in the right direction. There is also a yahoo group for florida beekeepers (I don't know how active it is): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FloridaBeekeepers/ and you can check out the florida state beekeeper's association: http://www.floridabeekeepers.org/ -Tim Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Beekeeping Associations
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If you spray for carpenter bees, you will kill all the native mason bees you attract to your nesting spaces! So that is something huge to consider. If you have an out building that you do not spray, that might be a consideration - however you will probably still kill off that population. Now is the time to work on changing over your carpenter bee habits. Fill each hole with diatomaceous earth or borax. Then take a dowel and plug each hole up. That will stop new bees from emerging. Spraying in the holes will not totally eliminate the baby bees in there, only the first. There will be several in each hole. After you do that, then you can put up the bee houses for your carpenter bees. It really does work wonderfully well. Each fall, just take your Carpenter Bee houses down and clean out the tubes and kill the baby bees inside if you don't want them. Wash them well to remove bee fermones. Hang them again for next year. It's the existing fermones of baby bees that attract the new adult bees (and the babies also come back as adults) to lay more babies in your house. I had some good luck keeping the bees out by simply regularly washing my home and stopping up bee holes, and removing all mud dauber tubes (after hatching) and using this method for carpenter bees. We did get a lot of them when I moved here.
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Macmex
16 years ago
I have bees, and have kept them on and off since the 1970s. Am just getting going again, for the second season, here in Oklahoma. Gayle, if you are planning to get into bees the best time to order is right now. But since you are taking a class on it, perhaps they'll have some hives to teach you with, and you can order your materials and bees for the 2009 season. Be sure to buddy up with someone who knows and does bees. This is one hobby, which is extremely difficult to learn without a mentor. With a mentor it's really not bad at all.

George
Tahlequah, OK
barton
Original Author
16 years ago
George, there are a number of bee club members who attend the class to answer questions. One supplies materials for the hives, which we will build within the next couple of weeks. He also sells nucs. I have not yet committed to buying bees for this year.

All the folks seem really friendly and helpful, and are willing to let newcomers come to their place and work and learn.

I have not yet attended the bee club meetings. In April the meetings will change to a night when I don't have to work.

Gayle

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Any bee-keepers here?

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Okiedawn OK Zone 7

rjj1

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Any bee-keepers here?

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Okiedawn OK Zone 7

rjj1

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