Beekeeping in Retirement

[B-Guy]

Here are a couple more video links to honeybees and and beekeeping if your interested. These are a couple of the documentaries I have my classes watch. There are plenty more out there and if you have a favorite please share.

PBS Nova Tales From the Hive -

Dance of the Honeybee -

 

[Redbugdave]

I have been beekeeping for about 7 years now...and have around 10 or 15 hives (number varies with the season), here at the house and sometimes out at the woods. I wrote about getting into it in a thread here years ago. It was one of my retirement goals. I try to catch all my swarms and treat regularly with oxalic acid. I do my own extraction and bottling and I give all my honey away to my friends. I have never taken a dollar for it, (don't need the money...and it comes from the heart). Never taken any bee classes but have books and been in the local bee club, (about 350 members), all this time. The club buys packages and nucs each spring, and it is an event with the distribution. I thought about going another way like you in making queens and such...but for me life is just too busy with other passions going on, too.
Here is my thread from those early years:
https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f29/beekeeping-70407.html

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Very interesting. Where did you find the history on Adam Grimm? I have dozens of books on beekeeping, many on the various aspects of the history and have never come across this history. I would like to read more if it's out there.

I'm a fan of local history and volunteer at a couple small museums in the area. https://hoardmuseum.org/ https://wisconsinautomuseum.com/

If you google "adam grimm" and "bees" you'll turn up quite a bit of info. There are even some pages from bee journals of the 1870s out there -- I think they're part of the digital library at Cornell University.

Grimm was part of the 1848-'49 influx of immigrants from Germany, which included a large segment of intellectuals and liberals. I believe Grimm was a lawyer or law student when he immigrated and became a farmer. The locals tended to scoff at the "gentleman farmers" from Germany, who were pretty green at the business of plowing and hoeing. But Grimm taught them something about beekeeping!

 

[B-Guy]

I have been beekeeping for about 7 years now...and have around 10 or 15 hives....

....I thought about going another way like you in making queens and such...but for me life is just too busy with other passions going on, too.
Here is my thread from those early years:
https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f29/beekeeping-70407.html

Redbugdave, I did go back and read the thread. It sounds like you have done well with your bees over the past 8-ish years. That is a great accomplishment! Do you still keep bees with the other two beekeepers? Do you make splits in your apiaries or sell your excess bees?

We sell honey, nucs, queens and the crops off our farm. Queen rearing is my passion. I go to great lengths to breed in the traits I desire (Mettle, Prolificacy, Temper, Thriftiness, and Production) in that order. I mostly sell queens to youth and beginning beekeepers, so the traits I breed for are geared towards them.

I guess if you consider making income off the farm, I will never be "retired", but I consider it exercise, mental health and residual income. I don't have a membership to the gym or see a therapist. I continue to maintain a portion of our production ground in pollinator and wildlife habitat. The income from selling bees, honey and queens mostly funds habitat maintenance / improvement and into maintaining processing equipment. This all circles back to my desire to be a good steward of our land.

 

[B-Guy]

I'm a fan of local history and volunteer at a couple small museums in the area.

Mr._Graybeard, I read everything I could find so far googling Adam Grimm. I haven't seen any information on acquiring Italian queens earlier than this so far. This was a notable find on the history of how Italian queens that were introduced to the United States. I found it fascinating that the first time he tried to bring back Italian queens they all died. Two years later he went back to Italy and must have learned from his first effort and was far more successful. This is a great part of documented honeybee history in the US.

When we purchased our farm in 2002 I found honeybees feeding on the dandelions at the time that were very dark almost black. There were no other beekeepers within about 12 miles at the time. So I come to realize later that our farm was rather isolated from other kept honeybees. After asking around, none of the folks that had spent their entire life in our area had known of any beekeepers around here. Very likely the bees we had around the farm were survivor stock after varroa mites swept the country. I managed to capture a swarm about the same time as I started rearing queens and grafted from them. Later I read about German black bees and wonder if these bees perhaps are their descendance. They have been an integral part of my queen rearing program.

Personally, I don't keep one specific bread of honeybees. I prefer my selectively bread queens "muts" as they are more resistant to mites, disease and have better traits than the bees I 1st started with.

If you stumble across more information about Adam Grimm please share.

 

[homestead]

If you stumble across more information about Adam Grimm please share.

More history about Adam Grimm

 

[B-Guy]

Another good read about Adam Grimm.

Thanks homestead!

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

If you stumble across more information about Adam Grimm please share.

Ask and you shall receive! Here's a copy of his obituary from a local newspaper. It lists his cause of death as "softening of the brain." I think a lot of us can relate.
View attachment 41264

 

[Dog]

My neighbor down the road is a beekeeper. She is still learning, but does produce honey. I’m very interested in learning as I’m fascinated when I watch her tend to the hives. I think I see her bees in my garden/yard during the spring and summer.
I watched an introduction Zoom class several months ago by a major beekeeper on our island. I took several pages of notes and am considering starting the process this spring. I have many hobbies, so I just want to make I have time to do this properly. I love being outdoors and this will be another reason to putter around the yard
Thank you for sharing the videos. Fascinating!

 

[B-Guy]

I took several pages of notes and am considering starting the process this spring. I have many hobbies, so I just want to make I have time to do this properly.

Dog- You have taken the first steps in becoming a beekeeper, desire. The world needs more beekeepers so I encourage you and anyone that is interested to take the next step and look into becoming a beekeeper. It's not for everyone but if it's a good fit for you, there is just something magical about working with bees.

Your first year you will need to inspect them every week for three weeks then every other week typically. They will need feed until they quit taking syrup. Depending on where you live and the type of feeder, they may need feed every two to three days with a small feeder. If you use a larger feeder less often. The feeders I use holds two gallons and I only need to feed them about once a week for 4-6 weeks but again this varies depending on where you live. You will need roughly 30 minutes not including travel. If they are in your backyard even better. If you have more than one hive add about 10 minutes for each additional hive. You need more time for the first one as you will need to get your smoker going and put on your suit. After the first year you could go even longer if you wish. If you are the type that you want to check on them even more, I recommend two hives and alternate every other week between the hives.

You don’t want to spend too much time in the hive but you need to see how they are doing. Every time you inspect a hive it takes them about three days to get back to the point where you went through the hive. You really don’t need a lot of time to be a beekeeper. If you like to travel inspect them a few days before you go and they should be fine to leave them for 2-3 weeks after they quit taking syrup the first year and any time after that.

You can go out and watch them from the side any time you like seeing them come and go. After all the years I’ve been a beekeeper I still enjoy seeing what they are bringing back and watching the organized chaos at the entrance.

 

[Redbugdave]

Redbugdave, I did go back and read the thread. It sounds like you have done well with your bees over the past 8-ish years. That is a great accomplishment! Do you still keep bees with the other two beekeepers? Do you make splits in your apiaries or sell your excess bees?

We sell honey, nucs, queens and the crops off our farm. Queen rearing is my passion. I go to great lengths to breed in the traits I desire (Mettle, Prolificacy, Temper, Thriftiness, and Production) in that order. I mostly sell queens to youth and beginning beekeepers, so the traits I breed for are geared towards them.

I guess if you consider making income off the farm, I will never be "retired", but I consider it exercise, mental health and residual income. I don't have a membership to the gym or see a therapist. I continue to maintain a portion of our production ground in pollinator and wildlife habitat. The income from selling bees, honey and queens mostly funds habitat maintenance / improvement and into maintaining processing equipment. This all circles back to my desire to be a good steward of our land.

Of the other Beek friends in my area...One does not have many hives anymore...but is the president of our bee club. Another good friend, (about a mile and half away), is now a Master Beekeeper and teaches classes. He has 30 or 40 hives and sells queens, too. I have noticed that on average, about 75% of the people that take up beekeeping drop out after about the second year. Very few make it for years. It is not like having potted plants on your front porch. I make splits in the spring and summer. I am not really into beekeeping for the honey. For me it is just a by-product of having bees. I just like bees, their complexities, and messing with them. Each hive is different. I am a Naturalist by nature and anything having to do with the real world is what makes me tick. I have not lost that sense of wonder about bees after these years. We have had an ongoing project in looking for bees that may be surviving in the woods without medication, (National Park with permitting), with some genetic testing. In a pure environment...Darwin could be at work with bees actually adapting to varroa. Treating does not allow for adaptation. So far no luck...but you never know. I was into the hives today...it was warm...and I put paper with sugar on the frame tops.

 

[B-Guy]

Very few make it for years. It is not like having potted plants on your front porch. I make splits in the spring and summer. I am not really into beekeeping for the honey. For me it is just a by-product of having bees. I just like bees, their complexities, and messing with them.

That is unfortunate that you see that many only last a year or two. Of the ones that took my class and actually got started (90%) I would say about 80% of them are still beekeepers after 5+ years. They range from teenagers to senior citizens. So maybe it depends on what part of the country you live in. Or maybe it is that I live and thought in rural America and they may have a more opportunities to succeed. Not really sure why other than that.

 

[Gumby]

From my experience at the community garden, only about 25% of the new gardeners last more than a year. It's great fun to plan out your plot and plant all your seeds. But then comes the weeding and watering and fertilizing and fighting the bugs and otherwise tending to growing things. It's often a lot of dirty grunt work to keep things going well. So many people start strong but then abandon their plot when the work gets hard and do not even harvest whatever does manage to grow.

I'm sure the same issues arise in beekeeping. It's fun until the work starts.

 

[travelover]

From my experience at the community garden, only about 25% of the new gardeners last more than a year. It's great fun to plan out your plot and plant all your seeds. But then comes the weeding and watering and fertilizing and fighting the bugs and otherwise tending to growing things. It's often a lot of dirty grunt work to keep things going well. So many people start strong but then abandon their plot when the work gets hard and do not even harvest whatever does manage to grow.

I'm sure the same issues arise in beekeeping. It's fun until the work starts.

Sounds a lot like shifting from dating to marriage.

 

[Redbugdave]

I think some people are pre-disposed towards certain things in life. That's why some people become great biologists, doctors, football players, etc., and that makes them good at it. Beekeeping, gardening, farming, is part of that reasoning I suppose. For me...it began when I was about 6 years old. My father was in the Air Force and would go on unaccompanied tours, (assignments without family), for a year at a time. The Cold War was in full swing. We would stay with relatives till my Dad came back home. This happened several times. Basically I grew up without my Dad for long periods of time. Down the road from my Uncle's place was a retired railroad man who had no kids and had an apiary of bees. He became my foster Dad and took me under his wing. And that's how I learned about bees almost 60 years ago. As I grew up, moved around, worked my job(s), bees never lost my mind. I never had a good chance to take up beekeeping until I settled down and retired. Beekeeping was one of my retirement goals. I think of Mr. Chandler to this day and being under his wing with his bees as a kid. The wonder is still there and maybe he is looking down and smiling to this day. For me it is deeper than bugs and honey.

 

[B-Guy]

...it began when I was about 6 years old.
... The wonder is still there and maybe he is looking down and smiling to this day. For me it is deeper than bugs and honey.

My interest was not far different than yours. As a young boy I spent as much time as I could at my aunt and uncles farm in the summer. In the mornings I would help my uncle around the farm in the afternoon I could do what I wanted. They had a neighbor down the road that kept bees and I would go down there about every day. It was a father and son (Doc and Howard) both at the time seemed old. They taught me about bees and and we would sit and watch them from aluminum folding chairs, the kind with webbing. When I would leave to go back to the city after my time on the farm, they would give me a big coffee can full of honey. I knew from that some point I wanted to have honeybees. It took until we moved to our farm to get started.

I believe you are correct about about some people being pre-disposed towards certain things in life. I think some of it is how they were raised too. Now that I'm older and living in a rural area, I see many have different values. I could just about tell when I was teaching which students would stick with it. There is work involved when harvesting but the rest of the time it's one of my favorite things to do. It's almost as bad as going down the YouTube black hole and wondering where the morning went.

 

[Dog]

Dog- You have taken the first steps in becoming a beekeeper, desire. The world needs more beekeepers so I encourage you and anyone that is interested to take the next step and look into becoming a beekeeper. It's not for everyone but if it's a good fit for you, there is just something magical about working with bees.



Your first year you will need to inspect them every week for three weeks then every other week typically. They will need feed until they quit taking syrup. Depending on where you live and the type of feeder, they may need feed every two to three days with a small feeder. If you use a larger feeder less often. The feeders I use holds two gallons and I only need to feed them about once a week for 4-6 weeks but again this varies depending on where you live. You will need roughly 30 minutes not including travel. If they are in your backyard even better. If you have more than one hive add about 10 minutes for each additional hive. You need more time for the first one as you will need to get your smoker going and put on your suit. After the first year you could go even longer if you wish. If you are the type that you want to check on them even more, I recommend two hives and alternate every other week between the hives.



You don’t want to spend too much time in the hive but you need to see how they are doing. Every time you inspect a hive it takes them about three days to get back to the point where you went through the hive. You really don’t need a lot of time to be a beekeeper. If you like to travel inspect them a few days before you go and they should be fine to leave them for 2-3 weeks after they quit taking syrup the first year and any time after that.



You can go out and watch them from the side any time you like seeing them come and go. After all the years I’ve been a beekeeper I still enjoy seeing what they are bringing back and watching the organized chaos at the entrance.

Thank you B-Guy for the encouragement. We live on over 1/3 acre on the Puget Sound, so we have the space. I have a fenced vegetable garden (protect from deer and bunnies) so I may locate the bees near the garden. I will do further research before I commit, but am leaning that way.

 

[B-Guy]

Thank you B-Guy for the encouragement. We live on over 1/3 acre on the Puget Sound, so we have the space. I have a fenced vegetable garden (protect from deer and bunnies) so I may locate the bees near the garden. I will do further research before I commit, but am leaning that way.

If you haven't done so all ready, check your local city ordinances about the keeping of bees, most are online. I would guess where you are at you likely won't have an issue. I also recommend talking to your neighbors about it if there are any close.

 

[Gumby]

Good idea to check with the neighbors. When we once hosted a hive in our backyard, the beekeeper checked with our closest neighbors. They were enthusiastic about it. However, both of them have since moved and I have learned that one of my newer neighbors is allergic to bee stings, so I would not put another hive in my yard. (Our houses are only about 50 feet apart.)

 

[B-Guy]

Good idea to check with the neighbors. When we once hosted a hive in our backyard, the beekeeper checked with our closest neighbors. They were enthusiastic about it. However, both of them have since moved and I have learned that one of my newer neighbors is allergic to bee stings, so I would not put another hive in my yard. (Our houses are only about 50 feet apart.)

Everyone is allergic to bee stings, just to different degrees. Also, if someone is allergic to one type of bee doesn't necessary mean they are allergic to all bees. But I wouldn't tempt fate!

I have have worked with many beekeepers that keep bees at another location. Not ideal but an option for some.

 

[Gumby]

Everyone is allergic to bee stings, just to different degrees. Also, if someone is allergic to one type of bee doesn't necessary mean they are allergic to all bees. But I wouldn't tempt fate!

I have have worked with many beekeepers that keep bees at another location. Not ideal but an option for some.

That's my view. Besides, his allergy makes him fear bees, and he is a great neighbor whom I like quite a bit.

 

[B-Guy]

That's my view. Besides, his allergy makes him fear bees, and he is a great neighbor whom I like quite a bit.

You want to keep your neighbors happy.

 

[LA_Newsboy]

I'm a hobby beekeeper in very urban Long Beach, Calif., with eight hives. Been doing it for 12 years now to spice up retirement. Some beek pals and I started Long Beach Beekeepers years ago and it's now a huge club with strong educational, outreach and rescue programs. We also run the only municipal bee sanctuary in the West. You mentioned harsh environment. Where are you located? I've bought queens in the past without much luck. Our Africanized girls treat them badly. My hives are feral survivor stock. Can be a challenge if their temperament changes, and I cull the overly defensive colonies. Get about 150 pounds of honey a year, which I sell to neighbors off my front porch.

 

[B-Guy]

You mentioned harsh environment. Where are you located? I've bought queens in the past without much luck. Our Africanized girls treat them badly. My hives are feral survivor stock. Can be a challenge if their temperament changes, and I cull the overly defensive colonies. Get about 150 pounds of honey a year, which I sell to neighbors off my front porch.

We do have a harsh environment. I live along the 40th parallel (Kansas/Nebraska border). All the genetics I bring in are primarily survivor stock. They typically come from cutouts that have been there for many years. One I recovered was out of a colony that had been there for 30+ years. The son that was remodeling his grandmothers house wanted them out. As a youth he was told to use the other door and leave the bees alone. The cavity was 12" deep and was under a window without support. It was about 4' X 3' and they were extremely dossal even with the approximately 60K workers. A small portion I have brought in as II'd queens from Universities and the USDA lab. The rest come from ferial survivor stock. I would never suggest anyone treat their bees like I treat mine. They need to survive in harsh conditions to weed out the week then selected for the traits I desire. My focus is queens, everything else comes second. These are primarily for replacement and splits for our mentored youth and beginning beekeepers. The weather here in the winter can get to -10° to -40° with out snow for insulation and 100°+ in our arid climate.

I did purchase 3 queens from the south many years ago and two didn't survive the winter and the one that did was so hot if I went out within 20' of the hive I would get lit up! The second time I was lit up (30+ stings) I replaced the queen with one of mine and within two weeks they were fairly calm.

Glad to hear your association is doing so well. We as a beekeeping community need to promote beekeeping in anyway possible. We choose about 10 youth each year based on their essay to enter into our youth program. We give them a hive, protective equipment a package of bees and a master beekeeper if at all possible as a mentor. It's about a $1500 investment for each youth scholarship. I still have great relationships with many of the past youth and their parents.

Keep up the great work!

 

[Redbugdave]

Hot Hives are my best hives and producers. It's a love hate relationship.