Beekeeping in Retirement

[Dog]

This is a wonderful documentary about bees. I have found several out there, so enjoy!



https://www.pbs.org/video/my-garden-of-a-thousand-bees-trjhzt/

Finally had a chance to watch all three videos you shared. Fascinating!

 

[Dog]

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.

A quick update. No issues raising bees in our area (rural area near a protected reserve). I’ve ordered my first hive boxes. I get them next week (mediums). I ordered my bees (3lb.Italians) with a marked queen. I pick them up in April.
Meanwhile, I’m reading books, blogs and watching lots of videos. I will be joining a local club and my neighbor down the road (hobby farmer and beekeeper) will help mentor me. I’m very excited!
Thank you for your posts!

 

[Dog]

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

Hi Redbugdave. I just read through your thread. Very interesting and love the pictures and that were shared by you and Brewer. I’m pretty excited to get started. I’m already hooked!

 

[B-Guy]

A quick update. No issues raising bees in our area (rural area near a protected reserve). I’ve ordered my first hive boxes. I get them next week (mediums). I ordered my bees (3lb.Italians) with a marked queen. I pick them up in April.
Meanwhile, I’m reading books, blogs and watching lots of videos. I will be joining a local club and my neighbor down the road (hobby farmer and beekeeper) will help mentor me. I’m very excited!
Thank you for your posts!

That's great to hear! The part that will help you the most is your neighbor/mentor.

You're going to love it...

 

[Errollyn]

Excellent bee resource calendar!!! Even if your not in the Midwest it's worth checking out.

I have one in Excel as well. I also use what's blooming to help determine when to preform tasks. Like when to start splitting or pull honey for instance. Looks like you are a bit a head of us here in the spring and behind us in fall in South Central Nebraska and North Central Kansas.

Thanks! Yes, most of the flowers we have here are also found in much of the US, as long as it's east of the Rocky Mountains. The bloom times vary, but many of the plants span large territories.


I use my spreadsheet for decision-making too. The other main data I use is a hive scale. I keep one in my bee yard, and it tells me when the flow is on and when the flow is off. I recommend scaling at least one hive for this insight.

 

[B-Guy]

Thanks! Yes, most of the flowers we have here are also found in much of the US, as long as it's east of the Rocky Mountains. The bloom times vary, but many of the plants span large territories.


I use my spreadsheet for decision-making too. The other main data I use is a hive scale. I keep one in my bee yard, and it tells me when the flow is on and when the flow is off. I recommend scaling at least one hive for this insight.

Excellent point on monitoring weight. I have been working with UNL's Entomology department to continuously monitor weight with a hive scale and to collect pollen samples on two of my hives for research. This has proved to be fascinating. They analyzed the pollen I collected to identify the food source and how this affected how much weight was being put on by source and when. Unfortunately we weren't able to collect data last year do to covid related issues as they were cutting funding for many projects. I haven't heard yet what the status is for this year.

 

[B-Guy]

How did everyone fare as far as losses over the winter?

I was pretty close to my normal at 14%. Here the trees, pussy willows and dandelions are beginning to bloom. There is nectar and pollen coming in so I'm hopeful there won't be any more losses.

I will be mentoring a youth as a beginning beekeeper again this year. I always look forward to mentoring kids as they remind me of how naïve I was early on, how much I've learned and how much I can still learn.

In the words of my mentor, “you can learn something every time peer into a hive”. All these years later this still holds true.

 

[pjigar]

My winter losses are about 15% as well. One hive is still weak but should make it. Red buds and Breadford pears are blooming. All colonies are brooding up nicely and one already has several empty queen cups. I need to do several splits so keeping the "swarm ready" colony under a close watch. I already started 2 walk away splits last week. Drones have started to hatch so I am pretty sure the mating population of drones will be available when queen hatches. I am planning to do 4 more splits this Sunday. I typically maintain about 20 colonies and now I am down to 11 so lot of rebuilding to do this year. I didn't quite recover from the 2020 (brutal) winter freeze losses last year.

 

[ScoopKona]

My wife wants to start doing this. I cannot. I am deathly allergic. I carry an epipen with me everywhere because of it.

Since we don't have a winter, and there is always something flowering, is it safe to assume that the only real problem is keeping people from spraying your land?

 

[B-Guy]

My winter losses are about 15% as well. One hive is still weak but should make it. Red buds and Breadford pears are blooming. All colonies are brooding up nicely and one already has several empty queen cups. I need to do several splits so keeping the "swarm ready" colony under a close watch. I already started 2 walk away splits last week. Drones have started to hatch so I am pretty sure the mating population of drones will be available when queen hatches. I am planning to do 4 more splits this Sunday. I typically maintain about 20 colonies and now I am down to 11 so lot of rebuilding to do this year. I didn't quite recover from the 2020 (brutal) winter freeze losses last year.

Sounds like you've been having fun!

We also had a rough 2020. our losses were due to pesticides.

It's a bit early here to think about splitting. I'll start feeding them in the next few days to build up numbers. Should be able to sometime towards the end of April. I'm trying to decide if I still want to maintain 35-ish colonies still or cut back. My honey sales are way down due to not being in town 5 days a week. I still maintain some customers as I go to town once a week, and the ones that buy a gallon or 5 gallons at a time. Most of them come out to the farms to pick them up.

 

[B-Guy]

My wife wants to start doing this. I cannot. I am deathly allergic. I carry an epipen with me everywhere because of it.

Since we don't have a winter, and there is always something flowering, is it safe to assume that the only real problem is keeping people from spraying your land?

Your wife should look into becoming a beekeeper.

Wow, I wouldn't know what to do if we didn’t have a winter. Here we start about April 1st and continue through September, with a miticide treatment in November.

 

[ScoopKona]

Your wife should look into becoming a beekeeper.

Wow, I wouldn't know what to do if we didn’t have a winter. Here we start about April 1st and continue through September, with a miticide treatment in November.

There are commercial apiaries within a golf-ball drive of here. But I'm here alone while my wife grinds out her last year of work. I haven't gone down and talked to them because of the allergy. Thankfully, our honey bees aren't aggressive. There are already hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions on this farm. Seems to me like beekeeping here will be as difficult a proposition as farming. (You can stick a pencil in the dirt and it will start to grow. There's nothing to it.)

 

[Dog]

I’m in the process of preparing for my bee packages to be delivered in April. I did watch my neighbor/mentor do her first hive inspections today. All three hives survived and she will need to do a split on one of the hives very soon.
We saw one of the queens and the saw lots of eggs, larvae and some drones in the other two hives. We live on the Puget Sound so the weather is just now getting warmer.
I’m excited to get going, but meanwhile reading several books and watching videos (love Frederick Dunn).

 

[B-Guy]

I’m in the process of preparing for my bee packages to be delivered in April. I did watch my neighbor/mentor do her first hive inspections today. All three hives survived and she will need to do a split on one of the hives very soon.
We saw one of the queens and the saw lots of eggs, larvae and some drones in the other two hives. We live on the Puget Sound so the weather is just now getting warmer.
I’m excited to get going, but meanwhile reading several books and watching videos (love Frederick Dunn).

Great to hear you're getting started as a beekeeper. Isn't it amazing peering into a colony of bees. Keep us posted on how things are going as you get started.

 

[B-Guy]

I’m in the process of preparing for my bee packages to be delivered in April.

Did you get your bees and if so how is it going?

 

[Dog]

Yes, two hives (one Italians and one Carnolians). We have had an exceptionally cold and wet spring, but the girls are doing well. I’ve joined a local Beek club and am constantly reading and learning. I spend hours each week observing their coming and goings from the hives. They are fascinating. I’m now much more observant of the flowers and plants in our area and adding bee friendly plants to our yard and garden. I think I’m hooked!

 

[Lsbcal]

Recent watched this on PBS. Very interesting program on beehavior with amazing camera work.

My Garden of a Thousand Bees.

https://www.pbs.org/video/my-garden-of-a-thousand-bees-trjhzt/

DW and I watched this and really enjoyed it. I didn't know that honey bees are kind of exceptional and that most of the wild bee species are more solitary and live in the ground or in wood. Some of the species mentioned in this UK video apparently are also found here in California.

From a UC Davis site:

Most people can recognize non-native, ever- present European honey bees, but many are unaware of the 1600 species of native bee that can be found in California, many of them in our own gardens. While honey bees are social, live in hives and cooperate with one another, most of our native bees are solitary, live in wood or underground tunnels and do not make honey. The hard working females mate, make nests, collect pollen for their young and lay eggs. Males live to mate and only pollinate inadvertently when they visit flowers for nectar to fuel their flight. Native bees come in various shapes and sizes from the somewhat intimidating Valley carpenter bee at one inch long (sometimes more) to tiny sweat bees that are less than one quarter inch. They also vary in color, shape, markings on their faces and legs, distribution of hairs on their bodies and other features that may require a magnifying glass to be seen. Native bees differ in the seasons they appear, habitats they prefer, and flowers they favor.

link: https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/blog/beyond-honey-bee-learn-more-about-california-native-bees

Now I'll pay more attention to the little guys in our garden.

 

[B-Guy]

Yes, two hives (one Italians and one Carnolians). We have had an exceptionally cold and wet spring, but the girls are doing well. I’ve joined a local Beek club and am constantly reading and learning. I spend hours each week observing their coming and goings from the hives. They are fascinating. I’m now much more observant of the flowers and plants in our area and adding bee friendly plants to our yard and garden. I think I’m hooked!

Dog- That's great to hear. Most people do get hooked as soon as they peer into a hive.

The young lady I'm mentoring in beekeeping has two hives also, like you, one Italian and one Carniolan. Her mom and frequently her grandma are all out there learning and observing. Their colonies are doing very well so far.

You will start thinking of seasons as dandelion season, clover season etc, etc, and winter. Native flowers are the best and many trees produce a lot of nectar. I planted 9 more linden trees this spring. They take about 15 years to start blooming so the first four I planted should start to bloom in about nine-ish years.

Enjoy your new found passion.