Anyone keep bees?
 

We're looking at buying a property that is currently has an ag valuation for tax purposes. We want to keep the lower taxes, but I don't want regular livestock so I'm thinking that I might try my hand at bee keeping to keep the ag valuation.

I'd have to have a minimum of 6 boxes of frames. I think there are clubs or groups in the area that I could join to talk to other folks and get advice. I know it's also possible to pay someone to do the work. I might be willing to do that if they were going to teach me how to do what they were doing.

Ben Parrish on this site keeps bees. And produces some damn fine honey I might add.

Interesting thread.

We have been given 10 boxes and all the other gear from a friend and my wife is beginning the homework phase.

Sub'd!!!

My grandfather used to have beehives... I remember him donning his bee suits and smoking them as a boy. Used to be fairly common to see hives in the rural areas ... no mas.

To bee or not to bee :D

A worthy endeavor and nature will thank you!

My wife has expressed interest - but we haven't pursued it yet.
There is a beekeeping subforum on reddit with over 80k members.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Beekeeping/

Check here first:

https://texasbeekeepers.org

Bee Keepers tend to always be on the lookout for a place to house hives. And beekeepers love to talk about their hobby. 6 hives is not a lot of work, and one you get past the initial investment, ongoing expense is minimal.

That above made me smile. My wife is a Master Gardener and we got the boxes from another MG who is moving into an assisted care facility.

I heard all the names - of the bees:)

My nephew keeps bees.

At our house we just feed them. Our Russian Sage is covered in bees, as are much of the other flowers. Someone in a housing addition near us has several hives, and the bees learned to come here to feed.

Of course we have Monarchs, and lots of other butterflies, and several hummingbirds. My master gardener wife plants the bushes that monarch caterpillars eat, and we they can strip a bush to sticks in no time. She goes out and moves them to other milkweed plants for them to eat. We are in the migration path.

my neighbor does. nothing frightening about living next door. our kid named the queen freddy mercury.

At some point several months ago, I stumbled across a video of this Russian guy that does bee stuff. I don't think this is the video, but it's interesting, I'd never seen horizontal bee boxes.

This is a different video of the same guy. He does eventually talk about the horizontal hives. I thought it was very interesting.
http://horizontalhive.com/ <-- his website
<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UFP17VekChQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I watched a bunch of videos and thought it was interesting that most of the folks in the videos didn't wear any protective gear, no gloves, no hood/hat or use smoke. Most of the folks in the videos were wearing pants and t-shirts. I guess there are times when the bees are more testy and bee people either leave them alone or if they have to may wear some protective gear. I guess certain hives also often may have their own personality.

If we actually do this, my oldest grandson is probably not going to be happy. He seems to have a bee or flying insect phobia. I'd like to think that having bees around may be able to get him over it. The good news is that he's not yet 5, so he's got lots of time.

I remember being a little squirt at friends of my dad as they were removing the honeycomb off the racks just dripping with sweet goo ....

It was heaven for a kid... better than any candy :).

Back then you'd get a Mason jar full of honey with a slab of the comb inside .... mmmm.

That's what I've been thinking. I'm sure there's some ongoing cost, but I assume it shouldn't be bad. And even the initial buy in doesn't seem that high.

It's interesting, there's a bee company that used to come to a farmers market here, they've since stopped, but we still get their honey. Anyway, they often had 3-6 different "flavors" of honey based on the flowers that they primarily fed from. It was shocking at the range of flavors available. One that they had just before they stopped was cotton blossum honey, and wow, that was amazing. What I get from them now is their primary flavor which is just wild brush. This is a very dark honey with a very strong flavor. It also is very unlikely to crystalize. We buy it a gallon at a time, but that lasts 2-3 months.

My father and a couple of his brothers were fanatics about beekeeping. At one time there were over a hundred hives in the bee yard. Their specialty was sourwood honey. Almost a clear white. Still love it.

Wow, that's a lot of bees!

As an adult I have learned that honeybees are fairly tame, and non-aggressive. As a kid I was stung on the end of my little finger by a honeybee, and my entire arm became swollen up to my shoulder in very short order. I was rushed to the hospital and for years I carried a prescription dose of Benadryl and the schools had a bottle of them for me at the school nurse's office.

I have not been stung as an adult, and I have no interest in testing my reaction.

That's understandable. I guess I'm lucky because I've been stung several times over the years by bees and other flying, stinging insects, and never had anything but the normal reaction.

Everyone is different but it's interesting to know that some doctors are using bee stings to promote nervous system recovery, leaches to promote circulation, and fecal replacement pills to promote digestive health.

All the stuff of nightmares.
Next they're gonna tell use to get bitten by a shark on purpose. geesh.

I buy honey from a place that has the hives next to a native trees forest. Lots of different trees with flowers in including the famous Manuka. It's reasonably cheap and has a bit of everything health giving in the mix. The lady who ownes the place is a very funky German hippy :)

Years ago, I saw a show about bee stings being used in the UK to treat (I think) arthritis.

I do believe that I've seen leaches successfully used under VERY specific circumstances (I think often amputations that are reattached).

I've also seen maggots that were raised in a sterile environment used with great success when treating infection which resulted in wounds that healed better than if they'd gone through surgery.

The poop stuff, do I think that some people benefit, sure. Should it be prescribed for everyone? Absolutely not. But for a tiny minority, it may work.