One of my Porsche buddies in Santa Clara has bees.
I can direct you to him.
He's on here.


KT

Ok...if you happen to not live in California or the south, what happens to the hives when its...say...-30F? Is this something that would have to be "re-started" every spring?

-30 is not a problem for bees. I grew up raising them with my father in Wisconsin. The only thing you have to worry about is keeping enough food in the hive for them to live on all winter. They eat more as it gets colder, so you have to leave plenty in there. To survive in the winter they cluster in a big ball and circle around and around all winter long to keep warm. Usually honey bees only live six weeks or something like that. Over the winter they change a little so they live longer but don't do much other than the cluster ball. On nice days they do fly out and clean the hive. As long as they have enough food, they are able to keep going. If you take too much and they get low on food, you can feed them sugar water. Otherwise, keep them out of the wind and dry and the temp shouldn't bother them.

But some winter kill will happen from time to time. Then you just mail order a new hive. They show up in the mail and you're good to go. The new hive will move right in, clear out the dead bodies and start to work. Really, it's unbelievably simple to keep bees. Vash has me inspired. I think I'm going to do it too.

the world needs more bees. found a group that will give low income family free hives. cool deal!

i am going to do it. all new stuff. the beekeeper outfit can double as a Halloween costume!

oh..turns out one of my hunting buddies keeps bees. two hives. some ex-military sniper guy. gentle dude. he says with his two hives, he gets 65 1-lb jars of honey per year. crazy.

he makes candles with the wax and soap. i never knew that about him. he just dropped off a jar of honey. it is different from the store bought stuff. it isnt clear, and i swear i can taste pollen.

You ran, he didn't. I think they sense movement as well as odor. If you can stand the pressure and not move I've found they generally won't bother you. I have a Cat end-loader and last year a hive of bees moved behind the instrument panel. I didn't want to harm them so I called a bee keeper to come and get them. He said they were Italian Honeybees. He didn't know how to remove the panel so I had to do it. I was petrified, but even with them swarming all around me, none stung me. Wouldn't want to try it without an expert around though!

I think the difference is honey bees and yellow jackets. Yellow jackets get all bent out of shape no matter what you do.

Yep, you're probably right there my friend.

i love me some cliff. great idea my man. so IN!

Vash,

Did you do this? How is it going?

Oops, Jumped on an old thread.

I kept bees for a couple years as a 4-h project when I was a young-un in SE Montana. It's not too much work to keep a hive or two. In the fall when the bees all went back to the hives, I stacked straw bales around the boxes and always left half the honey for them. I lost one hive during a winter when we saw -40 or lower.

You may be able to check with a local apiculture club or 4-h group about some of the tools. A honey extractor is a pretty large investment for a single hive experiment. Otherwise I thought it was very interesting and a good source for a little extra income. I had a science teacher who bought everything I could produce so he could make mead.

As far as getting stung... It's going to happen. Some things you can do to minimize it are a veil and gloves, white coveralls, duct tape around cuffs, and a smoker. Do your work early in the morning and don't use pit-stick or scented soap the night before.