Beekeeping?

[Hydrocket]

Yea, I'd like some. But wife is anaphylactic.

So it's a no go.

[Taz's Master]

As already said, they are very interesting. They behave as a collective organism, and are remarkably gentle. Very fun for kids. The honey is satisfying to harvest and eat, and makes great gifts. I'm a pretty poor beekeeper, but on a very small scale, I enjoy it.

[sixbanger]

you-tube has some video's of bee keeping.You should watch a few.

[willtel]

Some of this is interesting.

Modern Farmer | Dear Modern Farmer: How Do I Legally Start an Urban Bee Hive?

[stevepaa]

My dad and I both kept bees. I stopped about 20 years ago. Neighbor came up to me because he had a swarm 5 years ago. I gave him some pointers and some equipment and he is now full time beekeeper.

I always placed my hive in orchards under the trees.

[aigel]

Originally Posted by willtel

Some of this is interesting.

Modern Farmer | Dear Modern Farmer: How Do I Legally Start an Urban Bee Hive?

Great link. Big hurdles there. Geez! I'd check on all points in that article before even going to a beekeeping class. Liability would be a big one for me to worry about. People can die from a bee sting and if they blame it on you, even if you did everything according to the rules, you will have a nice lawsuit going where you will have to defend yourself.

An alternative to having the bees at your house is to have them in the countryside. You may find a rancher that will let you keep them on their property all year, if they have fruit trees of any sort. Or of course if you have a cabin or other property. The bees need fairly little work, except during swarming time, when you may miss the offspring if you aren't home.

I also have seen bees on public land, such as national forest and BLM. Something to check into. There the bees would be subject to possible vandalism and bears. The former is handled pretty well by the bees themselves. If in doubt, one can always have one hive that is a little more aggressive as the watch dog for the rest of them.

G

[willtel]

Originally Posted by aigel

Great link. Big hurdles there. Geez!

There was a guy here in North GA that got in trouble for keeping bees in his neighborhood. The HOA tried to get him to remove his hives because "keeping domesticated farm animals" was not allowed per the bylaws of the HOA.

He got a letter from the University of Georgia that politely reminded the HOA that bees are wild animals and have not been domesticated so he was allowed to keep them.

[jyl]

Raising backyard animals and bees in Portland | FAQs | The City of Portland, Oregon

Technically, I'd need the written permission of all neighbors w/in 150 feet, which is about 8-10 houses. Also supposed to have a 6 foot enclosure around the hive - means it would have to be in my fenced back/side yard.

[Rickysa]

Great hobby

We got into it a few years ago and love it. There is bound to be a local beekeepers club nearby...great source for info.

My wife and son volunteer at our state zoo for the apiary exhibit...super hobby for kids also.

It's always fun to see one of the "girls" in the garden doing her thing

[aigel]

Originally Posted by jyl

Raising backyard animals and bees in Portland | FAQs | The City of Portland, Oregon

Technically, I'd need the written permission of all neighbors w/in 150 feet, which is about 8-10 houses. Also supposed to have a 6 foot enclosure around the hive - means it would have to be in my fenced back/side yard.

So, that should kill the project right there, unless you have an out of town place to fall back upon. Try the BLM / National Forest!

G

[aigel]

Hives on BLM or govn't land [Archive] - Beesource Beekeeping Forums

[HardDrive]

[herr_oberst]

A few weeks ago, a beekeeper friend of mine came by to check the hives. She found that because of a misunderstanding, a couple of frames were not present in some of the bee boxes.
(Frames are wooden structures inside the hive that the bees attach the comb to.) The boxes hold eleven frames each, but two of them only had ten.
What the bees will do, of course, is fill the empty space with comb, making it difficult to get the frames out to harvest the honey, or do maintenance.
The solution is to remove all the loose comb and attach it to empty frames with a few rubber bands. A few really mad bees later, done and done.
I asked her what would happen to the rubber bands, and she said that the bees would take care of it. They like a clean hive.

It's been about two weeks.

The first picture shows one of the ladies trying to pull a purple rubber band out of the opening. You can also see three other rubber bands in the gravel.
I felt sorry for how hard she was having to work to fix my screwup, so I reached in and grabbed it.

Bees are unbelievably cool.

Here come the rubber bands. She was literally flying around with this thing trying to pull it out.

[kach22i]

Beekeeping Industry ‘Doomed’ – Destruction of Food Supply Soon to Follow?
Beekeeping Industry ‘Doomed’ – Destruction of Food Supply Soon to Follow? | Health Impact News

Many of the 6,000 orchard owners simply could not find enough bees to pollinate their almond trees, at any price… .........

Sounds like you can sell them to desperate farmers and just forget about the honey.

California nearly lost its almond crop this year, due to a lack of bees. Once a year, in late winter, 1.5 million bee hives from around the country are delivered to these orchards where the bees’ pollination efforts take place over the course of just a few days. It’s the largest mass-pollination effort in the world. This year, however, the unthinkable happened. Many of the 6,000 orchard owners simply could not find enough bees to pollinate their almond trees, at any price. 80 percent of the world’s almonds come from California, and almonds are the number one agricultural product in California.

A general consensus among beekeepers is that the bee die-offs are most definitely related to toxic chemicals. Increasingly, a systemic type of pesticide called neonicotinoids is being blamed for bee die-off’s. Neonicotinoids are now used on most of American crops, especially corn. This newer class of chemicals is applied to seeds before planting, allowing the pesticide to be taken up through the plant’s vascular system as it grows. As a result, the chemical is expressed in the pollen and nectar of the plant.

The European Commission has already placed a moratorium on this class of pesticides, but the EPA in the U.S. has failed to act. Last month, beekeepers and environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the agency over its failure to protect bees from these toxic pesticides.

[jyl]

It will be interesting to see what happens when bees become scarce enough that agribusiness starts taking big financial hits. I expect that money will talk and you'll see various insecticides banned quickly, funds flowing into bee research, incentives for farmers to plant flowers, etc. Beekeeping will be "cool".

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by jyl

It will be interesting to see what happens when bees become scarce enough that agribusiness starts taking big financial hits. I expect that money will talk and you'll see various insecticides banned quickly, funds flowing into bee research, incentives for farmers to plant flowers, etc. Beekeeping will be "cool".

It doesn't take the government making new regs for this too happen - the obvious problem will result in farmer's taking action themselves in what they chose to plant.

[jyl]

Maybe. If I'm a farmer growing crops not dependent on bee pollination, maybe i don't havr an incentive to stop using a given insecticide or plant anything else.

[rnln]

What do you do with the honey? Just eat them raw?

I was searching on how to chase honeybees away from my backyard. Reading this thread which makes me feel like I want to keep them.

[herr_oberst]

What we've been doing is opening the comb, draining the honey into a big pan and then transferring the contents into jars.

We got six or seven jars last Sunday.

[herr_oberst]