I'm wondering if anyone here has ever done bee keeping, and what the experience was like....

bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

My mom can get wild honey from a beehive. She used to do it all the time when I was a kid. Whenever we found a beehive

I rented a house in Wisconsin once and didn't know until summer that my new neighbor was a bee keeper. I'm highly allergic. But there weren't many more than usual in my back yard. How do they keep them from escaping? Anyone?

I could'nt do that, I am alergic to bee stings.

They always try 2 sting my snout when I'm digging 4 honey.Geez!What's a bear 2 do?

my dad had 5 or 6 hives that he would rob for honey.

How do they keep them from escaping?

Watch the Bee Movie!

Awesome! This will be the first time I have a legit excuse to watch a kids movie!

There are some interesting videos on youtube.com about bee keeping. I found it to be very interesting. So for anyone who is just interested in learning something new... check out youtube... type in "bee keeping" in the search.

They come and go but mostly stay in the hive. It's a large wooden box and they want to stay near their Queen...just like any wise man would!

So that is what all the BUZZZZZ is about. The bees are content

Okay... today I ordered some italian bees. I've never done this before so this ought to be quite a hoot. From what I read I will get no honey this year because the bees will need it to survive the winter. I'm all excited.

Oh where oh where are the beekeepers???? I'm wondering how you medicate your bees and when. Plus as far as feeding them go I'd also like to know how it's done.

It is sorta fun, but they are lazy suckers. You will have to rotate your frames on occasions, as they will only fill the bottoms, then go to next frame if they can.

They can be out most anywhere, but I found they were a bit more productive if they had morning sun and afternoon shade. Feed them some sugar water at first, as there will be few workers to start out with. Seems to help 'jump-start' the hive - then they start going after the pollen.

Medication - there are various routines, but quite a few involve putting a pad with the meds in the hive and keeping them there for a bit. They will ingest the meds then.

And the question about 'keeping them from escaping' - you don't have to worry, as long as you give them a decent hive with room.
You can even put several hives next to each other, and each will develop separate colonies - and they only go to the 'home' hive.

Okay so I am "AS BUSY AS A BEE" lately trying to learn as much as I can before the bees arrive. I never realized there is so much behind taking care of bees. For the first year there will be no honey for me... only for the bees to survive through the winter. How often do you medicate the bees and with what? Do certain states have certain health issues or are all bees treated the same way? How many supers will be used in the first year? What about other colonies.... do these bees multiply to make other colonies. I know there is only one queen bee to a colony so where do these queens come from?

Yup I've got LOTS of questions for the beekeepers.

Geez... I got my first apiary (bee house) and there were no nails to put it together. They forgot to ship them...

Just buzzing in!
bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

<chuckle> The first of many 'bouts' to come! It really is fun though.

Oh - and little tip - if you forget to use a little smoke to calm them down first - they get *really* perturbed when you take that lid off. If you happened to have also forgot to cover your arms, you are probably going to have a 'few' stings.

Jes sayin.......

What have you used to burn in the smoker? I read something about pine needles?

Looks like I will be doing some painting... the kit is unpainted. All for the love of bees! Hee hee hee

I had a beekeeping alcoholic step-father once. Getting stung 80+ times in one day was not exactly fun, but no phobias about them. If you get stung, just scratch the stinger out and leave it alone, unless of course you're alergic. If you can't breath afterwards, congrates, you're alergic.

my house is right next to a field and it seems every summer bees hang thier nests right outside one of my windows..if we're not careful they come indoors ..the cat even runs from them