I'm getting ready to check my hives today. It's my 3rd year in bee keeping and I learn something every time I work with the bees. They have a fascinating social system. Was wondering if any other in the pinball hobby also keep bees?
I used to when I was a young person. Dad and I had a dozen hives at one point, mid 1970s. Got our first bees from guy that kept them on his 3rd floor around the window. Mom got me out of school early on day to collect a swarm of bees, 8' up a ladder surrounded by hundreds of bees.
Quoted from MrBally:Paging Mnpinball.....
Jason's family. Rufer's Apiaries
http://www.herald-journal.com/farmhorizons/2004/bees.html
LTG : )
I’m currently fencing my back yard and starting with chickens (South Bend city ordinance allows up to 6 but i’m only doing 3 for now). Mom got into bees when she retired and I’m planning on doing that next spring after I get into the groove with the chickens.
I kept two hives in my father-in-laws back yard about 40 years ago. That lasted for two years. Then later when I bought my current 3 acre spread in the city (28 years ago), I kept three hives here for about 5 years. I enjoy beekeeping but just don't have the time to maintain the hives.
Currently without bees but thinking about starting one or two top bar hives. Just noticed all the clover in bloom and no honey bees in the yard. What a shame.
Also thought about a few chickens. Maybe after I retire. We have raccoons, coyotes, and fox wandering through our yard so the chicken coop would have to be very secure.
I started with 1 hive my first year. Last year had 3 hives and now up to 4. I don't think I'll ever have more than 6 because it is just a fun hobby and does take some time. I'm also having a hard time getting them through winters.
My daughter was in beekeeping club in high school; it made a big impression on her. Last year she sent me plans for a waist-height Langstroth beehive and said, "Build this." So I did. It was a pain to build, but I like how it came out. This spring we populated it with a nuc from a local bee enthusiast. The bees seem to be doing well!
Beehive 1 (resized).pngBeehive 2 (resized).pngQuoted from mdolshan:My daughter was in beekeeping club in high school; it made a big impression on her. Last year she sent me plans for a waist-height Langstroth beehive and said, "Build this." So I did. It was a pain to build, but I like how it came out. This spring we populated it with a nuc from a local bee enthusiast. The bees seem to be doing well![quoted image][quoted image]
That is a nice looking hive! Do you intend to harvest honey from it?
I help out my dad with his Flow hives. We started with two and added a third this year. The bees weren’t able to make it through the last winter despite our insulation efforts so we had to start over. Got a good amount of honey though that we’re still enjoying.
Quoted from Jaeg:That is a nice looking hive! Do you intend to harvest honey from it?
We do. It uses standard frames. But we might not have any until next year, since we understand that new colonies often need all their honey to overwinter.
Quoted from roc-noc:Also thought about a few chickens. Maybe after I retire. We have raccoons, coyotes, and fox wandering through our yard so the chicken coop would have to be very secure.
The Urban Coop Company ones are very sturdy, but I am still going to dig a trench around the footprint and fill with cinder blocks to prevent other critters from tunneling under.
https://urbancoopcompany.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIneubqdL_4gIVk6DsCh00qg1nEAAYASAAEgJSR_D_BwE
I am really looking forward to seeing some nighttime security cam footage of pissed off raccoons pacing around the outside of the coop in frustration.
Quoted from LTG:Jason's family. Rufer's Apiaries
http://www.herald-journal.com/farmhorizons/2004/bees.html
LTG : )
As I mentioned.....
Quoted from Sputnik:This is one of the swarms I caught
How did you get them off the tree?
More good timing. We have had a swarm circling neighborhood for a few days. You can hear them coming as they fly overhead. Must be 1000 plus. Also have had about 100 bees hiding under my barn, they went through a two inch hole.
Been looking at a box on ebay. But, i am clueless on bees, must research if Im going to do this.
Quoted from Friengineer:How did you get them off the tree?
Quoted from Friengineer:How did you get them off the tree?
Take a wallpaper brush, and brush them into a bee hive.
Quoted from Friengineer:How did you get them off the tree?
Not like the way this guy tried to do it... 
Year two for us; its been a great hobby for us so far. Our 5 year old has her own suit and enjoys going into the hive with us (and operating the smoker obviously).
I’ve got a flow give, but haven’t set it up yet! It’s a hobby i really want to start, but in Texas lately we’ve been having crazy winds and tornadoes so i wanted to be sure it’s dully secured before getting the bees.
This is extraction 3 for this year. I have harvested a bit over 14 gallons this year. I got almost got 5 gallons today. I'm going into 3 more hives next weekend. That might not finish the spring harvest. There is like 400 acres of soybeans 2000 feet east. Then you get the dark fall honey.
Quoted from MrBally:Pretty sure this guy who parked next to me keeps bees.....
Or he kidnapped Frances Bavier. LTG : )
Quoted from Mbecker:Year 3 here - haven’t had success going over winter yet. Wife Caught a swarm last year so we had 2 hives. Just 1 this year - curious what others are doing for mite treatment?
I use screen bottom boards with oil traps. Used cooking oil in an aluminum baking sheet. As an added benefit it will drown a lot of small hive beetles as well. On the down side the bees drop pollen they cannot recover.
Quoted from Jaeg:The best recycled use of Stern box pallets. They are perfect size for a single hive.[quoted image]
Dude that's super cool.
I don't keep any but have saved many from the pool. Bees make the world go around. Without bees there would be no food.
Quoted from Jaeg:Honey harvest day. Space is limited so our pinball work area doubles as a honey extracting room.[quoted image][quoted image]
Nicely filled out comb, what's the nectar source?
Quoted from Pinbee:Nicely filled out comb, what's the nectar source?
We only harvest once per year so it's a wildflower mix of Spring, Summer and early Fall flowers. Mostly Dandelion, Sweet Clover, German Clover, Soy Bean with some Pumpkin and Goldenrod. Plenty of rain (sometimes too much) this season made for a good year for bees.
I just found this thread.
We are a commercial operation, many many semi loads of bees travel between South Dakota, Minnesota and Texas. We operate between 5000-6000 hives.
As well as many, many semi loads of honey are produced and shipped to our co-op Sue Bee in large totes. Please support local honey and 100% USA honey.
Look at your labels in the store make sure you read the label mostly in small hard to read location the honey is blended with foreign shipped crap much of it Argentina, Brazil or Vietnam. Many store shelves sell foreign honey in a US Grade A package in a fancy US label which means shit.
Product of USA is what you want and the only one that is USA is Sue Bee.
We have been deeply involved with the Bee Lab at the UofM with Marla https://www.beelab.umn.edu
and use hygienic stock going back into the 90’s, we sell Queens to all over the United States. We are honey producers, Queen producers and sell bees by the semi loads in April/May.
Here is a video on our family business.
4DFE74D7-8332-45DF-A79C-D2B409B73662 (resized).jpegB12C0559-D35C-4793-9E98-63618A29F4B9 (resized).jpeg511278DF-9326-4A98-8796-7316FB1E9C1C (resized).jpeg480319AE-F062-4820-9F82-0944C05D4FBB (resized).jpegB857D1BA-BE39-4EBD-8B45-D04D5B8F4E05 (resized).jpeg6CAC1B99-F278-4664-BE14-DEDF5A598483 (resized).png
That is a great video @mnpinball. My bee instructor and now mentor was a lifelong beekeeper and a great resource for me. I recently saw an article that a large commercial operation pulled out of Nebraska and will not return. If I remember correctly it was due to winter losses. I'm assuming you overwinter in Texas.
Here is a picture of our class from a few years ago.
IMG_20170502_193202379 (resized).jpgQuoted from Jaeg:That is a great video mnpinball. My bee instructor and now mentor was a lifelong beekeeper and a great resource for me. I recently saw an article that a large commercial operation pulled out of Nebraska and will not return. If I remember correctly it was due to winter losses. I'm assuming you overwinter in Texas.
Here is a picture of our class from a few years ago.[quoted image]
My grandfather and uncle ran a bee operation in Tekamah Nebraska some 35+ years ago.
Although I’m a gear Motörhead at heart and worked for the Ford motor company for 17 years I’ve been around Bees all my life and went back to the family business in 2010 my second time.
here’s a picture of myself back when my dad started the business when I was around 8 years old and a current picture.
You can see in the picture I was a fan of classic movie monsters way back when I was just a kid with my Famous Monsters of filmland shirt holding a swarm of bees.
Early on when MySpace was still popular that’s where I connected with Charlie from Spooky Pinball. We became friends early on just with our similar interests in movies and music Pinball came after that. The rest is history. I don’t know does anybody even use myspace anymore ?
64CBE64A-FF7D-4259-A2EE-0CD677D6370E (resized).jpegC5F30E79-6326-4E10-A9E4-009ABDB638AF (resized).jpeg8AAF19C6-65E3-4757-B91A-E912C8D255D7 (resized).jpegA local farmer called me after finding bees during a tree removal. I boarded up the ends and gave them some food. The farmer helped move them to a new location. If they make it through winter I'll figure out how to get them in a box. I thought it was cool that the farmer cared enough to call me.
20191126_111049 (resized).jpg20191126_111055 (resized).jpg20191126_112019 (resized).jpg20191126_112652 (resized).jpg20191126_132935 (resized).jpgWanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
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Ashland, NE
