Bee Keepers ?

[troutsqueezer]

Bee trivia: Time was when everyone had beehives in their yard (called Skeps back then). In fact, they were used as part of a dowry in many societies. Bee trails were used for that purpose too. Like gold mining claims, in the old days people laid claims to certain trails that contained feral honey bee hives and these were used for barter, etc. Until Langstroth came along and invented the bee hive, people had to kill the bees in the Skeps (round, woven hives - you've seen pictures) to get the honey out or risk getting stung to death.

 

[Lou66]

When I was a kid, if we found a tree with honey bees, we would cut an cross or X on it,, it show everybody else that it belong to someone,, we would redo the cross every year as long as the bee stayed, if we found a bee tree with an cross on it then it belonged to someone,, you didn’t mess with it.. we would get the honey out by beating on the tree and finding the lowest place the hollow spot was and the honey. Take an axe and cut a hole in the tree and let it drain out.. about half of so,, it was guess work,, then plug the hole up for next year.. I knew of five trees with in a 3 mile area.. two of them was ours and they were not the closes two to our house by far.. all five were on by grandmothers land.. Lou

 

[Rayster]

That's some great history on bees.

Due to the cold snap we had last week, our scheduled delivery has been pushed back to the week of May 1.

 

[marxman]

My 2 packages of bees are coming tomorrow. Unfortunately due to the intense cold and wind we had this winter one of my hives did not make it. Looking forward to getting the new bees and getting them up and running.

An amazing hobby, a lot of fun, and so interesting.

 

[troutsqueezer]

My 2 packages of bees are coming tomorrow. Unfortunately due to the intense cold and wind we had this winter one of my hives did not make it. Looking forward to getting the new bees and getting them up and running.

An amazing hobby, a lot of fun, and so interesting.

In the future, for a little more money, you may decide to buy nucs instead of packaged bees. Nucs are 5 frame, already established hives. The chances are better with those for a successful start. You have to wait a little longer to buy them, usually (May, around here). I've had quite a number of packaged bees abscond after a few weeks. That's a hundred bucks or more out the window. For another twenty or thirty smackers, nucs can be a bargain in the longer run. Just sayin....

 

[Rayster]

Sorry to hear some of yours did not make it marxman.

There are two hives up the road and I can see one is already very active on warmer days. I'm afraid the other has no activity. Dang this cold snap !

We are buying nucs, they said bring straps and the tops and bottoms for a safe ride home. It will bee a bit creepy... ha

 

[Bird]

In the future, for a little more money, you may decide to buy nucs instead of packaged bees. Nucs are 5 frame, already established hives. The chances are better with those for a successful start. You have to wait a little longer to buy them, usually (May, around here). I've had quite a number of packaged bees abscond after a few weeks. That's a hundred bucks or more out the window. For another twenty or thirty smackers, nucs can be a bargain in the longer run. Just sayin....

I have no idea what bees cost, how they're packaged, shipped, etc. now, but I worked in the Dallas Post Office from 1959 to 1964, before the days of UPS, FedEx, and others and we'd have square cardboard boxes, maybe a foot and a half on each side with a 4 to 6 inch diamond shaped cutout on two sides covered by screen wire come through the mail with all the bees for one hive. I guess it was grass or something similar in there and of course when they got jostled around, the bees would get excited. It was not unusual back then for parcel post packages to get damaged in transit and I once told my supervisor, "If one of those boxes gets busted you can punch me out on the time clock because I'll already be gone home.":laughing:

 

[msch2112]

i have roughly 3 dozen hives on our property. Now i have absolutely nothing to do with them cause i don't know squat. A beekeeper is currently taking care of them and i get paid nothing nor do i pay him. My only payment from him is free honey!

mike

 

[Bird]

My only payment from him is free honey!

Depending on how much honey, that might be a considerable payment.

 

[Rayster]

Yeah, I hear the cost of honey is on the rise. $$

My stands are made and we are ready to receive our nucs.