having beehives

[ihookem]

I am looking into getting a colony of honey bees. I came to this thread cause I knew I would get some real answers.
1. Is it a lot of work if I just want one or two hives?
2. is it easy to sell the honey?
3. Do I need a lot of equipment? I saw a honey extractor for 800 bucks!!! Is that too muxh or is there a way
to do it for cheap?
4 I mostly just love honey but it is 4.50 a pound in the stores. Also, my son and wife have allergies and I don't. I only sneeze when I am cutting high weeds with the brush hog. My wife goes through her maximum allowance of allergy medicine by law. Now she wants me to buy some for her too. My 15 yr old son is starting to take it too. This bothers me cause I'm sure it helps that day but weakens your imune system after time goes on. What do you think of bee keeping and what is there to it? Thanks, ihookem.

 

[piller]

I started out last year with two hives. There is a lot to learn. I enjoy it very much and would like to expand to four hives next year, but it does take some work, time, and money.

Let's say that you do decide to get a hive or two. You will want to start learning and get things ready to install your new hives in the spring of 2013. You cannot count on harvesting any honey in your first year. So you may get your first harvest in June/July of 2014.

It sounds like you need local honey now to deal with allergies. I suggest that you find a local honey producer and buy direct in one gallon containers, that way you get the benefits of real local honey with the best bang for the buck price. Check to see if there is a local beekeeping club in your area, they can help you in finding someone to buy honey from and also when you are ready for your own hives.

 

[cqaigy2]

I don't have bees anymore, but used to have bees. Read up and ask questions just like you are here. Honey extractors can be pretty expensive, i have what is called a two frame extractor, it's all stainless steel so explains the cost, capping knife for removing the wax caps on the ends of the honey comb before loading into the extractor, frame jig used to help with making your own frames. I did "traditional" full sized or honey supers and frames. A frame full of honey is about 10 pounds and i usually put 10 frames in a super so a full honey super weighed in at around 100 to 110 pounds. You would probably want to have a couple full sized supers for the main hive and then use what is called comb supers for the honey, smaller and lighter used to make comb honey. Good luck and have fun.

 

[ddb123]

It is not too much work; just enough to be a good hobby. If you don't want to buy an extractor, a lot of people do crush and strain. It's not ideal, but it's cheap and a good solution for a lot of people. If you want to sell your honey, there will be people lined up to buy it. Check out beesource.com, it's a great forum.

 

[troutsqueezer]

Ditto on Beesource.com. I posted there for years. Just steer clear of the arguing that can go on there. As for your questions; ask ten beekeepers and you'll get eleven different answers. The short answers are 1) it is not a lot of work at all with just a few hives. 2) It's very easy to sell. 3) There is no proof that eating local honey helps with allergies. All evidence is anecdotal.

 

[Ed of all trades]

IT might help to get local polin from a bee keeper or your own bees:2cents:

 

[Concordriver]

I got into beekeeping because I wanted a hobby that did not take much time and was not expensive. I currently have two hives. I harvested ~ 60 lbs of honey last week and expect to harvest an equal amount in the fall. I have a relatively inexpensive hand cranked extractor...cost ~ $400. But, I have friends that simply take their honey filled frames, scrape off the wax caps, and then stand them up in pans on their kitchen counters. This method takes longer to get the honey then with an extractor. But, still works just fine. Beekeepers tend to be very opinionated in regards to how they keep their bees. I tend to take a hands off approach...just let the bees do their thing. No medicating or complicated manipulating of the hives. And, I do just fine that way.

 

[forgeblast]

Biobees.com is a good site too. Just remember there are different ways to keep bees.
I use a Warre system. All the plans for the equipment can be found at biobees. The way the warre system works is that
you let the bees do what bees need to do and you dont mess with them. After I put the bees in I didnt touch them for a year(until the spring when I added two new boxes under them). THen the bear came and destroyed them. But this fall was when I was going to get honey from them. Next year Ill catch another swarm and restart.
Equipment wise I probably have under 150.oo in the entire hobby. Thats including 3 full hives (built from 1x10 rough cut hemlock) a bee suite, smoker, and a honey bottling bucket (I was going to use the crush and strain method).
I would say if bear will be a problem, make sure you follow
Bear Fence
Protect Bees and Beehives from Bears - Keep Your Bee Colony Safe from Predators
(if you look at the picture in the about.com article thats what my fencing and hives looked like after the bear got done with it.)

 

[20 20]

You may want to check into TBH(top bar hives) I have built all my own stuff and it isn't all that hard or expensive. As others have said you'll get a pile of different answers to your questions. I agree with Concordriver, once you get them started, leave them alone, they don't need all the chemicals the money makers are trying to shove down folks throats.

 

[dmccarty]

Check you local extension office as well. Our office has meetings/classes a couple times of year about starting with bees. One day I will. If you have a local community college check them as well since they might have classes, contacts and information.

Later,
Dan