The bee keeper diaries

[Iowanian]

It's a great time to buy stock in eppy pens.

This thread is a repository for bee keepers or those interested.

A couple of years ago, a couple of friends an my brother started puttering with honey bees. I didn't buy off because, well, I've never been a big fan of bees or getting stung by them. Last summer I tagged along a couple of times to check their hives and to remove honey bees from a house, public building and an old garage.

I realized at the end of the summer when I was helping them process some, that it's actually pretty interesting, and fits into my expanding "grow my own" logic. I'm not full blown hippy but I see a lot of logic in the self sustaining food thing and I'm doing some of that too.

That said, this thread is about bees, honey bees, bee keeping and bee fighting war stories.

I'm taking the leap and plan to get 2-3 hives this spring and maybe build some bee swarm traps to make it cheaper or to make a few bucks.

Join me and I'll share the real life lessons of an ameture bee keeper. I'm sure I'm going to learn some things the hard way.

[Iowanian]

Bee Keeping is...fun....

Yesterday I tried to beat the heat and went to the bee yards early to pull the honey supers(boxes of honey to harvest). I found more dead hives, that's 9 dead since June 1. The bees I cut out of the tree a week ago had absconded(left like a bad father who went out for milk)...and as usual, production appears to be down from my hopes and dreams.

I didn't get pics because I was doing this myself, but it's pretty much the same as posts previous years. I take a fume board(board with felt inside) spray it with honey bandit(smells like Almond extract, bees hate it and move down) and put that on top box. After a few minutes, you take that box off, put it on a stand and blow out as many bees as you can with a leaf blower. Then stack and bring to location for extraction.

About 3/4 of the way through I started getting work calls. I unzipped my hood to take a call and went back to it...however, i forgot to zip my hood back on, grabbed a box that was about face high and removed it. I suppose 25 bees immediately flew inside my veil. It could have been worse, but it wasn't the best experience in my life.

Today I'm getting my new extraction setup ready, and I'll begin extraction of 2022 honey today and tomorrow. I'll try to get some pics and videos of that if there is interest I will share.


Also....testing has revealed that I really enjoy the raspberry creamed honey with salty pretzel sticks.....great snack.

[seclark]

Keep posting
I’m very interested
Especially in the spun honey that was whipped up
My granny made that and I’d almost forgot about it until you posted about it
My mouth was watering, my friend
sec

[Iowanian]

This past week, I was able to harvest our honey for the year. We captured part of that process and I've put together a 1 minute overview that should give you an idea of how this happens.

https://rumble.com/v1ft4lh-2022-hone...4uowq&mc=346v4

I've bottled a couple of buckets already to fill orders. Each time we spin the extractor it's 20 frames, basically 2 boxes. In some cases there are 2 hives that make that and in some cases 1 hive can make 2 runs of honey. What I really noticed this year is the difference in the colors of the honey. From bucket to bucket there are several shades of difference in the honey. They're in the same apiary, in the same field with access to the same flowering plants. They just choose differently, or made most of their honey at different times.

The first creamed honey batches I made were ready today. I delivered a few small orders and dropped some strategic samples in those visits. People are going bananas and I think this is going to be a great seller when people figure out what it really is....I'm excited about that.

Now...yesterday.
My old scout broke down, my daily driver truck broke down and I went to do mite treatments at my second apiary in the evening....in the past 2 weeks, all 7 of those hives have died. All of them. Every hour of my summer of chasing, catching and trapping bees....****ed. The weekends I spent catching and cutting them out instead of at the lake with my kids....wasted. Today I got up at 5 am and took a kid in for a second knee surgery. Real banger of a week.

I'd lost 9, not I've lost 16 hives since June. I'm baffled. I'm going to call in some help to help me figure out wtf is going on, because it's demoralizing to work so hard at something and have it blow up in my face...in the summer....not even winter yet.

The excitement of the people sampling the creamed honey re-energized me a little and I bottled 2 buckets tonight and will make more tomorrow.

[Iowanian]

I was pretty pissed off about the number of dead colonies I'm having, frustrated to say the least.

Sunday afternoon I got a call about a swarm in a tree at a cabin my buddy I used to do bees with had owned. This is a good video of shaking a swarm into a box





It looked good, and as I went to put a piece of duct tape on the entrance to take them home, they boiled out of there like it was on fire and pinged me a couple of times before I could get back. They landed about 30 yards away in a cedar tree. I took a different box thinking they might not like the smell or something, and cut down branches and shook them again, and took them home. When I got home, I set them in the bee yard and removed the tape and they came out and gave me 6-8 arthritis treatments on my hands....and the next day absconded(left). Those bees did not want a home.

So to review, the last 2 cutouts and swarm capture I have spent time doing to attempt to replace bees....left. Waste of my time other than the videos for you guys to enjoy or hate.

[Buehler445]

Sorry man. I've had a one who sucks the penis of a 2022 also, FWIW.

[seclark]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

This past week, I was able to harvest our honey for the year. We captured part of that process and I've put together a 1 minute overview that should give you an idea of how this happens.

https://rumble.com/v1ft4lh-2022-hone...4uowq&mc=346v4

I've bottled a couple of buckets already to fill orders. Each time we spin the extractor it's 20 frames, basically 2 boxes. In some cases there are 2 hives that make that and in some cases 1 hive can make 2 runs of honey. What I really noticed this year is the difference in the colors of the honey. From bucket to bucket there are several shades of difference in the honey. They're in the same apiary, in the same field with access to the same flowering plants. They just choose differently, or made most of their honey at different times.

The first creamed honey batches I made were ready today. I delivered a few small orders and dropped some strategic samples in those visits. People are going bananas and I think this is going to be a great seller when people figure out what it really is....I'm excited about that.

Now...yesterday.
My old scout broke down, my daily driver truck broke down and I went to do mite treatments at my second apiary in the evening....in the past 2 weeks, all 7 of those hives have died. All of them. Every hour of my summer of chasing, catching and trapping bees....****ed. The weekends I spent catching and cutting them out instead of at the lake with my kids....wasted. Today I got up at 5 am and took a kid in for a second knee surgery. Real banger of a week.

I'd lost 9, not I've lost 16 hives since June. I'm baffled. I'm going to call in some help to help me figure out wtf is going on, because it's demoralizing to work so hard at something and have it blow up in my face...in the summer....not even winter yet.

The excitement of the people sampling the creamed honey re-energized me a little and I bottled 2 buckets tonight and will make more tomorrow.

count me as a believer in Iowans creamed honey. Ho-lee-shit! It’s heaven in a 1lb tub! I received a tub of cinnamon, and a tub of lemon….it was shipped usps and I got it 4 days later in great condition. I could spread it on a bagel right then, although I put both tubs in the fridge as soon as I got them. They’re not like raw honey, but a whipped confection to brighten every breakfast.

Bee Hole Honey Farm
Google it
If you don’t like it, I’m sorry, you’re a ****in jerkoff
sec

[tooge]

I harvested my honey yesterday. Just a note, the master beekeeper that is mentoring me told me that using a leaf blower’s pretty hard on the bees. He recommends just taking the slats out of the super and giving it one good shake over the hive and they will just get knocked off and then brushing the few that are left. Just my two cents

[Iowanian]

Originally Posted by tooge

I harvested my honey yesterday. Just a note, the master beekeeper that is mentoring me told me that using a leaf blower’s pretty hard on the bees. He recommends just taking the slats out of the super and giving it one good shake over the hive and they will just get knocked off and then brushing the few that are left. Just my two cents

He’s right, but if you have more than a couple of hives it takes too long. In the big picture if you use fume boars first, you’re only blowing a small percentage of the out with the leaf Blower.


…and sec I’m glad you liked it. Which reminds me I need to get off my ass and go make some more today.

[Otter]

Do you have a online selling format?

[Iowanian]

I don’t have an online store but I do ship if people want to pay for that. Pm and I’ll share info

[tooge]

So i harvested my fist year honey today, 60 lbs. still gotta harvest my second hive.

[Iowanian]

That’s awesome I’d you got 60# out of 2 first year hives, let alone one. That’s great production.


I had a state inspector come down and try to figure out why all my shit is dying. He said in 40 years he’d never seem what’s going on at my second yard where all of them died. We found 2 more during inspections and mite testing with no queens and dying…..that’s typical.

I had a call of a falling down house and a tree down from a tornado that needed bees removed before they are burned. Wasn’t in the mood due to recent results and time of year, but my horizontal hive was dying and has honey so I did it. The tree turned out to be bumble bees…. The house had a shitload of bees in it. I had to chainsaw open the roof and soffit to get to them, but after 6hr of my estimated 2hr job I was t done and my bee vac wasn’t working. I had a box completely full of bees and estimate there were still 6~8# of bees clustered…and likely the queen. I put the hive box with the brood comb together and set it in the attic. I got a call today from the owner and it sounds like he thinks the bees went into my box….so hopefully I got them so it wasn’t another wasted Saturday.

[Iowanian]

Update time.
The bees I spent 6-7hrs above cutting out of a house before it burned....absconded a day or two later. Wasted day. The bees I got from the tree...absconded a couple of days later. The bees from the last swarm, absconded.

Body count. 21 dead hives. I've gathered them all up and have started the process of cleaning up the mess from the wax moths that infest dead and weak hives.

I've been getting ready for winter. I do still have 9 living hives that appear healthy right now. I put in entrance reducers(a smaller front door), added 2" spacers on top of the hives, a layer of newspaper and dry sugar. The idea is the dry sugar will absorb moisture, harden and be a back-up food source. I'll add again until snow flows.

On the upside, I'm as good at marketing my products as I am bad at keeping bees alive. Creamed honey is really taking off as people learn about it and I've spent quite a bit of time making that on weekends. Yesterday I was able to make about 50# while I watched the Chiefs game.

Anyway, good luck to the rest of you going into winter, and thank you to all of you that have reached out and given my honey a try. I do appreciate it.

[lewdog]

I don’t always double post my picture, but when I do it’s for honey.

This is really good stuff.

Thank you!

[Iowanian]

Spring update time.

Everything that survived the slaughter of summer '22, is still alive heading into March. There is hope.

I'm doing some things differently this year and I'm regrouping.
This year, I'm again running 2 bee yards, and I'm going to do a 3rd that I use as a quarantine yard. Anytime I catch a swarm or obtain wild bees, they go to the quarantine yard, get mite treatments and after they stay healthy for 3-4 weeks, I'll move them to a main yard.

I've pre-ordered some nucs of bees from 3 different people. I have ordered a new variety of queen, the Cordovan Italian. I'm going to use half of those to replace queens in hives that were mean last year or didn't produce. The other half I'm going to use for splits. I've got queens coming from 2 other producers as well, and they're more of a "mutt" that has been developed by some people in the state.

My plan is to split everything I buy evenly. If I buy 4 from producer A, I'm going to run 2 in 10 frame boxes at home, and 2 in 9 frame boxes in the 2nd yard. I'm going to try to do a better job of tracking temperament, production etc and use this as a learning and growing year with the goal to get my hive numbers back up where I need them, and produce a lot more honey. I'm pretty good at selling it, now I've got to back it up with production and try to make enough money back to be worth the hours and stings.

Hopefully this year the juice is worth the squeeze.

If there is still interest, I'll keep posting and making a few videos again this year.