Beekeepers out there?

#1

I have two top bar hives in my backyard and harvest a fair amount of the sweet stuff each year. I find them therapeutic (even though I just go stung for the first time this year and right on my throat). Give most of the honey away but I do taste it. Guessing not many of us into this hobby

(Marianne) #2

God bless you for having hives!

On one hand, I would love to do this because I find it fascinating and more importantly, good for the environment. However, I have a real phobia about bugs and could never do what is required to tend a hive.

#3

Phobias aside, technically bees are not bugs. https://beekeepercenter.com/are-bees-bugs/

(Bunny) #4

Wow bee honey is awesome stuff, I like the raw dark stuff with the mother in it.

I use to build bee boxes and re-build them, that’s a skill I know well!

I’ve been stung hundreds of separate times but you get use to it.

It’s those Brazilian bees you have to worry about infecting your domestic. Don’t want to get stung by those.

#5

I’ve been a beekeeper for close to 50 years. Started back with Caucasians, German black bees, and then Italians became the rage. I still like Italians because they are fairly docile, they don’t glue everything up with propolis, at least not as bad as some others. Their main draw back is they are robbers, and will steal another colonies honey and kill it if it gets weak. I always use Langstroth equipment, although when I caught my first swarms, I put them in cardboard boxes with comb wired and hanging until i could sell some honey to buy proper equipment. I have run up to 40 colonies per season and have a 9 deep frame extractor. I’ve been stung thousands of times and worry I may eventually develop an allergy. It’s not as fun as it used to be with the mites, and my diabetes. I still save the honey from the caps for myself. It’s the best.

#6

Bees have been doing fine for a very long time without any help from us. You can set up a couple colonies and leave them alone to do their thing. Just treat for mites at the appropriate times, and inspect for diseases like foulbrood, dysentary, low stores, etc.

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #7

I freaking love honey ! My GF and I keep seeing big collections of hives while on our “social distance” outings, and we’d love to try it ourselves… Except there is the fact that we are both Keto people, and honey is basically pure sugar carbs :frowning: I do use honey in small amounts every week to feed the yeast for my keto bread. Had the honey out again 30 minutes ago :slightly_smiling_face:
Back in my Paleo body building days, I used to come home starved (granted I was always starved in spite of my daily 4500 cals) and I’d scoop a big spoon of PB, like 3 or 4 tablespoons, put a big hole in the middle of it with my tongue, and pour about 3 tablespoons of honey on, and over it :slightly_smiling_face: That would keep me going a few more hours until dinner.

#8

I don’t keep bees but I want to someday. I have however developed a bee & butterfly garden, and have a lovely water fountain. I have lots of bee visitors, and have learned a lot about bee communication (never been stung, probably because I’m not dealing with hives as of yet). I love them! This is a great past thread on the subject:

(Rebecca 🌸 Frankenfluffy) #9

My dad keeps bees - as kids my brother and I used to turn the handle on the extractor come harvest time - we loved it! Our treat would be to chew a spoonful of the cappings - honey-drenched beeswax - it was like chewing gum. After my type 1 diabetes diagnosis aged 11 honey extraction suddenly lost its appeal! :joy:

Dad still keeps bees now, 30+ years on. Two massive ironies:

  1. He doesn’t like honey.
  2. He is (mildly, not to the point of anaphylaxis) ALLERGIC TO BEE STINGS. Many’s the time that he has to pop a Piriton and sleep off the effects… Go figure!
(Scott) #10

One stung me during dinner last night. that is as close as I will get to beekeeping. Also a bit allergic, it takes me about a week to finish swelling.

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #11

I think I might be anti-allergic to bee stings. I have gotten stung, pulled out the stinger, and 5 minutes later couldn’t even tell where exactly I was stung ?

#12

My uncle was a commercial beekeeper and queen rearer, so there was equipment all over his place. I used to get farmed out for labor on his place as a kid. I was laying on top of a bunch of mty hive bodies shooting critters in a pasture when a swarm decided to move in. I took about 10 stings to the face and neck, both eyes swelled closed mouth and lips swollen. My uncle said we’ll fix this. So every morning, first thing, he would grab bees and press them into my arm. didn’t take long to develop immunity to the swelling. But I still swell the first sting of the year. Less and less as the season progresses

(Scott) #13

I asked a friend of mine that has some hives if he has had any bad events or been stung much. He said they are fairly calm most of the time but added “sometimes they are like a women, you never know what is going to set them off”

(Karen Leigh) #14

I kept bees for many years but got rid of everything last year as I moved. It was just too much to take it with me but will probably start keeping them again once things settle down. I still have lots of honey which I don’t use but do give it to friends and family. I had pretty bad carpel tunnel on my right hand and after being stung there (I don’t wear gloves) the problem went away. Itched like crazy for a few days the the trapped nerve pain was gone.

#15

Yep, but some things will set them off big time. A friend asked for help with his backyard colony. It was a large colony, and he crushed the queen doing an inspection. Then he wouldn’t leave them alone and kept damaging the queen cells, so they went queenless and developed a laying worker. They were ANGRY! I started tearing down the hive and was getting hit pretty hard. I estimate well over 100 stings, and I turned to ask him for help, he ran away and hid in his garage!! Got out of teaching mode and into get it done and get out of there real quick! I usually don’t gear up to work a colony or two, but they don’t like dark clothing (looks like a bear to them?) and sunglasses seem to be a target for them.
Sorry for getting carried away. I have always loved working bees.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #16

My understanding is that bees away from the hive are usually fine, it’s when you mess with the hive that they get angry. Your story seems to give some point to that view!

(Troy) #17

Huge previous Honey fan!
Honey Stinger Wafers…a go to carb up treat

Aldi just started to carry this too

Looks good!!:smile:

Keto version out there probably
I know
I know

For now, I’ll just chill
Sigh

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(Rebecca 🌸 Frankenfluffy) #18

I’ve got a hot honey, but he doesn’t look like that…! :rofl:

(Sorry…)

(Ian) #19

My wife has three hives in the back garden. We both follow a keto lifestyle and rarely eat the honey (also because of the high fructose content). We take some honey to give to friends, but mostly we keep the honey to make sure the colonies have more than enough to help them survive over winter and to start other colonies. My wife is currently setting up additional hives on two friends properties.

The main reason we keep bees is because they are damn freaking cool, bees are struggling at the moment (lots of colony collapses are happening around the world), and they are vitally important and need as much help as possible to survive.

Our neighbours were not entirely happy with us keeping bees, but seamed to have relaxed somewhat after seeing me doing something I love to do, and that is sit right in front of the hive, in the sun reading a book, with the bees swarming all around with that soothing hum.

Hopefully these links will work:

In the second link there are a couple of videos and close up still images if you click left…The second one is me sitting in the middle of the flight path…

(Susan) #20

Wow, and they walk on your hand — have you been stung very much? My one daughter and I are very allergic to the stings so they make me very nervous if I am out and they are near me --but they are very interesting and helpful, I know =).