How to Eat?

There are many was to feed your bees sugar water.  The most common is a entrance feeder.  This feeder rest on the bottom board and has a plate that is inserted into the hive.  On the plate there is for jar filled with sugar water.  Another method of feeding is called the baggie.  The way this works is you place a zip lock baggie on top of your frames and poke some holes in the bag so the bees can feed.  Then you put another box with your inner cover and top cover so no other bees can rob it.  Another way is to have a feeder that is in a shape of a frame.  This is filled and inserted into the brood box so there is no robbing.
The way I am going to feed is a called a top feeder.  This is a box that sits on top of the hive that has 2 compartments that you fill your food with and then you put your top on to of the feeder. 

Pro and Cons

Entrance Feeder
pro:
Easy to install and remove
Cons:
Lots of robbing, doesn't hold a lot sugar water

Zip Lock Baggie
Pros:
Easy to install, Cheap to replace, no robbing
Cons:
Doesn't hold a lot of sugar water if using smaller bags

Frame Feeder
Pros:
No robbing, Easy access to bees
Cons:
Not easy to install or fill.

Top Feeder
Pros:
Easy to install, Easy access to bees, easy to fill, holds a lot of sugar water.
Cons:
Have to open hive when filling feeder.

I'm going with the Top Feeder cause its easy to use holds a lot of food and no robbing.

Already wanting spring to be here!

Yes its true, I want spring to be here.  This time of year is the gloomiest time of the year, and not to mention the coldest.  I just got my Park Seed catalog in!  Just looking at all the flowers makes me so excited about this coming year!
I already have a few things to plant for my bees.  This year we had some left over perennial wild flower mix that didn't sell, so I got it at a good deal.  Each package does a little over 1000 square feet and I got 5 or 6 bags.  We also will have our gardens this year so we have all kinds of vegetables and fruit.

So I got all my new toys except for my hive tool and my smoker.  My smoker is on back order and I just plain forgot my hive tool.  I knew that I would forget something, and I sure did.  Oh well.  I got pretty much everything but the bees now.  I am working on some top hive feeders, and should be done with those in the next couple weeks.  Once I have those done I will post some pics of those.   After that I'm pretty much done getting everything ready and will make some time to read some more forums and blogs to help educate myself and better prepare myself for the spring to come.

Excited about new toys

So I'm getting a few things to get me more ready for spring by the end of the week.

Here is a list of thing I will be getting.

1. Hat and Vail
2. Frames and Foundation for my supers
3. Hive Tool and Smoker
4. Bee Brush
5. Gloves
6. Terramycin

I also got confirmation that Brushy Mountain Bee Farm will be taking orders starting Feb. 1st for their packaged bees.
You know I will be sick that day for work!  cough cough I'm calling in scared! I'm AFRAID I wont be to come in today. 

Oh and I did get some good pics of my hives but forgot to upload them on my computer.

Old to well sort of New

I finally finished my old hive boxes that I got for free. 
All boxes where is great shape, so I didn't need to do any repairs on them.  The main thing was I need to scrap off the old paint and repaint them.  Also to sterilize them I took a blow torch and went torched the inside of the boxes on the inside walls.

Again the another cruddy phone pic.  I promise I will get my camera out and take some good pics of them.

The perfect location

My next topic is on where to place your hives.  The first thing is you have to find where east is.  East is where the sun comes up on.  If you face the entrance of your hives to the east, your hives will get a earlier start foraging.
Next is finding a spot that has some filtered sun.  This means that you don't want to place your hive in full direct sun light.  If you do it, it will cause the hive to over heat then your hive will swarm.
The last thing you need to do when finding a location is to have it near a source of water.  Yes bees need water.  Some people place their hives near a creek and some take some sort of water bucket near the hive if there is no water access.

Building on a budget

So with the economy the way it is, many people are looking for ways to cut cost and save a penny here and there.  I have decided to build my own hives or find used ones for free.  Free is good but most times it takes more time to clean and repair the used ones than it is to make your own.  I have done both and to tell ya the truth building one is more fun than cleaning an old one.

Now before building one I had to find some plans for a hive and decide on what style of hive I want.  There are 3 main hive styles.  There is a 10 frame hive, a 8 frame hive and a top bar hive.  The most common used is the 10 frame hive, so that's what I went with.
I found my plans on www.beesource.com.   They have everything you can imagine for building your own hives.

 

The advantages for having a 10 frame to the 8 frame is that it holds 2 more frames of course.  But I like the thought that most people use the 10 frame more than the 8 frame.  That means there will be more product for these hives available if i need them.  The only disadvantages it has compared to the the 8 frame is when having to move the hive or removing honey from the hive, its going to be heavier. 

So all I did was went to Lowes and bought some lumber which was 3-1x8x8 and a box of galvanized screws.  Total cost ran me about 20 bucks all together.  

Now if you buy one like I built with a hive stand, bottom board, 2 supers(hive bodies), an inner cover and top cover.  It would cost you around 130 bucks.   So that was a savings of 110 bucks!  Now this is not counting the frames and foundation.  I will purchase that closer to time for my bee to come in.

After assembling it I painted my hive.  Color selection was really hard.  I first asked around about what colors would be best.  After asking around I found out that it doesn't matter what color but my most common responds was, the cheaper the better.  

So I headed to my trusty Lowes and went to see if they had an mistints and sure enough they did and they had two one gallon cans of exterior latex paint.  One was Bright Yellow and one was a white.  Both cost me 10 bucks!  Thank you Lowes!

So here is the finished product.  I'm sorry for the poor quality of these pics.  My cam on my phone sucks.

Plans for Hives

November 24, 2010

My plans for my hives will consist of one deep body box, one medium body, and when its time I will add the honey boxes.  

I got 2 complete hives from a man from Wilkesboro.  He had a bunch of hive boxes laying around and he allowed me to take 2 complete hive for free.  So my next step is to clean the boxes as good as I can and repaint them.  I already made 2 medium body boxes so I will use them with what I got for free.

Once I have the boxes assembled I will have to wait until Feb. to order my bees.  The bees come in a 3 lb. cage, which I will be purchasing from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm.  Here is a link for their web site.  They also have supplies for beekeeping.   www.brushymountainbeefarm.com 

In The beeginning!

November 23, 2010

Well this is my first post.  I would like to say I am excited to begin this blog and my new adventure into the world of beekeeping.  I have learned so much in the past months by reading blogs and watching youtube and have decided to post my experiences for future beeks to read and learn.

So my subject is In The Beeginning. I choose the topic because first I believe in God and Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  So I thought it would be appropriate to start with the creation in the beginning .  I do believe that God created all and Honey Bees are a good example that God is our creator.  Honey Bees can not function without either of the Queen, Drones or Workers.  For them to survive, you must have all three.  So God made these wonderful creatures at the same time to survive and thrive.  This can not be possible thru evaluation. 

I am in the process of building my hives and in early spring I will receive my bees that I will transfer into my hives.