I just registered with the Department of Agriculture as a beekeeper. My bees come in May. I can't say how excited I am to eventually be able to make all my own mead from honey and berries produced on my own property.
krackin said:Beekeeping is a lot of fun, unless you have bears.
Whats the start-up cost to do this? I would google but I'm about to take off to the store?
Verge said:I'm in Nova Scotia, so I don't know much about aquiring bees in any other province or in the States. The startup cost for me will be the cost of bees, which is about 150 bucks. I'm building my own hive - a warré hive - which anyone who knows how to use a handsaw and swing a hammer should be able to do with some scrap lumber. Here, we simply register with the Department of Agriculture and then go to it.
Glad to hear you're taking a simple, less conventional approach than the traditional langstroth hive. I've moved to the horizontal top bar hive for this year in my apiary. I'd be very interested to hear about your experience with the warre!
Verge said:I'll be sure to post a review of my experiences! I'm not entirely sold on the rhetoric of the warré being the most sustainable hive, but I certainly agree with the abbé's argument that it's a low-maintenance and backyard-friendly approach to apiculture that is especially suited for beekeepers on a budget. I plan to read David Heaf and Phil Chandler's work on warré and other top-bar hives in the Spring, and perhaps they'll convince me of the other benefits. I'm a sucker for empirical evidence, so I'll probably only believe that the Warré is actually more sustainable (ie, does not promote problems with colonies to the extent a Langstroth does) after seeing the results of people who have conducted some real tests.
I always love undertaking new projects
Subbing. I'm working on convincing my wife we should move out of the city on the edge of the burbs and get a bigger house with a massive lot. With the massive lot comes tons of veggies and hopefully bee-keeping (of super-small proportions).
Anxious to see how the bees fare. Good luck!
Wow you are up there, eh? I'm from buffalo so I like ribbing y'all. I love the sounds of your plan. Were talking about doing something similar when we get out the south.
We actually have a great relationship with the dept of AG, the county and city. If you register your hives you get the 411 on pesticide spraying schedules and they'll actually avoid your hive. It also gets you hive assistance and monitoring. ( the good kind) our local beekeeper association has really coalesced.
Bonne chance
Beekeeping is a lot of fun, unless you have bears.
Virginia has a grant program for new hives. You can get $200 for each new hive you put in, up to $2400.
Phil chandlers book, The barefoot beekeeper, is a very worthwhile read on horizontal top bar hives.
WVMJ said:I think Top Bar Hive Beekeeping by Wyatt Magnum who writes for the American Beekeepers Jounrnal is a lot better and not full of so much rhetoric as Phils book. WVMJ
Verge said:Thanks for all the advice. I'll also order in Magnum's book, in addition to Phil's. I don't mind rhetoric so much.
I'm getting my bees in a 4-frame nuc, which means I have to make a conversion box (although there are other options) to get them into my Warré hive. While I'm not adverse to the Langstroths, I would prefer to attempt my first bee-keeping with the minimal amount of equipment necessary, and I really like the idea of being able to build and repair my own hives.
When I go to get my bees, the bee-keeper has agreed to show me around his apiary and give me whatever advice he can, so hopefully I'll get a little introduction to Langstroths right there.
Can't wait for some mead
good luck!! but watch out its like drugs. You just cant get enough of beekeeping. In 2 years i went from 2 hives to 8 hives
Jealous guy here.
True story: I had the space and everything to do it. Got a bunch of obscure and neat/rare books on beekeeping and read up for 6 months. Around this time I see an ad that some widow is GIVING AWAY her husbands beekeeping equipment, local pick up only, right around the corner from me. I call them up and its legit, a 10 or 12 hive full blown set up, probably worth $1000+ IIRC. She didn't care about the money, and really just wanted someone who was interested to enjoy, and to drop off a jar of honey every year so she could remember her husband's hobby. Also around this time, I had just started seeing this girl a month or two prior to all this. On the day I am going out to get the hives, I tell her casually what I am about to do. There is a silence over the phone, and then she tells me that she has had three anaphylactic reactions to bee stings, the first requiring an ER visit, and the other two with an epi-pen. Her throat closes in about 2 minutes.
10 years later, we are married with kids. No bees.
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