Bees. Post bees. Post your hives. Post anything about bees.
NO WASPS ALLOWED
I'd really like to keep bees, but I have no prior knowledge or experience. What should I do?
Hello fellow bees. Oh boy, do I like making honey! Buzz buzz buzz.
>>2012292
The best thing to do is contact your nearest bee-keeper. If they can't personally set you up with a box and a queen/starter colony I'm sure they could put you in contact with someone who could.
My Dad is an apiarist and he get's a couple people every week who drive ~4 hours out to his farm (in Australia FYI) to do this. I think he only charges ~$100 or so for a fresh colony with the box.
The colony grows exponentially so it's useful to him to keep them from swarming by artificially controlling the population. Otherwise he'd end up with shit loads of natural hives establishing in competition.
>>2012298
Get.
Out.
>>2012339
This.
You need to be in contact with other beekeepers at the very least. They are a wealth of knowledge. Also, if you have any problems, you can call on them for help.
>>2012292
you need to buy the bees yesterday if you wanna start in 2016 because they will sell out very soon. nucs are more expensive than packages but have a higher rate of surviving/staying in the hive. Your choice whether you get one or the other just think you should know. you don't have to smoke a package though to install the bees. you gotta smoke a nuc
>>2012298
what the fuck is that a fly?
>>2013320
No. No one here but us bees.
>>2013320
Nah man.
Just us bees man.
Wanna show me around the hive? As a bee, the brood really interests me... You know... As a bee.
>NO WASPS ALLOWED
What a buzzkill.
>>2012251
All these wasposters are harshening my mellow. Post some fucking honeybees
>>2013511
>>2013512
>>2013513
>>2013514
>>2013515
Dude, let me in
I'm a bee!
>>2012251
What's the startup cost for beekeeping?
I love sitting outside and watching the bees fly around, it's so peaceful.
Bee here. Buzz buzz. Can I hang out with you guys?
>>2013615
A couple hundred bucks.
You need your boxes ready, and a nuc and your veil and gloves and a smoker. It also helps to have a hive tool to get your frames out and clean up burr comb.
$300 should get you up and running, and that will pay itself back slowly as your colony grows and splits.
>>2013615
A starter colony is going to be about $130 and depending on what kind of hive you want to put together, you can build you own for like $30 and they go up to like $400
Bees are so cute :3
I remember in university, I'd usually eat an apple after my mid-day meal, and a little bit of the juice from the fruit would run down my fingers. It was my custom to sit outside and wait for my next class to start, and it was quite common that honeybees would congregate, and, eventually, they would make a habit of landing on the hand and arm on which I'd held the apple. They would just perch there, and walk around, as if looking for pollen, and I was once able to pet one, who did nothing but keep walking before flying off.
They're adorable :3
>>2016148
Yeah, bees are chill. They wont sting you unless you try to hurt them, or they are sent a signal to kill.
Sup faggots. Collecting more pollen for that bitch queen of yours? It's only a matter of time bro. You think this name came easy? Nah, brah.
>>2012251
hey senpai, just ordered 2 packages of bees for 2 colonies this year. Im fuckin hype.
should I go with langstroth boxes, or build a top bar hive?
>>2016807
LANGSTROTH all the way. if you are being autistic about foundation you can always get frames without foundation. with top bar you don't get as much honey, and you have to inspect and take care of the hive like twice a week. shit what if its cold and rainy a week or two?
>>2016820
Oh I know I can get hollow frames for langstroth boxes. I was just wondering what the popular opinion is here. Im probably just going to order some unassembled langstroth boxes, and just copy the patterns to make my own.
>>2013515
Just now realizing bees have hairs coming out of their eyes and that made me really uncomfortable.
>>2016845
oh and one more tip...don't mix frame types. if you get frameless, go frameless all the way. plastic, plastic all the way. wax...wax all the way. bees will favor one kind over another so if you mix them up, they will not build on the variety that is less preferential. I made the mistake of buying a wax frame to replace a broken plastic one...the bitches decided they liked it and refused to put comb on the other 7 frames because they were too good for plastic. its like being a pimp to 10,000 hoes...if they get a taste of the good life they want more.
>>2016972
Good tip. I was going to do foundation on the bottom deep supers, and hollow on the media for robbing comb honey. I'll just do hollow on all of them, for robbing honey
>>2016393
Hey fuck off you nasty little thing. Go eat some wasps
>>2012298
lmao nice try tho
>>2012251
>>2012339
>My Dad is an apiarist
man fuck you, this is my dream
after like 20 years of hard work I just wanna settle down
keep some bees, produce some of the greatest honey known to mankind
sell it for a good price, not even trying to make profit
just trying to find my peace with bees and homegrown produce
can't wait til I'm old. fuck yeah
>>2016972
> its like being a pimp to 10,000 hoes
that da lifestyle ma nig
>>2016393
What kind of bird is this specifically? We have a bee hive at my house and these birds come and eat the shit out of the bees.
>>2018670
Hate to be that guy, but the flight pattern of those bugs, and the aggression makes me think those are hornets, not bees
>>2016148
Bees are beautiful little things. One evening when I was younger I was walking around my parents garden and there were bumblebees nestled in a lot of the flowers. They were so chilled out (or asleep) I could just gently stroke them and they didn't give a shit.
Bumblebees are super cute anyway.
>>2018659
European bee-eaer.
One year I had a lot of bees come to my hummingbird feeder.
Their abdomen's would turn red after they drank a lot of the hummingbird mix. I like to think that somewhere they were making red honey. Perhaps someone will market this someday.
Anyways, these bees were very smart. They would actually come seek me out and dive-bomb my head when they ran out of drink. I would have to go put more mixture on the feeder.
Very cute!
>>2019242
>>2019245
Here you can see this bees tongue.
>>2019247
The Bee Hangout
>>2019249
One last picture.
>>2019242
This can end up making red honey, and if you are a licensed Beekeeper, you have to throw it all out, the entire hive worth of surplus honey has to go according to the FDA
>>2012298
I like you anon, you are a pretty swell guy
>>2013615
Hey op startup you really wanna get yourself 3 nucs and boxes and combs to run that and if you plan on extracting honey youll want to get a small radial extractor. Around the 1200-1500 for everything of course you dont need to get it all atraight away. Also try to search for queen breeders that breed more gentle strains as its much easier to work the bees in just a veil than it is to get fully suited up
>>2020505
For your frames i would it is personal preference i use plastic (im a queen be breeder 150 hives +nucleus colonies) the only thing with plastic is you need to coat it in beeswax and give it to them to work within a few days so the new wax doesnt go really hard they prefer it the next day whilst still pluable they will build iff of it pretty rapidly. You can use anything though i dont like the wax foundation only because of the time it takes to assemble and as far as foundationless you will want to feed a new package heavily to get them started. But you will have a greater chance with nucs over packages.as they are already a united colony not one that isnjust thrown together. Also a nuc has larvae of different ages that can handle a full box where a package will strugle for the fitst month to get going unless in a nuc box.
>>2020506
Also if your getting bees try buy them from a local bee breeder as they will be better aclimatised to your area. Hope all that helps man. If you set up a good relationship with your queen bee breeder they are a wealth of knowledge and skills and will get you off to a great start.
What does one need to do to make their property good for wild bees to live on?
>>2020518
Sunflowers, horsemint, just google the rest.
Bonus points if they're naturally growing like the ones in my backyard.
>tfw allergic to bees
Why even live?
>>2019876
Why is that? Is there something wrong with hummingbird nectar or is it just a color standard thing?
>>2020763
its because hummingbird nectar is just sugar water and red food coloring. You can feed your bees sugar water, and they will survive, but the quality of the honey isnt very good, and the FDA considers it shit honey basically not fit for human consumption. You have to feed them certain parts of the year, but you should be letting them drink nectar and make honey that way if the colony is strong.
>>2020763
Do you live in the states? Im not sure about over there but here in aus we have a few native stingless varieties. I am unsure if you could import like we do with our queens ( i have exported large
numbers of packages to the states in years past).
>>2021046
how is stingless honey?
>>2021208
its really nice but you have to destroy most of the hive to get to it and they only produce an average of .5-1 kg per year. they are nowhere near as good as honey bees that produce upwards of 100 kg a season
>>2021208
It's 99% sugar and water.
Blue bee is best bee.
>>2022028
FUCK
>>2022030
second best bee
>>2016848
Well, they have hair coming out between their many faceted eyes.
What are the advantages of keeping bees? Or is it merely a hobby? Do you guys jar your own honey? Asking legitimately.
>>2013487
Underrated.
Would you kiss a bee, Anons?
>>2022208
No, but I would smooch a ghost.
>>2022234
I use bee as a nickname in a lot of places. I'm sad that you would not smooch a bee.
>>2022208
maybe not kiss but ive had cases where i have gotten the timing wrong on larvae grafts and have had to put queens in all sorts of spots including trapping one in my mouth. and ive done it plenty of times at that XD so yes french kissed a few
>>2022203
well its a great business that has a lot to do with horticulture and husbandry and biology you can really get as much out of it as you put into it. it is farming at the same time so you will have girths and dirths in product. there aree countless advantages from building up toxicity tolereances to polination to simply changing the way your local trees respond to them. ie, if you keep a few hives say 3 around places with tea trees they will not only flower more often but have increased yeilds of bloom. or hedrows that dont flower at all can suddenly be in bloom every 3 weeks as a reaction to the number of hives located in the area. they are great and have personality. as stated its has endless possibilites from wax production, honey production pollination services. meaderies or even just as an outdoor aquarium 10/10 would reccomend
VAROA GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY REEEEEEEE
>>2022365
breed better bees
>>2022357
Just curious. I have an aquarium and I was surprised by all the ways it tingled my autisms, the way you build up the ecosystem and optimize for species compatibility, how the fish behavior changes based on the environment, etc. But it has no practical use other than to stare at when I'm stoned and reflect on the universe.
I've also been intrigued by e.g. gardening in the past, would love to do aquaponics some day. IDK maybe beekeeping is right up my alley, although that's a pretty damn obscure hobby.
I've never been stung by a bee before, which was a personal streak I was hoping to maintain for the duration of my life. I guess playing on hard mode makes it slightly more interesting. (I will probably lose pretty quickly.)
Taken with muy crappy note II
>>2022763
its really good man yeah you get stung but it doesnt hurt and like anything the more you do it the more your body gets used to it. im in the proccess of doing up plans for a property my wife and i are looking at getting which will be the base where i run a apiary classes from and do the majority of my beekeeping activities ill also be setting up an aquaponics and hydroponics tunnel which will utilize barra and trout to feed off the bugs that will inherently get into the watercress and other plants i will be growing hydroponicly using the recirculated water to feed the plants which willl feed the organisms and bugs which will feed the fish its an excellent prospect and we are totally excited to try it out.
>tfw I don't know if I'm allergic to bees or not
Is there any way to find out, besides getting stung?
Some people die from getting stung.
>>2013521
>I'm a bee!
>I'm a bee!
>I'm a I'm a I'm a bee!
>>2023086
No, it's Osmia aglaia, a type of mason bee. Cuckoo wasps aren't the only metallic blue hymenopterans in existence, ya blue tit.
