Identifying commercial beeks

[Finman]

wow, I cant believe you got no honey Three years in a row, I would take a closer look at your bees or environment.

That is easy. If you do not control swarming and you let the swarms go, they do not bother you with extraction..

 

[madasafish]

wow, I cant believe you got no honey Three years in a row, I would take a closer look at your bees or environment.

Even I managed to get honey every year from TBHs. Not much, but some..To get none from Nationals is surprising.....

I suspect not controlling swarms is the issue..and if that is a deliberate policy, then change it is the solution

 

[REDWOOD]

Not very responsible letting your bees swarm, you have a duty to your neighbours. and other beekeepers

 

[Anduril]

wow, I cant believe you got no honey Three years in a row, I would take a closer look at your bees or environment.

Motobiman your bee management needs reviewing. Learn to crawl before you can walk.

 

[mbc]

.
that they extract their yield from brood boxes and donate their honey to poor families.
.

A humbling and lovely thought, how much better would the world be if a chosen few didn't squander resources on whims of fancy while most of the world struggles with daily reality.

 

[Millet]

I know a old lady who has kept bees longer than i have been alive, she is nice and mentored a few, when i asked her how much honey she got last year from two hives, she replied none i do not keep them for the honey , she did however have a small cast swarm in one of her apple trees around that time.

 

[sipa]

Commercials who do not care for their bees are an ephemeral lot....gone in the blink of an eye.

So true.

 

[Finman]

Tjpla

 

[Finman]

So, producing honey is a bad thing.

More gruel habits is to resist fur production. They have painted animals, burned forage stores, burned trucks and so on. To raise furs is not against law in my country, and it is only good thing that in many countries it is cancelled.

When the owner caught once a green terrorist, police started to prosecute the owner. He had shooted the green man to the arse with shotgun.

Then, to raise cows and produce is a bad thing. Cows fart from their mouth. Botled spring water is more valuable than milk.

To produce eggs... A farmer gets 0.07 €/egg.

To eate horses...horses fart...

Sheep... We have not many...

Fishing, fish farming,

To make work and earn living is bad

To win in lotto is happy thing.

.

.

 

[Poly Hive]

The OP can wriggle on the barb but there was/is a distinct tone and obvioulsy from the posts I am not alone in hearing it.

As ITLD says happy bees are productive bees.

This season I produced nothing due to having no bees so that seems reasonable.

Last season my colonies were I frankly admit neglected due to life issues and a family death. I strongly suspect though that even given my best attentions not much would have gone better due to the weather.

2014 was another matter altogether with my star colony producing 230 lbs of Lime Tree comb honey. Note the comb please. Others in the apiary were not that far behind. It was just excellent to see.

Am I commercially minded. Hell yes. On what basis do I offer advice? Simple. What I know works, time after time. Based on experience and the production of more than a few tones of honey. KISS folks.


PH

 

[Eyeman]

Last season my colonies were I frankly admit neglected due to life issues and a family death. I strongly suspect though that even given my best attentions not much would have gone better due to the weather.

2014 was another matter altogether with my star colony producing 230 lbs of Lime Tree comb honey. Note the comb please. Others in the apiary were not that far behind. It was just excellent to see.

"If you can get a harvest when all around you are not" then that beekeeper's got something to shout about.
It's getting a honey harvest in lean years that separates the men from the boys- that's what I call managing one's bees.

 

[Motobiman]

Motobiman your bee management needs reviewing. Learn to crawl before you can walk.

Not sure I need to do anything much about my management scheme.

The bees have all the honey they made and I have the satisfaction of keeping them.

No swarms went off last year, a bit of wasp trouble with one hive and another small swarm hived up that will probably need some feeding this winter.

 

[Motobiman]

"If you can get a harvest when all around you are not" then that beekeeper's got something to shout about.
It's getting a honey harvest in lean years that separates the men from the boys- that's what I call managing one's bees.

And is their a measure of success for the beep who has no desire at all to extract honey from his/her hives?

 

[Motobiman]

That is easy. If you do not control swarming and you let the swarms go, they do not bother you with extraction..

No swarms lost last year and no honey extracted.

 

[kevrhcfag]

Would it not be conducive to the general ambience of this forum if the commercial beeks that are primarily driven by honey yields could identify that fact in their signature, as many beeks don't care a less about honey yield?

Why?

Just to clarify we haven't been doing this long, we sell a bit of honey, a few nucs now and again and hopefully next year a few queens but far from commercial, if we were we would be bust.

I have found beekeeping a strange hobby / activity and a few "strange" beekeepers, from our perspective. When people ask advice they are given it from the persons perspective and their priorities, invariably there is usually more than one alternative. It doesn't take many posts to figure out which perspective people are coming from. It really depends on your priorities.

People can't and won't look after their veg plot like a farmer would tend his fields or livestock. Why would you expect commercial beeks to be different. It doesn't diminish the advice given.

There are obvious differences in management because the priorities are so different. I would hazard a guess commercial stocks are better looked after, healthier and winter better than a lot of "hobbyist" hives simply because of necessity if nothing else, it wouldn't make commercial sense otherwise.

There seems to be a perception that 2 different fractions exist the Commercial, honey obsessed couldn't care less brigade and the hug a tree wrap in cotton wool hobbyist lobby. This is simply not true.

Beekeeping for my part is wonderful, never thought it could be so fascinating, give so much pleasure, so infuriating / annoying / disappointing at times.

Maybe you should take the advice my late father gave me, bless his cotton socks. If you don't like the answer, you shouldn't of asked the question.

 

[Teemore]

Forum avatars already give some indication of the status of forum members by allowing them to give some indication of the number of colonies they own/manage. There is no need to identify someone as commercial or otherwise.

A beekeeper of my acquaintance highlighted an interesting point. He noted that you can listen to a person who has experience of keeping one hive of bees for bees for 20 years or you can listen to a person who has kept 20 hives of bees for five years. Who has the most experience? On the one hand, 20 hive years experience versus 100 hive years experience.

There is a huge difference between a person who has honeybees and a beekeeper. ROB Manley has been quoted on this subject on a number of occasions and his opinion seems to have stood the test of time.

 

[B+.]

Who has the most experience? On the one hand, 20 hive years experience versus 100 hive years experience.

Although a beekeeper with lots of hives can usually only give anecdotal evidence because of the workload. My hat is off to those who manage to combine large numbers with good record keeping. I think this is the key to understanding what the bees are doing.

 

[mbc]

Forum avatars already give some indication of the status of forum members by allowing them to give some indication of the number of colonies they own/manage. There is no need to identify someone as commercial or otherwise.

A beekeeper of my acquaintance highlighted an interesting point. He noted that you can listen to a person who has experience of keeping one hive of bees for bees for 20 years or you can listen to a person who has kept 20 hives of bees for five years. Who has the most experience? On the one hand, 20 hive years experience versus 100 hive years experience.

There is a huge difference between a person who has honeybees and a beekeeper. ROB Manley has been quoted on this subject on a number of occasions and his opinion seems to have stood the test of time.

Every year is different, each bee colony is too but the variation in seasons is greater so imho the time served beekeeper will have a greater wealth of knowledge all other things being equal.

 

[madasafish]

I value the input from commercial beekeepers. I adopt their methods where relevant and just wish the weather was better. Predictably, the weather is unpredictable year to year...

 

[Motobiman]

Why?

Maybe you should take the advice my late father gave me, bless his cotton socks. If you don't like the answer, you shouldn't of asked the question.

Why ask the question? Because I am interested in the subject.

With all due respect to you father that's a very old-fashioned viewpoint.

I will pose an alternate: there are is no such thing as a silly question except the one you fail to ask.