New Keeper Here

[BeeMade]

Hi,

I'm Larry and just started keeping bees after encouragement from my brother, who has nine hives in Kentucky.

Interestingly enough, my first colony was a result of my catching a swarm in a tree. I shook them all into a feed sack and poured them into a waiting hive box. This was November 9, 2019. After carefully feeding them patties and sugar water every day, they died out this last week.

I bought two hives on Nov 15th and those two are thriving. They are a bit aggressive but I don't believe they are Africanized. I've added a super on top of each so they can expand and they took to the frames quite quickly.

My goal is to learn all I can about splitting hives and raising queens. Would also like knowledge on general information because my goal is to leave Corporate America and do nothing but live off bees.

Happy to have been accepted into this forum!

 

[Repwoc]

I bought two hives on Nov 15th and those two are thriving. They are a bit aggressive but I don't believe they are Americanized.

Africanised?

Happy to have been accepted into this forum!

Welcome!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Welcome

Hi,

I'm Larry and just started keeping bees ................ my goal is to leave Corporate America and do nothing but live off bees.

The only way you can do that is if you have lots of cash to start with

 

[BeeMade]

I agree and I'm saving from my current job to do just that. However, money doesn't create profit but $$$$ + knowledge will. Thanks Dani!

 

[pargyle]

I agree and I'm saving from my current job to do just that. However, money doesn't create profit but $$$$ + knowledge will. Thanks Dani!

There's a saying in beekeeping circles that if you want to make a small fortune from beekeeping ... start with a large fortune.

Seriously, good luck with your ambitions... treat it as a hobby to start with and don't try and run before you can walk. It's a steep learning curve with just a couple of hives but it's easy to expand as the bees will naturally multiply .. most of us hobbyists spend a lot of time and effort trying NOT to let them expand !

Plenty of information in the hundreds of thousands of previous posts on here .. just reading the What did you do in the apiary thread from start to finish will take you all winter and teach you so much you won't find in the bee books,

Bare in mind that beekeeping in the USA can be slighty different to here in the UK where most of our members are based ... but the principles remain largely the same.

Welcome to the best bee forum on the internet and let us know how you get on with your bees.

 

[Poly Hive]

I strongly think that beekeeping in the States and esp the southern states is about as different from UK practices as you can get apart from Australia.

Weather and weather and weather are utterly different and your problems will be very different too.

I seriously suggest you find a local commercial man and ask to spend a week with him to get an understanding of how many colonies you will need to make a decent living. i suspect you may get a shock.

Also, get tore into the ABJ and Gleanings and find somewhere, local bee club? Who has a stack of back copies and read read reaed. I consumed them from the mid forties through to early 80's so have a bit of an idea what went on then and as beekeeping in many ways is very slow to change I would imagine that not much has changed. The price of honey with you is pretty sad compared to ours so that's another factor to ponder.

It's brutal bloody hard work on a big scale so be prepared.

PH

 

[herman1VB]

Hello and welcome.