What got you started? and what hive do you use?

[Fusion_power]

This is for discussion of whatever it was that got you started beekeeping and a chance to talk about the hive you use and why.

47 years ago, when I was 10 years old, my dad traded for 2 hives of bees and promptly told me they were mine. I was totally clueless having nobody else that I knew to be a beekeeper though several of my grandfather's relatives were loggers who sometimes cut a bee tree and one great grandfather had about 10 hives well before I was born. The hives were standard Langstroth dimensions, but they did not have frames, there were slats dividing the upper and lower boxes. I remember very well carrying a jar lid full of sugar water and putting it on the landing board. They were totally fascinating to me. Needless to say, they both died within a couple of years, but then a swarm moved back into one of the boxes.

Fast forward a few years and by the time I was 16, I had a dozen or so colonies made from lumber I cut and carefully fitted to make my own hives. I was working on neighboring farms making $.75 per hour hauling hay, shoveling out chicken houses, and working on a potato harvester. I bought a table saw - that I still use - and subscribed to Gleanings in Bee Culture beginning with the January 1977 issue.

I went through several ups and downs over the years at one point having 40 or so colonies. This was too much work to handle given my full time job as a systems engineer. I cut back to an average of a dozen colonies until this past year. I now have 20 colonies going into winter.

I used Langstroth deeps for brood chambers and 5 11/16 inch supers for honey until this year. Frustrated by the limitations of Langstroth equipment, I decided to build square Dadant aka Brother Adam hives and convert everything into them. I arranged for 35 cypress hive bodies plus tops and bottoms to be cut out of cypress by an Amish woodworker. I cut my own frames because I like to use 32 mm spacing and am very picky about getting them cut exactly right. I can put 14 frames into a square Dadant box which gives 136,000 cells if I fill the box with frames. The hives are set up to run horizontal 2 queen colonies. This consumed about 1000 hours of my time from January of this year to date. I still have to finish cutting 200 more frames and painting a few pieces of wooden ware.

 

[taurus]

I blame the National Trust. Whenever we used visit somewhere I always ended up just sitting watching the bees. In the end they just started off there and left me for the day. Brilliant!

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

My parents had a book "Teach Yourself Beekeeping" for some reason and when I was about 6 (I am your age) I was hooked. Particularly the order of the shapes and of the colony. I discovered the smells later. Fast-forward almost 50 years and I bumped into my Association at a local fair and I got a round tuit free with a jar of honey. Nationals just because (eg that's how my bees came). They're a PITA but there are work-arounds eg I really like overwintering on double-brood nucs.

Are there many Amish in Alabama? And Roll Tide or Auburn?

 

[Saffabee]

I too had a fascination with bees from a young age, also ants and termites which were plentiful growing up in South Africa. By 16 I had a few hives and an observation hive I built myself. My step Uncle was a large scale hobbits beekeeper so I used to be round bees often and went with him to his bee meetings. I stopped beekeeping when I went off to Uni but never lost the fascination with them. Roll forward 20 years and I find myself in the outer reaches of London suburbs a chance meeting of a beekeeper on our allotments rekindles my desire enough for me to seriously think how I can get back into it. Roll forward four years I now have 6 hives going into winter. I love the British bee over the South African bee where I would have to kit up as if going to war, here I have worked bare hands or with Nitrile gloves and can stand by my hive and enjoy watching them without my kit on (maybe not in June when they get a bit tetchy) when I started here I joined an association and did the beginners course to freshen up my knowledge and also to get to know people in the association we were taught on nationals and I liked the idea of keeping it simple. I have this year swapped 4 of the 6 boxes to 14 x 12. It has been a great 4 years I was lucky that the bees I got from our association are not swarmy at all so I normally have a very uneventful beginning of the season to the point I wish they would do, so that I could use the swarm cells to make replacement queens instead of having to graft which I am rubbish at. I normally get a good crop because we are in the suburbs. I don't the no I would change hives now from a cost perspective but I did like the idea of the Rose system same box for everything seems appealing.


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[Finman]

.
I started at the age of 15. Start was miserable. Then I met near me one of the best beekeepers in Finland. He had worked in Canada forest works as young and knew English language. He ordered two American bee journals and moved American systems to Finland.

Langstroth was rare in Finland 50 years ago. Longhives were very common, but now they are all burned.

Langstroth system does not limit anything, except pains of backbone.

You pile so much boxes to the hive as bees and honey need. Then move excluder as needed. I moved it to willow bush.

My dad hated my beekeeping up to his death. He hated my university education too. He was that sort of sosialist.

I do not mind about hive stuructures. They work splended. Even now woodpecker nets are in condition.

. I have consentrated my interests to pastures and nutrition of bees and to identyfy best pastures.

Wintering is no problem but varroa is.

20% spare hives heal many wounds.

.

 

[Amari]

.
I started at the age of 15. Start was miserable. Then I met near me one of the best beekeepers in Finland. He had worked in Canada forest works as young and knew English language. He ordered two American bee journals and moved American systems to Finland.

Langstroth was rare in Finland 50 years ago. Longhives were very common, but now they are all burned.

Langstroth system does not limit anything, except pains of backbone.

You pile so much boxes to the hive as bees and honey need. Then move excluder as needed. I moved it to willow bush.

My dad hated my beekeeping up to his death. He hated my university education too. He was that sort of sosialist.

I do not mind about hive stuructures. They work splended. Even now woodpecker nets are in condition.

. I have consentrated my interests to pastures and nutrition of bees and to identyfy best pastures.

Wintering is no problem but varroa is.

20% spare hives heal many wounds.

.

Sounds as though you are a chip off the old block.

 

[Anduril]

I was 17 when an Australian cousin visited in the summer, he told me about his many years of beekeeping in Perth Australia. In the. Autumn I went to night school to do a beekeeping course. Then in May the following year at the age of 18 I bought my first colony which came from an observation hive. Kept 2 hives in the back garden until I was 25. I had to give up then to look after my mum who had dementia. Then in 2010 I started back up with 1 hive and now have 25.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

20% spare hives heal many wounds.

.

Having got down to one LQ at one point in April, I am overwintering 200% spare, arguably 300 :-/ I'm like @pargyle; compulsive bee accumulation disorder...

 

[enrico]

I just fancied keeping bees so thirty five years ago I went and bought a flat pack bee hive and made it up. I then spent days trying to catch bees off flowers to fill my hive, eventually a complete stranger saw my hive sitting there and explained to me I needed a swarm. He kept bees and I will be forever grateful for his mentoring.... Thanks Geoff...... He came when they reduced me to tears when I was stung numerous times wearing a cheap veil... And it all went from there. Loved every minute from the day i got a proper bee suit. There is a moral there somewhere!
E

 

[bpmurray]

I'm very much a newbee, particularly when the posts above refer to multiple decades of experience, and I can clearly see that I need to learn multiple decades worth of stuff.

The fruit trees in the garden weren't producing any fruit when I went to an open day at a local grand old house four years ago and was blown away by the trees groaning under the weight of apples in the walled garden - this was only a couple of miles from me as the bee flies. There was also a demo with an observation hive and I was instantly hooked. That winter I did the local BKA course and received my first nuc the following April whereupon I promptly rolled the queen when moving them into the hive. A local beekeeper (who also owns the local bee supplies store - having a place selling bee equipment a few minutes away is really bad for your wallet) helped me over the hump and that replacement queen is still very much alive and laying heading into her third winter. I picked up a second nuc later that summer and both hives have thrived since and I'm now up to five hives.

I use national since that's what everyone else around here uses and that's what the bees came in - it's simple and seems to work well for AMM. I still have the two original wooden hives in the garden, and have the others in a friend's yard in polys - I have 2 spare hives so I exceed Finman's 20%. I also have a single Warré with windows in which I housed a cast swarm which didn't survive - I'll probably try it again next year.

 

[Matt77]

When I was a kid my great, great grandad's obituary was framed at the top of the stairs which mentioned 'telling the bees' after he died, this always facinated me. So when I found out there was a beekeeper in our village I went to see him, spent many days of my summer hols with him & eventually had my first hive at 15. My mentor always used nationals, so thats what I used & still do. After doing a bit of research on my great, great grandad it transpired he mentored William Herrod which some of you may, or may not have heard of. I was quite impressed!

 

[Magwat]

I saw Alex Langland on The Victorian Farm keeping bees the Victorian way. His passion and enthusiasm were infectious and I decided there and then that I wanted to keep bees. I found a local association introductory course and was lucky to have a fantastic mentor, a very innovative beekeeper who taught me never to be afraid to experiment. My gut feeling was that poly hives would best suit my location and I went for them even though no one else in the Association had tried them. He sadly passed away at a very young age and I still miss him many years on but I try to mentor beginners as he did me.

 

[Vortex]

About 15 years ago I developed a vague interest in Bees but never did anything about it.
Then in 2007, 7 years into our Longhall construction project (for those in the UK, yes that is the one that one the Historical Category of Shed of the Year this year, and yes I was responsible for building it), the Beekeeper from Wildwood which is next door, asked if he could site some bait hives around our site. We said yes.
The following Spring and Summer he encouraged a couple of us to go look around his apiary. Over that winter I took the decision to get properly involved and spent the early part of the spring helping him out before joining my local BBKA and spending every Sunday I was free at the Association Apiary.
I got my first bees in early summer 2010 from a swarm and go into this winter with 16 colonies.
The guy who introduced me to bee keeping ran Brood+half Langstroth, all of which he built himself from the leaflet supplied by the Min of Ag&Fish as it was in those days.
Due to a joint venture between myself, another BK who has since given up, and him, I also run brood+half Langstroth, although there are a couple of my colonies that would probably benefit from being on double brood.
For me the next question is do I stay on wood or make the move to poly..

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

I'm very much a newbee, particularly when the posts above refer to multiple decades of experience, and I can clearly see that I need to learn multiple decades worth of stuff.

@Oliver90owner is not in this thread yet but he might say that learning to THINK is more important that learning "multiple decades worth of stuff". A lot of stuff has to be unlearnt as pests and hazards arise and evolve, and a lot more was carp to begin with.

 

[Ely]

I was sat watching a documentary about beekeeping back in 2008 and thought 'I wouldn't mind having a go at that'. I can't imagine what I used to do with my time when it wasn't spent reading obsessively about bees.

 

[Teemore]

and now for a long post....

I started keeping bees in 2010.

A good friend decided he wanted to become a beekeeper and began attending a beginner's beekeeping course. When May 2010 rolled around, he phoned me one night to see if I fancied going on an Apiary visit to Belvedere House in Mullingar along with the rest of his beginners group. Now, there is no history of beekeeping in my family so I said “yes”, perhaps it was more like “YES”! Five minutes later I had to phone him back to say my father wanted to come along too and so it started.

I bought two cheap smocks for my father and I to wear during the apiary visit, reasoning that at less than £8.00 per smock, it would be no great loss if either my father or I discovered that we didn't like bees buzzing around us. I honestly wasn't thinking about becoming a beekeeper at that stage.

One of my earliest memories of "beekeeping" in a very broad sense is my father showing me the bee boles in the walled garden at a local forest park and him explaining that the bees were once kept in skeps made from thatching straw or reeds. Over the years I read various articles about beekeeping and a couple of years before my friend announced he was going to keep bees, I actually bought and read a copy of Herbert Mace's book on beekeeping. Unanticipated preparation!

The day of the apiary visit rolled around and we travelled down to Mullingar with my friend and his Mentor (a man introduced to beekeeping almost 70 years earlier although he had a break during that time). I got chatting to my friend's Mentor on the journey and I am afraid that we monopolised the conversation. The Mentor picked up that I knew more about beekeeping than I realised. Before we reached Mullingar he announced "I think you are going to be a beekeeper" and as we parked up at Belvedere House, he promised that he would get me started with my own bees before the Summer was out. He became my Mentor too and I am pleased to call him and his wife my friends. During the journey I was reminded that I have always had an interest in honeybees. On arrival, smocks and bee suits were donned by all and I realised that I didn’t mind bees crawling around over my veil and bare hands. I started dipping into this forum around that time.

After the apiary visit I began helping my Mentor with hive inspections. The very first time I went to his bees I wore the above mentioned light smock. Note it is a LIGHT smock. Think well washed shirt. He was somewhat reluctant to bring us to one particular hive as they had supers removed a week previously and thanks to a visit by livestock and a persistent two legged spectator who liked to park his elderly and asthmatic Land Rover beside the hive so he could watch them with the engine running, they were a trifle tetchy. As we worked through the frames my mentor commented, always hold the frames over the hive when you are looking at them. If the queen is on it and happens to fall off, she will fall into the hive and not be lost. Good advice. Very good advice but only if you act on it.

Two minutes later, the Queen was spotted. Just as she was being pointed out to me, the frame being held to one side of the hive.... HM fell off. There may have followed a “moment” or three of slight consternation, prompted in part by the increasingly agitated bees, several of whom demonstrated that I could ignore getting stung 5 or 6 times at the top of my thighs. Other folk at the hive side may also have been stung. We closed the hive up when my Mentor got a succession of stings to his wrists and I then learned that by wandering a short distance down an orchard, away from a pissed off colony of bees, you could shed the followers, particularly if you stood close in under the canopy of a big old Bramley tree. Twenty four hours later, it was confirmed that the Queen had made her way back into the hive.

By mid July we made up a five frame nuc that I brought home, left alone for a few weeks (bar watching bees come and go from the hive side) and then moved into a full national brood box. They built up well and got through the Winter. I continued helping my mentor with his hive inspections and colony management, doing Autumn and Winter treatments.

The following Spring I carried out initial, quick colony checks for my mentor. Even though I hadn't opened my own colony as yet, I realised it wasn't right. The bees were not flying as strongly as my Mentor's bees, highlighting the importance of being able to compare stocks of bees. I opened my hive on a lovely mild day in early April and knowing what healthy brood is supposed to look like, realised there was a problem. I brought in my mentor and the local Bee Inspector.
Post match-stick test and Lateral Flow Test: AFB.

Petrol. Pit. Fire. I was a no-hive beekeeper.

All my Mentors colonies were checked: no AFB. The Bee Inspector was and is of the view that my bees found and robbed out an old feral colony. Fortunately no colonies in my home apiary have succumbed since.

My Mentor gave me a full colony (a strain of bees that has been in the area from before his time) to replace the one that had to be destroyed. You may smile to learn that this particular colony has already been referred to above and the strain is actually pretty calm and productive! I bought a nuc from another beekeeping neighbour and after mating a few queens in apideas and creating my own nucs, I went into 2012 with increased stocks of honeybees, again having spent another year working with my Mentor and helping him to increase his own stocks.

I benefitted from working weekly with over 40 stocks of bees for a number of years, my own and my mentor’s bees. I took a wee step back last year and focused on my own bees and maintaining static colony numbers because I was undergoing what felt like an unending course of treatment for a rockery of kidney stones. I have worked to increase my own colony numbers this past year and with this seasons Nucs am heading towards the 40 number on my own as I have a good customer who would have liked to purchase a LOT more honey from me but that would have been to the detriment of my other customers. I intend to work with my bees to meet that demand in 2017 DV.
I have progressively increased the average yield from my colonies and hope that I will continue to do so. 55lbs/hive currently but with potential for a lot more by increasing some lines. Forage for my bees remains a concern. They benefit greatly from early nectar from trees and fruit and whilst orchards are a constant, hedgerows are increasingly being denuded by farmers and landowners who mistakenly believe that they have to chop mature, mixed hedges back to 4’ in height in order to preserve their Single Farm Payment. My next flow is blackberry and one apiary has the potential of a surplus from Lime trees. There is little to nothing until the ivy kicks in as white clover is a thing of the past in a green desert. I could move to take advantage of Himalayan Balsam or Ling. The problem with that is that many other beekeepers move to the Ling and it tends to create disease hotspots.... perhaps I will risk it one year. Just for the craic - and a jar or three of heather honey!

The majority of my colonies are in National Brood boxes, the prevailing local hive type and are a mix of wood and poly spread across four apiaries. On the advice of Pete Little, I try to make a lot of my own kit and invested in a few bits of kit to help in that regard. I have made virtually all my hive roofs and floors and have made over 50% of my supers. A few colonies are on double brood and I trialled some brood and a half this year. I have also been using a few 14x12 boxes. The brood and a half actually gives me a flexibility that is not present in a single national brood box or a 14x12 and for me it adds little time to inspections. Time will tell whether I persist with more colonies on brood and a half. I find that I have to remove at least a frame or two of stores each Spring from colonies overwintered in a single national brood box and that is exacerbated in a 14x12 or in a Double Brood. That may not be the case in a really long, hard winter. Time will tell. I will continue to listen, look and learn and will change to suit the conditions, to suit the needs of my bees and what I find suits me as a bee keeper. My next decision is whether or not to take my beekeeping further. One of these days I’ll have to find out more about the benefits of membership of the Bee Farmers Association and spend time with a proper commercial beekeeper.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I started wanting (longing) to keep bees when I was at school and helped a few neighbours etc with theirs whilst I was still living at home, but didn't have the money or the parents permission to have my own colonies.

Moving around the country and travelling away for fairly long periods due to work, plus all the other commitments of family life, meant getting bees was always 'on hold' or 'maybe next year' until we were fairly confident we had done the last long distance move. So we welcomed the patter of many thousands of very tiny feet.

For me the next question is do I stay on wood or make the move to poly..

Try one, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[busybee53]

I always loved bees when I was a child and used to sit and play with them. My uncle kept bees but would not let me anywhere near them. So no bees for me till much later. Then I met up with a local beekeeper who told me where he kept his hive but my other half said no to 'any more pets'.

A few years on and a swarm landed on my allotment. I took it as a sign. They were obviously in the wrong place (on a lavender bush) so I got them collected by someone from the EBKA. When I said I was thinking of keeping them I was strongly advised not to until I did their course. Did the course in 2010 and got my first bees that July. Loved keeping the bees, did the basic, won an award for being one of the best students. Learned how to make candles, polish, propolis tincture and salve. Got plenty of honey, won a few prizes, got a few stings.

Became unable to care for bees properly due to ill health. Husband who did not want more pets and who hates bees helped out until hives found good homes. Wish I started beekeeping earlier but at least I had a good go at it. Miss the bees and have to watch them on TV/Youtube now.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

I grew up with my grandfather who kept 16 colony's in the garden all in wbc hives unfortunately my uncle who also lived with us and kept his own hives away on out apiaries became extremely allergic to stings and nearly died so the decision was taken to sell the bees, I vowed then that one day I would become a beekeeper, I remember well the arguments between old/new school especially when a new plastic extractor turned up I do not think that my poly hives would be welcomed.

I bought four national hives with bees off a so called master keeper who ran the beginners course at my local association that I attended they were vile and totally unmanageable and after stinging the farmers mother seventeen times were disposed off. I was gifted a swarm by a sympathetic member and they have proven to be productive and manageable and nineteen of my stocks are decedents of that swarm I also purchased nucs from my local bee inspector over the last couple of years which with splits have expanded my numbers close to forty. Word of mouth has been both a blessing and a curse as I have needed to expand year on year to meet demand for my bees honey and a hobby has now become a company of its own.

Time is a big issue I work full time and the family suffers in the summer as my three days off are always spent with bees I need to find ways to become more time efficient.

All my hives are now 14x12 with a mix of wood/poly I also have 97 supers which are also wood/poly mix storing them in the winter is an issue as they take up a lot of space I have treated all my spare brood boxes and supers with sulphur this year as a lot of wax moth is evident.

 

[Erichalfbee]

one (won) the Historical Category of Shed of the Year this year, and yes I was responsible for building it)

Bloomin' 'eck Vortex, talk about hiding lights under bushels
That would make one hell of a bee shed


As for me...beekeeping was something I dipped in and out of wanting to do for a long time....life intervened.
After retiring at the grand old age of 53 I thought I might have a go.....
Happily my then new husband had a shared interest in the practicalities (if not the theory) so we keep together