Bees came thru....finally

[kid bow]

It's really profitable with bodybuilders. It helps keep your metabolism going and burning fat. Also people in the region who have severe allergies. The regions pollen is in the honey so you take a spoon full of honey and add it to warm lemon water it keeps your sinuses clear for a few days.

[Parnell]

That's something which has always fascinated me, JW.  Cool post.

[JW_Halverson]

JW what's a hive of bee's go for.

A "package" of bees (1 queen, 3 servant bees, and 3 lbs of workers) costs me over $125 shipped here to South Dakota. And because of where we are located, the apiary sending us the bees will not guarantee live delivery.  Too far north, too many miles, too much risk. 

The full set of structures needed include a bottom board, two deep hive bodies with 20 frames, a queen excluder, two medium honey supers and their 20 frames, inner cover, telescoping cover runs about $300.  Then you will want to get yourself a smoker, about $30.  A basic bee jacket with an integrated mesh hood will run you $45, gloves with super long gauntlets are another $15.  And the last little thing is a hive tool, trust me, you really want one of these, but they are about $6.

So figure a bit over $500 to get started. 

Some folks around here are getting $8 a lb for local honey.  I have not tapped that market yet because, frankly, I have been giving away too much of the stuff.  I gotta admit, the smile I get when people  are handed an unexpected jar of honey makes me feel good inside.

[Trapper Rob]

Well JW the jar you sent me was the best honey I ever ate.

[hunterbob]

Do you sell any of the wax? I could use some.

[Marc St Louis]

Interesting hobby.  Not something I would do, too much history with Bees and I'm not terribly fond of Honey

[autologus]

I remember those days, my whole family was beekeepers.  I grew up robbing supers. We would do it with just a smoker but we went out very regularly and checked on them and they got used to us I guess.  I loved it but one day dad was stung and had an anaphylactic reaction and that was the end of that.

We used to see a honeybee fly by and we would follow it back to the bee tree and put a hive by it and cut into the tree and get the queen and put her in the hive and come back the next day to a hive full of bees.

I miss those days, thanks JW for the trip down memory lane.

Grady

[JW_Halverson]

Do you sell any of the wax? I could use some.

We are extremely careful to disturb the wax comb as little as possible in our hives.  Bees consume many pounds of honey to exude a pound of honey, so wax production costs your honey production in a great way.  Last year we ended up harvesting 22 gallons of honey (I think) and we came up with about a pound and a half of wax total.

I do have a big ol' block of beeswax I bought years ago from a large commercial beekeeper.  How much you need and whatcha got in trade?  Send me a p.m.

[bowandarrow473]

$8 a pound is cheap, round here its that much for 8oz!

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

Man, if I had access to that much honey I'd be swimming in mead!

[JW_Halverson]

Man, if I had access to that much honey I'd be swimming in mead!

Whistling softly to myself.... .....

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

Man, if I had access to that much honey I'd be swimming in mead!

Whistling softly to myself.... .....

lol!

I had a friend who made really good mead, I recall one time when he found a 5gal carboy in a spare room that he had forgotten about, had been mellowing in there for three years! Man that was some good stuff....

[JoJoDapyro]

I hate when I forget about my beer for years!

[DC]

Forget about beer--------------- you can do that??

[JoJoDapyro]

Forget about beer--------------- you can do that??

Not good beer. I found a few PBR's in my beer fridge Sunday from last halloween.