Looking to start a hive for my garden. Talking with some friends about it made me very interested in trying it out.

ISO just about everything.

Thanks

rural king had a set to get started on sale recently....might check there

I just went down this path last year. I got a kit from Graham's Bee Works in Morgantown. I can heartily NOT, that's NOT, recommend them. Very disorganized and poor customer service.

I bought a starter hive from RJ Honey (http://rjhoney.com/) this year for my second hive and they are nice and reasonable on price but you have to pick it up in Lebanon.

You will have a hard time finding bees this late in the season unless you know someone who has nucs or catch a swarm.

Go to beesource.com and visit their forums. Also search for your local bee club and you might find someone to help you out.

Here's some great info: http://bushfarms.com/beesnewbees.htm

I just caught my first swarm this weekend and am getting a package of bees on Sunday so my hive count will be 3. Here's a video of the swarm capture. It was from my existing hive and I got lucky to get it.

Swarm Capture

Thanks John. I was wondering if anyone else on HH was doing bees. I am getting some bees this weekend from a tree that the landowner is removing. It is a pretty large existing hive and we will be having a "master" beekeeper helping us do the cutout.

In the past week, I had 3 different people call me wanting me to take care of their bee problem. All were existing hives. I look forward to learning about this. Pretty cool stuff.

Oh and very cool video.

I talked to a friend this weekend who is a bee keeper and he lost most of his bee's last winter. He said he had two hives left. He also said he bought 2 queens and 3 lbs of bees each for 235.00 shipped and they should be here some time this week. h.h.

John,

Explain to me why they ball up on a limb like they did there. I see that every once in a while. My BIL had a swarm on the side of his porch for 3 days, then they were gone. I believe I tried to contact throbak about coming and getting them.

I floated the idea of getting a hive (or 4) by the wife...and got basically a h#ck NO. I only have an acre at home so it would not be too far (or far enough) from the house.

worried the kids will get stung, bees everywhere, etc..

Any ideas to change her mind?? =)

Keep us posted how your hives do, Bean and John. I would love to learn more about this.

Yaz - when a hive gets too full the queen take a big part of the hive and leaves. It leaves the bees all messed up. The swarm is waiting for scout bees to find a new hive location. When found the scouts will come back and take the queen/colony to their new home. From my understanding the swarm and queen is unprotected hence then "ball".

I am a newbie, so take it for what it is worth.

76 - education is the key. Take them to the state fair booth or and bee class. We are going to one in Randolph County on Th. My wifey and girls are the same way. You will not know the bees are there unless one of your boys go up and kick it. Luke was skeptical as well until we went to a beekeepers house and he taught us about how bees work. Here is a video that Luke took of a colony with my phone. He was 2-3 inches away and had no trouble. One even landed and crawled on his hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm_gn5zyRBk

Yaz,

If you ever see it again, call me I'll come get them. Swarms are really docile since they don't really have anything to defend. I've seen videos of folks sticking their bare hand in the middle of them. I'm not that brave

76Chevy, I have 1/3 of an acre in the burbs of Indy as you know. I currently have 2 hives and a nucleus hive and will get another this weekend. That's as many as I want. Any more splits will go to my brother. I worked on my wife for a bit and then got a maybe. That was good enough for me She wasn't terribly happy when I came home with the receipts for a $500 starter kit! She now loves the bees though.

I have 3 bee boxes lost t 2 last winter so I will bee catching a couple of swarms this year I got 13 Gallons off 4 boxes last year Bean, Kellys in Clarkson KY is a good source for about everything There are some good clubs around SIBA is a good one I will forward you info I get from them and you can get on the mailing list if you want

Thanks. I got the link and will get on the list. We are going after the bees Saturday morning for my hive. Luke plans on videoing it so there may be some interesting stuff going on.