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Thinking about starting next year

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willaien

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 8, 2009
21
0
0
AR
Some questions...

All mediums or deep with shallows?

8 frame or 10 frame?

Won't be getting an extractor for a bit, so manual extraction it is... was thinking just scrape the comb, honey and all into a bucket, then pour that through a filter (cheese cloth?) to extract

Have a friend who has offered to supply bees, but, I don't know if he does a good job keeping mites away... should I order from a reputable vendor instead?

Speaking of... who should I order bees from? And my equipment?

Thinking about ordering an 8 frame beginner's kit from Brushy Mountain, then seeing if I can gen up a few more medium supers based on that kit. I'd order the frames from them, however.
 
beeboy

beeboy

NewBee
Registered Member
Aug 29, 2004
350
1
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70
Port Orange, Florida, USA
I'm using deeps for brood with shallows for honey production. A full deep weighs around 100 lbs which can be a problem when the bees get aggressive. I even screw a piece of 1x3 over the hand holds on the deeps for a better grip. Shallow supers cost about 2/3's of what a deep cost and you have the same amount of labor assembling the frames so it deeps are better if you are on a budget. I've noticed that the bees will fill up a shallow and cap most of the honey cells before moving up into the next super while there is a lot of uncapped comb at the end of a honey flow in deep supers. I'm using 9 frames in all my supers just because it is easier to pull a frame without crushing bees. Another plus with 9 frames in a 10 frame super is that the bees will build out the comb past the sides of the frames which makes it easier to slice the caps off. If you can find a mentor or a club to help get you started, there is a lot to "owning a bunch of bugs"
 
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