Hi - Beekeeper Here

[sarafina_beekeeper]

I am new to the forum and wanted to introduce myself.

I am fairly new to beekeeping - second year actually - and have 2 hives in my backyard. I harvested 28 pounds of honey from my year-old hive and none from my new hive, which is fairly typical for a first-year hive. I hope to have 50-60 pounds of honey next year and want to make some mead out of some of it.

I have been reading and studying and will be mostly lurking here to learn since I won't get started right away. My husband used to make his own beer when he lived with his brother so he has some experience in the fermentation process.

I also have a spinning wheel and spin my own yarn and also make my own soap. My husband didn't even when I told him about my new hobby LOL

Sarah

 

[wayneb]

Hi, Sarah! Welcome to the "Gotmead" community. By all means keep us posted when you do get around to starting your first batch. If you run into any questions along the way and you don't find an answer in the Newbee Guide or in another thread, post 'em up here and we'll be glad to help!

 

[meadmonkey]

Hi Sarah, welcome to Gotmead. I am a weaver when I am not making mead. I know how to use 6 different types of looms, always nice to see fellow fiber artists out there. Anyways if your hubby has experience with fermentation about all thats left is choose your recipe, and get equipment. I would love to start my own hives but with an autistic duaghter my yards not big enough to keep her clear of it. Congrats on the honey production.

 

[sarafina_beekeeper]

Hi meadmonkey,

We own 47 acres in northern Arkansas that is going to be our retirement as soon as I can get my youngest out of high school and figure out a way to manage it financially. Right now we have a 30' yurt on the property to basically camp out in when we go there to visit, and it will be our temporary home until we can get something permanently built. I want to raise my own fiber sheep and goats and have at least 10-15 hives.

The biggest challenges I have had with my hives so far is fighting the varroa mites w/o using chemicals and I had to re-queen my new hive because I ended up with a queen with Africanized genes. Unfortunately, we are in Africanized Honey Bee (AHB) country and you don't always have control of who your queens mate with. The hive became so aggressive I could not work it and ended up buying a queen from Kentucky by mail order since they are out of the AHB area. It has reached southern Arkansas so they will probably be there by the time I move there in 5 or so years but at least I will know what to do. Once I re-queened, my hive was back to normal (i.e. gentle again) in about 4 weeks.

Sarah

 

[andrewschwab]

Hey someone say fiber

I think I heard the work beekeeper also

 

[sarafina_beekeeper]

awwww..... what breed are they?


nice bearding on the hives! ;D I see you have a nuc - did you catch a swarm or do a split?

 

[Angelic Alchemist]

I am new to the forum and wanted to introduce myself.

I also have a spinning wheel and spin my own yarn and also make my own soap. My husband didn't even when I told him about my new hobby LOL

Sarah

You're in Houston? I'd be interested in turning some of your honey into mead! And I'd like to turn some of your yarn into a shawl or two. And I make my own soap too. Sister from another mother?

 

[Angelic Alchemist]

One more thing: I have a friend in Baytown with a wild hive on her land. She wants to get into beekeeping. We seriously need to network!

 

[wildoates]

There's something about a fella in a pair of Levis...whooowhee.

And honey too!

 

[sarafina_beekeeper]

One more thing: I have a friend in Baytown with a wild hive on her land. She wants to get into beekeeping. We seriously need to network!

I am in Friendswood, actually but I put Houston because nobody outside the Houston area has heard of Friendswood. My hives are in my backyard so I am limited to 2 but I would be glad to help your friend with her wild one or get started in expanding them. I just had to re-queen a hot hive that had AHB genes - NOT FUN! I will PM you later with my info.

I haven't kept my blog up to date as much since I joined Ravelry, but it has some of my projects and interests and you can click on the categories on the right side.
http://www.knittynoddy.blogspot.com/

Sarah

 

[wildoates]

You do some beautiful work there, Sarah!

And the honey's fantastic, too.

 

[wayneb]

Glad to see a revival of the hobby in the south Houston area! Years ago, when I lived in Friendswood, I got honey from a work buddy of mine who kept a few hives on his property there -- but then the community enacted a law that prohibited beekeeping - I think in response to the fear over Africanized hives. I'm happy to see that (apparently) the law has been revoked, or at least softened a bit.

 

[Angelic Alchemist]

I am in Friendswood, actually but I put Houston because nobody outside the Houston area has heard of Friendswood. My hives are in my backyard so I am limited to 2 but I would be glad to help your friend with her wild one or get started in expanding them. I just had to re-queen a hot hive that had AHB genes - NOT FUN! I will PM you later with my info.

I haven't kept my blog up to date as much since I joined Ravelry, but it has some of my projects and interests and you can click on the categories on the right side.
http://www.knittynoddy.blogspot.com/

Sarah

Sweet! Though, you are a lot better than I am in the knitting arena.

 

[andrewschwab]

The sheeps are my wife's, first photo is Bluefaced Leicester(fleeces are sold before they are off the sheep) , second Jacob sheep.

Ahh good eye you saw the nuc, that would be 1 of 11 nucs I made to go into winter with.
I save some of the old queens from the re-queening in spring, they are placed into hives and allowed to grow to whatever size during the summer. Then in mid July i make 4 frame nucs with bees and use a local (no treatment) queen breeder. These nucs are carried over through winter (trickier then sounds), and used to replace dead outs or sold come early spring... Just one guys way of doing things

 

[Angelic Alchemist]

Okay ya'll, google doesn't have a Bee Keeper to English dictionary. What the heck is a nuc?

 

[wayneb]

Short for nucleus. It is basically a new hive starter: http://www.beemaster.com/site/honeybee/nucbox.html