Brian Rader
06-15-2009, 06:40 PM
Greetings from Wichita Kansas.
My friend has been keeping bees for about ten years, and it has always fascinated me. I finally asked him to introduce me to this hobby of his. I fenced in a section of yard behind my garage, and about mid May, my friend BY brought me a prime swarm in a brood box with drawn frames. Our arrangement was simple, if I enjoyed it, and decided to take it up, I would buy him out of this hive. My instructions were simple, "check the bucket and if they run out do a 1-1 mix and put the bucket back on. He opened the hive and showed me how the frames are manipulated, pointed out the queen, told me about the entrance reducer... yada yada yada.
Simple enough, I fed, and even opened up the hive and checked it. I actually live in the city, one block from the river, between several parks and about a 1/4 mile from the Botanical garden, and a golf course. A prime area for a hive I should think. There was just one drawback.
The current municipal code read that you could only have hives from Oct 31- June 1. HOWEVER, the city recently revised that section of code, because of all the "killer" pit bulls I say killer in jest, for those of you with pit bulls, our city is rather stupid when it comes to animals. Anyhow on with the story. The new code, completely eliminated the bee restriction, but, it did not take effect until July 1st.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, we had thrown a second brood box on top of the original, with drawn foundations. I had also dropped a little coin and recieved my "starter kit" and "growing apiary" order. Since my friend had captured several swarms from his other hives, we put those in my brand spankin new boxes. All of a sudden, I had three colonies. The plan was I would feed the new colonies, and then move them out to my girlfriend's father's farm, about 20 miles from here.
The original hive was doing great, in fact BY brought over a super with drawn comb and we threw it on. He was scheduled to leave for Hawaii for a 2 week vacation in a week.
I started to get a little worried when he left, in fact the day he left, I checked the hive and noticed an awful lot of capped cells in that super we had put on. The following Saturday, I was upstairs on my computer, when I heard this buzzing noise. I glanced up from the computer and looked out the window. Anyone care to venture a guess of what I saw?
I had done some reading, and I thought, "oh ****." I went outside and just stood there in the maelstrom, which was a swarm. Eventually they settled in an oak tree next to my driveway about 25' in the air.
I had bits and pieces of equipment, my deep boxes were being used to to cover the feeders, I called a few other beekeepers in my area and recieved some advice. Luckily I work for a company that has a bit of manufacturing capability, and we are allowed to use the equipment. I made a very cheap plywood bottom board and top cover, and proceeded back home driving one of our 65' aerial ladders.
Soon the swarm was placed in a new brood box, with undrawn comb, and using a tupperware container and a honey super, I had a feeder.
For those of you who are still reading this that makes 4 colonies. Apparently the big aerial ladder caused one of my neighbors to take notice. Later that week, I recieved a notice on my door from our animal control officers. The hives had to be moved, immediately.
Luckily for me, I have a few connections so I was able to borrow a few more days til the weekend. My friend was still drinking Pina Coladas on the beach, so I learned firsthand the joys of moving hives.
I am happy to report the bees survived, as well as yours truly.
Thats my story, and I'm sticking to it. I am looking forward to this little "hobby"
My friend has been keeping bees for about ten years, and it has always fascinated me. I finally asked him to introduce me to this hobby of his. I fenced in a section of yard behind my garage, and about mid May, my friend BY brought me a prime swarm in a brood box with drawn frames. Our arrangement was simple, if I enjoyed it, and decided to take it up, I would buy him out of this hive. My instructions were simple, "check the bucket and if they run out do a 1-1 mix and put the bucket back on. He opened the hive and showed me how the frames are manipulated, pointed out the queen, told me about the entrance reducer... yada yada yada.
Simple enough, I fed, and even opened up the hive and checked it. I actually live in the city, one block from the river, between several parks and about a 1/4 mile from the Botanical garden, and a golf course. A prime area for a hive I should think. There was just one drawback.
The current municipal code read that you could only have hives from Oct 31- June 1. HOWEVER, the city recently revised that section of code, because of all the "killer" pit bulls I say killer in jest, for those of you with pit bulls, our city is rather stupid when it comes to animals. Anyhow on with the story. The new code, completely eliminated the bee restriction, but, it did not take effect until July 1st.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, we had thrown a second brood box on top of the original, with drawn foundations. I had also dropped a little coin and recieved my "starter kit" and "growing apiary" order. Since my friend had captured several swarms from his other hives, we put those in my brand spankin new boxes. All of a sudden, I had three colonies. The plan was I would feed the new colonies, and then move them out to my girlfriend's father's farm, about 20 miles from here.
The original hive was doing great, in fact BY brought over a super with drawn comb and we threw it on. He was scheduled to leave for Hawaii for a 2 week vacation in a week.
I started to get a little worried when he left, in fact the day he left, I checked the hive and noticed an awful lot of capped cells in that super we had put on. The following Saturday, I was upstairs on my computer, when I heard this buzzing noise. I glanced up from the computer and looked out the window. Anyone care to venture a guess of what I saw?
I had done some reading, and I thought, "oh ****." I went outside and just stood there in the maelstrom, which was a swarm. Eventually they settled in an oak tree next to my driveway about 25' in the air.
I had bits and pieces of equipment, my deep boxes were being used to to cover the feeders, I called a few other beekeepers in my area and recieved some advice. Luckily I work for a company that has a bit of manufacturing capability, and we are allowed to use the equipment. I made a very cheap plywood bottom board and top cover, and proceeded back home driving one of our 65' aerial ladders.
Soon the swarm was placed in a new brood box, with undrawn comb, and using a tupperware container and a honey super, I had a feeder.
For those of you who are still reading this that makes 4 colonies. Apparently the big aerial ladder caused one of my neighbors to take notice. Later that week, I recieved a notice on my door from our animal control officers. The hives had to be moved, immediately.
Luckily for me, I have a few connections so I was able to borrow a few more days til the weekend. My friend was still drinking Pina Coladas on the beach, so I learned firsthand the joys of moving hives.
I am happy to report the bees survived, as well as yours truly.
Thats my story, and I'm sticking to it. I am looking forward to this little "hobby"