Commercial Beekeeping

[Ian]

I have been switching out some of my older boxes with new boxes. Quite a treat. Our farm has made a deal with some local Amish box makers to barter boxes and wooden frames for breeding bulls. Fantastic deal! I also built a bunch of migratory tops and bottom board pallets that I built myself.
I couldnt bare the thought of painting all this equipment so I decided to hit up another local box maker to dip everything through his paraffin dipping tanks.
I will never paint again, dipping is the way to go!

[Ian]

The year before I dipped my bottom board pallets in copper naphthenate but only up to the bottom board. They walk on bare wood. That seems to be working well. I didnt fully dip because of my concern of the bees walking on that stuff

[beemandan]

you would think it cant be good for the bees to be walking on that stuff.

Delaplane, K. S.h & J. A. Berryh - A TEST FOR SUB-LETHAL EFFECTS OF SOME COMMONLY USED HIVE CHEMICALS


‘Compared to non-treated controls, significantly negative effects on brood area were found for Maverik (fluvalinate) and CheckMite (coumaphos), on bee learning for copper naphthenate wood preservative and Maverik, and bee memory for copper naphthenate and Taktic (amitraz).’

[Ian]

I was dreading the sight of my paint brush looking at the stack of equipment that had to be painted. Sending it off to be paraffin dipped was so nice and they came back looking very sharp.

[G B]

Hello Ian, I to have been dipping my boxes. But here in Arizona I go ahead and paint them white while they are still hot. The paint gets sucked right down into the wood with the parafin and helps to keep the boxes cooler.

[Ian]

cool deal George! How long before re painting your boxes?

[Ian]

Hey George, I love the guest book idea on your web page!

[The Honey Householder]

Ian,
I was in that same boat last year when I bought into 2500 new boxes and had the boys nail them together and mom painted 1900+ before taking a break from that job. She lasted longer then I would have. New bottoms and lids this year. Its been some years since there has been new equipment in this old operation. New honey house and new equipment, much be time to retire.

[Ian]

ha ha ha,
you know what,.?

I talked to an old retired beekeeper at a meeting a few years back. At one time he had built his op to 2000 hives or something like that. He had built the op from the ground up. Took him all his beekeeping career to get his op to that number, in good boxes, working in a new honey house, running trucks that were shinny, new forklift, . . . you know the deal everything set up.
He retired from the business, sold to his son. He said he lost interest in beekeeping near the end. His words exactly "Built the business all my life, I didnt know what to do after I finished building it"
The answer to that was simple, RUN IT ! lol

[G B]

Ian I am not sure if I could ever paint the boxes after they had been dipped and have the paint stick. After the paint is sucked into the wood the boxes have a kinda dull look even though freshly painted. I bought a bunch of pollen traps this spring that the guy didnt have the parafin good and hot and the paint is peeling already, less than a year. But my boxes are holding up fine. You might ask Keith Jarret how long he gets out of his boxes,he has some that he dipped as a young child shortly after the war between the states...lol... have to see if I get a rise out of him for that

[The Honey Householder]

Ian,

Each year we build or improve the business in one way or the other. For many year we bought out a lot of comm. op and my mom was alway fixing equipment. Now there is some new money coming back into the ind. and looking to update things that needed replaced years ago. Most of our lids was just tin with a brick on top so they didn't blow away. We bought out different op which had so many size of boxes. Jumbos, deep, med. shallow, thin shallows. you get the idea. We cut boxes down or add to make the right size boxes. As a kid I spend most days on the table saw cutting frames parts. Now I buy all my frames ready to go. Spend all winter getting things ready for the next season, and hopeing that we get all done before we need it. Mom and Dad has been retired for years and finally hired a foreman to run the shop. And it all comes down to I'M STILL HAVING FUN, and IM STILL RUNNING IT!!!

[Ian]

Ian,

And it all comes down to I'M STILL HAVING FUN, and IM STILL RUNNING IT!!!

Thats music to my ears! Me too, my wife and I , large family, farming, over run with work and kids, scraping by some years

HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE!

[Ian]

thats why I like a place like this fourm, I can chat with beekeepers

I can go to my local coffee shop, and talk farming til you get blue in the face, but no where to talk bees! Im the only bug boy in this small horse town lol. I drop my kids off for school, and kids in the school call me "hey beeman!" LOL

[Haraga]

Same here Ian.

[EastSideBuzz]

Building is the fun part. I like the mechanic's of all I need to do. Trucks, boxes, forklifts, hydraulics, painting building, engineering, creating. etc.

[Ian]

Take a look at this!

a vid of my wintering shed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a0_J...hannel&list=UL

[Adrian Quiney WI]

Ian that was cool. You could do tours on Halloween. It's spooky and powerful.

[Ian]

As I walked the rows, I peered into some entrances, good sized clusters.

[beemandan]

Ian, that is cool! You far northern beekeepers impress me. I know we have different challenges down here but I don't think they are even in a league with your winters.

[The Honey Householder]

Ian,
Have you ever got lost in you bee maze.
Wow you guys make pulling look fun. My Dad bought an op out that pull honey that way. They ran jumbos for honey supers.