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Whats your goals for this coming year?

11K views 41 replies 36 participants last post by  Tia 
#1 ·
Whats eveybodys goals for this coming year?
I want 10 hives to make it throught winter all northen bees{mine :D}.
I have 12 right now.
Not to buy any bees my first year i wont have to buy bees thats a great feeling.
Come this spring have a better SPM in place with keeping the brood nest open and checker boarding and i might even flip some brood boxes and see what works best. Then right after the flow i'm going to fog for varroa and a brood break {make nucs for fall} plus drone frames in every other hive and SBB after JUNE 1st . Then i'm going to see witch is the best hive and make queens plus when i do the brood breaks witch ever ones are doing well i'll let them requeen on the own .Buy fall i want 15 strong hives and 15 nuc {3 deep} full of honey and bees. Plus i'm going to make queens all year long just to play with . I made 5 this past year and it was pretty easy. So those are my goals this beeing my 4th year i bet i hit my goals for this going year.
 
#4 ·
First I want to finish making it through my first winter, ideally with both hives alive.

2) Get my TBH started, split my two surviving hives (fingers crossed), get my two new nucs established, and catch a swarm or two if I can. I'd like to go into winter with 8-10 strong, healthy hives.
3) Get my issues with my homemade extractor ironed out so I don't end up doing crush and strain again this year.
4) Get a nice honey crop.
5) Have a ton of fun and learn a lot more about my girls.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Catch one of Charlie's swarms by luring his swarm to fly over Golden Gate Park into my bait hive one mile away. I made the huge mistake of accepting his invitation to speak on swarm control at his bee club and he learned so much that his hives did not swarm. They will eventually and I will be victorious.

Load up the neighborhood around 31st Ave. with a lot more bait hives to catch his swarms there. He was naive enough to give me the street name of his new site. Solly Cholly, u goin down. That neighborhood has so many swarms already it is a no lose proposition.

Load up the area around Desmond's apiary so I can catch his new package bees when they swarm. Quit giving him advice on swarm control. Convince him to crowd his bees for comb honey production.
 
#11 ·
Expand from 6 hives to 20 by splitting and catching a few swarms.
Raise a few nucs to sell to pay for more stuff.
Give queen rearing a whirl and maybe sell a few queens to locals......to pay for more stuff.
Make more honey to sell to mead makers...........to pay for more stuff.
These are some goals.......some may be achievable quite easily, others might be a little tight on time!!
 
#12 ·
My plan is to try my hand at raising some queens, either by Cloake board or Joseph Clemons starter/finisher methods. I would like to try both grafting and none grafting methods and see which one works best for me. I have hives that have never been treated for over 4 years so I will raise queens from the ones that survive the winter.
 
#13 ·
1. Try to maintain my last hive throughout the rest of this winter to complete my first year of beekeeping.
2. Finish getting my bait hives readied (I have upwards of 40 now) and capture 10-15 swarms.
3. Practice splits, combining hives, and work towards two good honey producing hives.
4. Overwinter a couple 2 deep 10-frame hives and several nucs successfully for next season.
 
#20 ·
I want to expand from 1 hive to 5 (already bought two more). I do not plan on purchasing bees, but plan to catch more wild swarms, which is how I got the bees I have currently.

I also want to learn more about splitting and reproducing, because I really love the bees that I have now, that came from a wild swarm. They are extremely gentle and good honey producers.
 
#22 ·
make splits of my existing 2 hives (i went into winter with 3) and hopefully catch a swarm, perhaps 2. maybee do a cutout... between splits, swarms etc make it to 5-6 hives.

double the honey production (100 lbs this year) and go into winter with 4-6 strong hives and roll into 2014 with at least 5, (then double again)

3 year plan is 10 hives and 500lbs+ of honey.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Ollie, Scut and I are going to try to raise queens in San Mateo. I figure with Ollie's experience, Scut's back and my stunning good looks, we should be just fine. I've aquired more yards to fill with hives so I will be doing splits using my own queens. Swarm captures from BG's and KQ6AR's yards should be a good start as well! :thumbsup: I wish Ben would move his operation here. He's got to be tired of those boring winters by now. Bring some of those bottom boards with you Ben!

I want to go from 30 to 50 hives by fall.
 
#30 ·
Swarm captures from BG's and KQ6AR's yards should be a good start as well! :thumbsup:
I want to go from 30 to 50 hives by fall.
Ive got a special swarm for you, I picked the hive up last year on the Mexico/Texas border..........sweet little ladies, when I pop the top I don't just get a couple greeters, the whole hive comes out to say hello, and boy are they clingy, just like an old great Aunt that doesn't get much company!!:D
 
#25 ·
1. Get all five hives through the winter (so far so good).
2. Successfully prevent swarming in all five hives without splitting (don't have money or room to expand). I'm planning to try MB's "opening the brood nest" trick.
3. Catch 4+ swarms in traps; offer them to friends who want bees or have suffered winter losses. (OK, I *could* have a sixth hive...)
4. Harvest 200+ lbs of honey.
5. Feed less than 100 lbs of sugar.
6. Find a summer mite treatment that is more effective and less hard on bees than Apiguard.
 
#27 ·
Successfully prevent swarming in all five hives without splitting (don't have money or room to expand). I'm planning to try MB's "opening the brood nest" trick.
This works well by the way along with odfranks method of hive manipulation. You'll have to ask odfrank about it if you want to know more, I don't want to speak for him.
 
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