Beesource Beekeeping Forums banner

Top Ten Rookie Bee Mistakes

21K views 65 replies 48 participants last post by  kilocharlie 
#1 ·
Anyone care to share their best rookie beekeeping learning experiences?
 
#61 ·
Number one thing I've heard and tell anyone I'm helping, get into the hive and learn by touching. If you don't look at the hive all the time, and open it every week or so, you can't learn what is good and bad. Yes you might kill your hive because you go into it to much, but the education you get from it the first year will not only love the bees more, but set you up for success with the bees the next year. Plus, that's why you have 2 hives right?
 
#64 ·
And the thing to learn the second year is don't get into the hive too often. Watch the activity in front of the hive, get an observer hive, listen to the hive. Go to bee club meetings, read old threads on beesource. Tune your senses to all the clues that you get BEFORE you crack the hive open. Go with veteran beeks to their yards - a 30 year hobbyist with 12 hives, a sideliner with 150 hives, a commercial beek with 800+ colonies. You will learn a lot!

I used to check on the 1st, the 10th and the 20th of every month, now I just look in the ones that have issues.
 
#62 ·
MrHappy, you are right that nothing beats a hand on experience.
I open my hive almost everyday since Nov. of last year. They are growing
stronger not dying everyday. If I know that opening up the hive everyday will kill them
then I won't. But so far they are fine and multiplying. Of course I do it fast too.
 
#66 ·
PatBeek - Do they make lots of honey? Are they Hygenic? If so, send them to me! I love naughty girls (need a smilie with an evil grin, heh heh)

My bumber sticker says, "Beekeepers do it with 60,000 girls at a time", but actually I'm very decent, just a one-girlfriend-at-a-time kind of guy who gets away with humor that few could pull off safely.

Oh, and one to pass along. Don't sneeze when making a bee beard. BIG MISTAKE. HUGE. STUPENDOUS. And it's a good idea to put earplugs in your nostrils when doing it, and wear "Kareem Abdul Jabbar" goggles. Two or three breathing straws can help a lot. Just put your queen cage necklace on, add unsmoked SWARM bees, get you photo, and put them back in the box (Put the queen in the box and brush them off with a goose feather) without goofing around too much.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top