[Farmsteader]

Hello to All, I am still new to Beekeeping after reading for sometime, ordered our first set of packages taken the leap this May. Anyone knows or can chime in on Organic topic threads here would be appreciated . We moved here to Arkansas ,"The Natural State" ,with the Bee as our State insect, about 7yrs ago. Now our Home is on a few acres , we grow many Veggies,Plan to grow many flowers, raise a few Chickens for meat and eggs, and Jersey Milk Cows for all the Benefits from Raw Milk,try it your will not go back to store bought stuff they call milk . Homestead life changes you for the good, we are so happy we moved from the Big City life that was unhealthy, and do not miss , the Gun Fire, Smog, bad water, an noise.
Now on the topic at hand BEES , I want to learn what the best type of wood to utilize for Hives , so we buy or make the correct ones , we have Cedar in this area plentiful,but many other woods are available like pine,oaks,etc, wonder if Cedar wood is the best for our Bees to thrive in, so some help on that would be appreciated.
Also i am torn on which type of Hive to use this first couple of packages of Organic Bees,(not so costly, found a special person here in Arkansas that supplies a few packages) we have reserved to pick up in May. We are planning on small cells from the start and are not expecting big results until the second year, so we plan to leave as much Honey in reserve as possible to give our first couple of hives a strong chance to succeed .Any advice on types of Flowering plants would be helpful we are in zone 6. We appreciate this Fine Group and are looking forward in chatting with you.
Best Wishes, AJ and Denise

 

[Farmsteader]

Wow, Throrope, what is your name anyways? At least first name! hahaha, Thanks so much for your input and enthusiastic response, your answers helped me formulate and verify some of our plans for our beginning Hives. cedar is plentiful here, i just wondered if the Cedar repells the bees, like it does to other insects,compared to other woods. Cypress sounds nice, Maybe when i make a windowed hive for peeking in that would be a good choice. I appreciate your incite on choices, after all life is about choices and Beekeeping is a very good choice and challenge for me. Stay in touch and Take is easy, AJ and Denise:thumbsup:

 

[Farmsteader]

Thanks AR BeeKeeper, Did those meetings already Start ? Ii know they break in winter.I definetly want to start attending , thanks for the reminder, AJ and Denise

 

[Farmsteader]

I have a couple of cedar hives... the bees seem perfectly happy with them. I have seen for myself that a NEW (one year old) cedar hive did NOT get wax moths while a nearby pine hive did (after the bees had died out). I have read that the cedar effect fades rather quickly for wax moths. I was looking to see any effect on varroa mites.... None seen unfortunately. Small sampling for sure... I was going for yes/no indications. But cedar is certainly beautiful while it's fresh. I have wondered if anyone has used FRESH cedar shavings to keep moths out of stored supers or stored brood combs. I can't yet bring myself to use p-dichlorobenzene... it's gotta leave residue in the wax. Has anyone done this cedar shavings experiment?
Bill

Bill Thanks for the input, have you seen or read some on the Organic Beekeepers group- site on Yahoo, worth spending some time there, and also one of its members is this site link-
http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm
I am going to start with Organic Bee Packs from a guy in Salem that uses no Chems but Organic methods successfully . you can search here Amish Myron, someone posted his phone # if you are interested or Pm me back and i will look it up .
Some one told me about using powdered Sugar against mites so they can't latch on, has any of you heard about this tip?
Take is easy Bill, AJ and Denise:thumbsup: