Hello from Mcnairy County Tennessee. Home of Buford Pusser and some other interresting folks. Married, kids, grandkids, christian...... Retired disabled Army and born and raised in Talladega County Alabama. Home of some other intersting folks and the Talladega 500, Nascar. LOL Anyway Roll Tide! New to beekeeping . Attended a short course and joined SABA. (Savannah Area Beekeepers Association). That is Tennessee not Georgia.
Here is my beekeeping experiences so far.......I did a cutout in a home someone was remodeling. Huge hive, only 200 bees, no queen, half frame brood, no honey, moths, beetles, etc. Didnt make it through the cold. I did a second cutout that was under a mans trailer house. This was the biggest hive I have ever seen. It took 20 frames just for their brood comb. They have worker, drone and queen cells. I gave them an additional 10 frames of their combs for expansion and another 10 frames for honey. They had 21.5 pounds of honey comb still remaining even after this long cold winter. 4 medium supers just to get them all together. They had almost zero pest. I think there were only 3 little hive beetles in the entire hive. They are really healthy and doing great.
It was really amazing to be lying on your back with thousands of bees less than 2 feet above your face. I build all my own hives. So far I have built 7 medium supers, 2 nucs, inner and outer tops, screened bottoms and 70 frames. I trim and rubber band their own combs in on the frames. Next I am going to build some swarm boxes, put a frame of old brood comb from the first cutout i did, after placing them in the freezer for a week or so to rid pest, and a drop of lemongrass oil in it and place them in the woods behind my house. There are a lot of feral ones in the woods here. I found that out the hard way after trying to clean out the nuc after the first batch died, on a warm day. Big mistake lol. Maybe Ill get lucky.
I did order me a little starter kit off ebay..smoker, comb brush, cell uncapper, entrance feeder, frame grabber tool, hive J tool. It was only $59 with free shipping. So far I have been using A coleman $3 insect net for my head, $5 disposable painter jumpsuit and $4 longcuff playtex dish cleaning gloves. My kids say the gloves are purple but I am color blind and they look blue to me. LOL I only wear the cheap getup when doing the cutouts. Checking on them daily I only protect my eyes. I try to spend as little possible, not over complicate or over think everything and make what I can and so far with great success. I am so into this and enjoy it with a passion. My wife says im obsessed LOL.
I found this site by accident visit everyday and have leaned so much information.
thanks for everything,
Randall
Here is my beekeeping experiences so far.......I did a cutout in a home someone was remodeling. Huge hive, only 200 bees, no queen, half frame brood, no honey, moths, beetles, etc. Didnt make it through the cold. I did a second cutout that was under a mans trailer house. This was the biggest hive I have ever seen. It took 20 frames just for their brood comb. They have worker, drone and queen cells. I gave them an additional 10 frames of their combs for expansion and another 10 frames for honey. They had 21.5 pounds of honey comb still remaining even after this long cold winter. 4 medium supers just to get them all together. They had almost zero pest. I think there were only 3 little hive beetles in the entire hive. They are really healthy and doing great.
It was really amazing to be lying on your back with thousands of bees less than 2 feet above your face. I build all my own hives. So far I have built 7 medium supers, 2 nucs, inner and outer tops, screened bottoms and 70 frames. I trim and rubber band their own combs in on the frames. Next I am going to build some swarm boxes, put a frame of old brood comb from the first cutout i did, after placing them in the freezer for a week or so to rid pest, and a drop of lemongrass oil in it and place them in the woods behind my house. There are a lot of feral ones in the woods here. I found that out the hard way after trying to clean out the nuc after the first batch died, on a warm day. Big mistake lol. Maybe Ill get lucky.
I did order me a little starter kit off ebay..smoker, comb brush, cell uncapper, entrance feeder, frame grabber tool, hive J tool. It was only $59 with free shipping. So far I have been using A coleman $3 insect net for my head, $5 disposable painter jumpsuit and $4 longcuff playtex dish cleaning gloves. My kids say the gloves are purple but I am color blind and they look blue to me. LOL I only wear the cheap getup when doing the cutouts. Checking on them daily I only protect my eyes. I try to spend as little possible, not over complicate or over think everything and make what I can and so far with great success. I am so into this and enjoy it with a passion. My wife says im obsessed LOL.
I found this site by accident visit everyday and have leaned so much information.
thanks for everything,
Randall
