Bee Keeping

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by Lolly, Nov 10, 2005.

  1. Lolly

    Lolly Junior Member

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    Hi everyone.. :)

    I'm very interested in settling up a few nice homes on our recent purchase (yay!) to entice some honey-makers (yum!)

    Naturally all I have is an idea and not one single clue on what to do, so some advice would be greatly appreciated. Are there bee-keeping courses available or should I just invest in a yellow and black book for dummies??

    Cheers

    Lolly

    PS. Advice on growing raspberries would be also gratefully accepted.. :D
     
  2. wwoofertobe

    wwoofertobe Junior Member

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    i was looking to do a course next year through OTEN- tafe by correspondence. look on the tafe web site (i'm in nsw, it may not be avaliable in other states?) there may be a beekeeping group in your area too so ask around.

    i too would appreciate raspberry growing advice :eek:
     
  3. permajake

    permajake Junior Member

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    Bee Keeping

    Here's a web resource that is worth it's wait in download time.

    https://www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/s ... mepage.htm

    search for "Small Scale Beekeeping" if this link is down:

    The Kenya Top Bar Hive System (a.k.a. KTBH). is the one that I recommend because you can build it yourself with novice hands and it's relatively simple to manage once up and running.

    If there is anyone interested in building the Top Bar Hive, I have some additional tips I learned from an experienced urban beekeeper who built a few of these...

    Here's a glimpse of the instructions for building a KTBH

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  4. Cornonthecob

    Cornonthecob Junior Member

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  5. psychochook

    psychochook Junior Member

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    I did a bee keeping course in Lara

    Hi Lolly,

    I did a bee-keeping course in Lara (near Geelong). I will get you some contact details over the weekend. I found it very informative and interesting.

    The man who i did the course with has been keeping bees for ages and had a lot of information.
     
  6. Lolly

    Lolly Junior Member

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    Wow! Thanks for the great tips guys... now I've got no excuse to procrastinate! :?

    Time to get buzzy, I mean busy..D
     
  7. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Lolly,

    We're not keeping bees right now, but we have in the past. They are wonderful. They pollinate your crops, forage on your behalf (um, its sort of like "file sharing...", really you are ), add several variants of increased efficiencies, including pollination, value adding, additional nutrient harvesting, and they are soooooo much fun!

    My bees became Africanized, "killere bees, ugh, no fun. Not docile, easy to get along with, but mean, hyper defensive, vicious bugs, vicious in that way only social insects can be....

    The tope bar hives are great, but they do make using centrifugal xtractors impossible. I have never used on myself, but can see that they offer some advantages over boxes, especially reduced start up costs.

    I took a class sponsored by peace Corps about 16 years ago, raised them for three years, and then sold all my equipment when they became Africanized, which I did ultimately to my great regret (beekeeping equipment is costly and lasts a long time if well taken care of, little didI know... :cry: ) as the problems associated with Africanized bees are solved with two beekeepers working in tandem, with one working the smoker non stop and the other, um, "file sharing" (STEALING!) the honey. I was single when I sold it, and we have been interested in bees ever since....

    If a course is available, my advice would be to take it as it would be time and money well spent! I learned alot, and it also helped me get over that initial (and sensible) primordial brain stem fear thing of opening a box with thousands of potentially hostile stinging insects in it, thousands of stinging insect sitting on top of THEIR honey which you want to take from them...... :lol: .

    Good luck on the beekeeping. T'is worthy work, both for you and your farm and adjacent areas.

    C
     
  8. psychochook

    psychochook Junior Member

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    As promised, here are the details of the course I did.

    The man who took the course is called Brian Faithfull and he lives in Lara (Victoria 3212). I don't have info re web-sites (if he even has one). I did the course in 2002, so I can't even promise that you is still teaching it.

    He is in the phone book so I am sure that you will be able to track him down. I found his course to be quite good, with practical activities with hives in his back yard as well as theory about diseases etc.
     
  9. Lolly

    Lolly Junior Member

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    Thanks again folks... I'm really keen to start learning..

    Linda :)
     
  10. dryland dweller

    dryland dweller Junior Member

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    Like Chris I kept bees until the mid 80's and due to drought and stupidity I got rid of them to another aspirant. I did keep some of the duplicated tools tho and my 2 steam knives. the set up costs for bees (not including bees) is about $1000.00 and that includes a bench top extractor.
    here is a site that sells all the gear including queens. I used them until I stopped keeping bees and they are still going :D

    https://www.johnlguilfoyle.com.au/

    with enough honey who needs sugar :D
    Pete
     
  11. Lolly

    Lolly Junior Member

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    :? Christopher... what does "africanised" mean?? Does a rogue ring-in come and crash the party??
     
  12. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Lolly,

    "Africanized" means your European bees have been crossed with African bees. When your nice, docile, easy to work European bees are changed by the arrival of an African drone they become mean, hyper defensive, difficult to work, prone to absconding, and, if managed well, slightly more productive than European bees. If managed poorly, they will abscond, leaving you with an empty hive.

    Africanized bees are the so called "Killer Bees" of US hysteria, and dire predictions have been made about their arrival, none of which has panned out, of course, but made for great fear mongering. Look on line and you can still find "Killer Bee protection suits"..... which look like heavy duty garbage bags, for ONLY US19.99!

    African bees were introduced to Brazil and spread. Most people believe they "escaped", but really they were introduced. The program was government sposored, and when the undesirable behaviour of swarming and the, (um, Dr Ramirez of CATIE in Costs Rica, who taught the course I took said never to use the term "aggressive", but they are so defensive they are, um, well, very much like, uh, agressive...) hyper defensive behaviour was quickly identified as being undesirable, ot bacame a convenient political football for the opposition to kick around.

    Politics stepped in, and the opposition party made news about the "killer bees" that the government recklessly and without consideration of the rights of the workers, and bla, bla, woof, woof, political etcetera, got hammered in the press. This term, killer bees, translated well into Spanish and English, and the term stuck.

    The bees are really mean, in part because the harmonious relationship oif the European bee and the beekeeper, with a percentage left for the bees, and care given to the colony, is not at all what happens in most of Africa, where the honey is stolen, often at the expense the hive. This is bee mining, not beekeeping! So any perceived threat is dealt with by a massive attack, full on, no holds barred insect anger, and it is impressive to watch, especially from the claustrophobic confines of the bee suit, hot, sweaty, cumbersome, and when they start stinging through the gloves, like the time I got it six times in each hand.... you get first hand awareness of natures wrath... or something.

    Africanized bees offer the single advantage of increased productivity, by a slim margin, but with the costs I mentioned above, difficulty to work, tendency to abscond, etc, they were found to create additional problems (ain't agriculture like that, tho?).

    What hapens, (I took this class in 1989, so forgive me if you find this to be slightly vague) when the European drone is still wooing the queen, dancing around in his finest seductive dance, pouring on his little insect charm, trying to win her affections, to mount the quuen, sire her offspring, etcetera, the African drone is metaphorically putting his trousers back on. :oops: Next generation is "Africanized", with all the undesirable traits of that strain.

    The rogue comes in, crashes the party, leaves the queen with an entirely new gene line, which frequently ends the party for beekeepers, too, as %90 of ther beekeepers here who were active in the mid to late 80s when I first got into beekeeping have hung up their veils and smokers for good.

    I was taught in African bee management, which was great, in a three day course sponsored by Peace Corps and GoB Mion of Ag, taught by a Dr Ramirez from CATIE and Tom Haydyn, a really nice guy, Peace Corps from Minnesota, along with about 12 other farmers. I learned how to keep them from absconding, how to manage them (easy, two people, one extracting frames, the other smoking non stop...), how to build queen excluders so the queen wouldn't abscond and carry the colony away and some other tricks, which escape me now.

    Really, managing African bees is just keeping smoke on them non stop while stealing their honey.

    I found this out the hard way wqhen I went to inspect the apiary after ignoring them for a month ot two a year or so after the course. When I opened the hive, >wham
     
  13. Lolly

    Lolly Junior Member

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    :D Christopher, you are the moast.. :D

    I just had a wonderful vision of Mr European wooing, dining, whispering sweet nothings in a racy French tone whilst Ms Queen slips out the back to rendezvous with the divine Mr Africa.. hehehe. The call of the wild often wins over culture.. :wink:

    I had a vague clang somewhere in the back of my mind that perhaps we do have africanised bees here, although I'm really not sure.

    I have lots to learn.

    Thanks for your help.

    Linda
     
  14. FREE Permaculture

    FREE Permaculture Junior Member

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    Hi all,

    Hey Lolly, I'm wondering if you went ahead with your bees?
    hows it all going? would love to hear of your first year experiences.
    any stings yet :lol:

    I've been reading up on bee keeping myself and am going to set up two nests in my backyard.
    Initially i was going for stingless bees but they aren't idigenous to victoria so that's out of the question so I think i'll go with them teddy bear bees :)

    Appart from helping pollenate my suburb, and honey, I am keen on harvesting bees wax for various uses like polishing my gourds and maybe floorboards, but mostly to make candles.

    There's a well known bee shop not too far away from me that will supply me with all i need.
    https://www.redpaths.com.au

    I'm buying the whole kit and caboodle, a bee suit, hives, tools and everything except for the extractor, next year i'll be able to afford that aswell.

    There's a great place that actually hires extractors for $25 for 3 days so that will be how I'll go about it first up

    https://www.goingsolar.com.au/assets/PDF ... es/BEE.pdf

    I'm so excited! :blob7:

    Just wanted to hear from actuall bee owners and get some tips that i may need to know before i bring 'em in.
    I'm gonna set myself up to be totally ready for when i bring them in, i'm going for two hives to start with, then if all goes well i'll get another two and that should keep me happy i think

    My main concern right now is positioning of the hives, as i'm wanting to give them a clear flight path without bumping into the neighbours if possible.
     
  15. FREE Permaculture

    FREE Permaculture Junior Member

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  16. FREE Permaculture

    FREE Permaculture Junior Member

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  17. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    how many people here raise bees?
     
  18. dryland dweller

    dryland dweller Junior Member

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    for beekepping in Australia a very good book to get hold of is Norman Redpath A guide to keeping bees in Australia.
    Check out ebay as it is often listed there.
    Pete
     
  19. FREE Permaculture

    FREE Permaculture Junior Member

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    none on eBay this week, books are getting pricey new aren't they?
    I was looking at beekeeping books for like $50+
    geezy weezy.
     
  20. Beeman

    Beeman New Member

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    Re: Bee Keeping

    Hi
    We have about 70 beehives. All kept naturally with no chemical usage whatsoever.
    We have enough spare boxes toincrease that to 500 hives as the bees grow.
    Beekeeping isn't difficult although at times it is hard work and certainly it's easier with two people
    We sell all our honey locally with lots of local honey addicts for our product.
    We are moving onto 2 acres that has been barren for 10 years so we are at the stage of beekeepers moving into permaculture.
    We are hopeful of getting some wwoofer help to set up and develop our block.
    We are up in Central Queensland smack on the tropic of Capricorn in a little town called Sapphire.
    We sell our honey at the local markets on a Sunday Morning and through repeat sales and ad hoc sales.
    We started with 5 hives and added.
    If just starting out I'd recommend a minimum of 2 hives and a max of 5.
    There is an interesting yahoo group on organic beekeeping although it's american and a bit repetitive you do get a good sense there are others out there interested in clean beekeeping.


    Martyn
    Beeman
     

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