(Part 2) Best products from r/Beekeeping

There is a risk of harm to the queen when marking her, especially if you are new to it and do it incorrectly. Paint on her abdomen or on her head/eyes will harm her. That is the only downside. If you are skilled even a virgin queen can be marked to no detriment or interference with mating (no paint on wings or around wing joint). Some paints are poor choices. Do not use oil based paints or oil based paint pens. Water based non-toxic paint pens like POSCA paint markers or Craftsmart paint pens are the easiest to use. Testor model paint and fingernail polish are also OK as the queen's thorax is very similar to your fingernails. If you new to it I recommend pens as its easy to make a mess all over her with brush applied paints. Make sure you blot the end of the marker or brush first.

I use POSCA pens except I use a bright purple nail polish that my daughter no longer wanted to mark queens in caught swarms since I don't know their age, and my yellow marking paint is Testor just because I have it, but that's just my system.

Its not hard to do. I suggest practicing on a dozen or more drones (use a non-standard color if you have it) until you are good at it.

^(insert edit:) wait until the paint is completely dry before releasing her back to the hive. You can keep her in the queen catcher and just set the catcher on top of the frames (unless in direct sunlight) while the paint dries.

There are lots of upsides. While you do not need to see the queen during an inspection, proper marking helps you keep the queen safe. If you are handling a frame and she is on it that's a good thing to know. I often set the queen frame in a quiet-box when I come across it, that way I know she is safe and isn't going to get rolled or shaken off as I manipulate the other frames, but just knowing she is there will make you be more careful. Making a deterministic split is easier, you know for sure where the queen went. You can tell if the queen has been superseded. If you catch a swarm from your own apiary it may help narrow down which hive swarmed, and you'll be able to tell if it was a mated queen swarm or a virgin queen swarm. It makes it easier to put the queen below a queen excluder. You know the age of the queen at a glance. If you've had a robbing attack after you've got it stopped it's sure nice to be able to make sure the queen is alive. Having a marked queen in no guarantee that you'll see her, but I think that experience gained spotting marked queens also helps you spot un-marked queens as you train your eye and brain to what a queen looks like. If you sell nucs then new beeks appreciate a marked queen.

Only extract when all of the cells are capped on a frame.

The bees know when there is too much water content, and they will leave the frames open with the nectar uncapped.

IF you harvest uncapped nectar you run the risk of bacteria or other germs that will taint your harvest.

When I'm harvesting, if I have a frame that is more than 10% nectar I put it back for them to work on.

Before I extract during harvesting season I use a moisture meter to make sure that the honey is the perfect level of moisture. It's not THIS refractometer, but something like it, and you should do some research so that if you DO harvest, you get good results. https://www.amazon.com/Percent-Refractometer-Pipettes-Dioptric-Reference/dp/B00MMZVBFY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1465611962&sr=8-3&keywords=honey+refractometer You love bees, you love honey, and you'd never want to do something wrong and waste your lovely bee's efforts because you could not measure the water content correctly.

I try my very best to only harvest fully capped honey.

Good luck to you on your harvest, and I'm so glad that you posted! You are doing good for the bees and humanity by working on bees!

Hooray!

Chances are he has just about everything he needs if he's been doing the bee thing for 2 years.
Here's a few things I would dig if I were getting a beekeeping gift.

-[Hive tool holster] (http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Hive-Tool-Holster/productinfo/495H/) , Kinda dorky looking but awesome at keeping my hive tools from entering the phantom zone.
-[custom branding stamp] (http://www.brandingirons.com). Come up with a cool beesiness name for him (some kind of inside thing). Depending on the size of it he'd be able to brand anything wood with it.
-Hive tool with his initials sketched on it. He can use it in the field or keep it in his honey house/office as decoration.
-Does he do anything with his wax bits? How about a cool [book] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1592539793/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481223008&sr=1-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=beeswax+alchemy&dpPl=1&dpID=61BSwZW9mHL&ref=plSrch)
-A membership to the local beekeeping club
-does he do anything with his honey-sell it? Give it away? Take a bath in it? If it's the two former he might dig a nice custom logo. Get silly with it, put all kinds of inside jokes on it. Something he could easily print out on a label and put on his jars. Something like [this] (https://www.google.com/search?q=honey+logo+for+jars&client=safari&hl=en-us&biw=320&bih=460&prmd=isvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWp9uqo-XQAhVMTrwKHQDtChkQ_AUIBygB#imgrc=1SRr0EVEDwL1sM%3A).

You could also just go through a beekeeping catalogue and pick some random thing out. Beekeepers are a bunch of dorks and pretty much dig anything beekeeping. Source-am a beekeeper.

Well, best of luck to ya.

Hey there!

I live in Ontario, so I'm a little North of you. I'm a hobbyist beekeeper with five hives. I help my mentor out (who has ten hives) too. We make some honey, but we do it more for the hobby.

> Is it possible to let the bees survive the winter on their own supply?

Absolutely. This is how my bees do it. I don't feed sugar or anything like that to them. They live off entirely their own supply. I take a little bit from them throughout the summer, but stop after Labour Day. In fact I've read that feeding sugar is detrimental to the hive's health.

> Which hive box is the best option to use for a beginner?

I suppose this depends on what is available in your area. I recommend the style of hive other keepers use in your area. I've only had experienced with pine wood boxes ranging in thickness from 7/8 to 1 & 1/8. My mentor is trying those foam hive boxes this winter. I can't report on how they perform just yet.

> Is early March or early April a good time to get started on placing my queen inside the hive?

You usually don't buy a queen to get started. You purchase a nuc or a package of bees. I started by buying a couple nucs. My mentor gave me a couple splits too. See what is available in your area. The local keepers won't sell you a nuc if they're not ready / it's too early.

> Really any points or tips would be greatly appreciated as I'm excited to get started.

I strongly recommend reading a few books on the topic. I've read a few over the summer/fall/winter prior to me getting my first hives and they really pumped me up for the hobby. I recommend to start:

Natural Beekeeping by Conrad Ross

The Practical Beekeeper by Michael Bush

These books go against the traditional line of thought of considering feeding sugar and pre-emptively striking with antibiotics and other medicines to be normal practice. I am still a new keeper, but so far with the three years I've had my hives I haven't had a problem going natural. Also means you don't have to play with nasty things you don't want to play with as a hobbyist.

The Michael Bush book's content can be found on the Michael Bush website for free. I prefer reading paper, and bought the book, but you can still learn plenty from his site: Bush Farms.

Good luck!

These are nice and cheap and are usually $3-5, J-hooks are usually closer to $10-15, but are definitely really handy with their wide, flat head for scraping and the hook for use as a pry bar under the ears of the frames. These are my preferred hive tools, there are others, but they usually add some kind of gimmick. Special mention for this one though, it's a top bar hive tool and not meant for other types of hives. Some people like frame pullers but I find them redundant (and thus, bulky) with a J-hook.

As for extractors, most beekeepers associations, bee shops, or beekeepers have one that you can rent or borrow for a reasonable agreement. This can be a monetary fee (~$25/day), requirement of membership in the association, or a percentage of yield (I'm used to being asked for all the capping wax or 1/3 of the honey but they do all the work after the boxes are dropped off at the honey house). In general, this is not a purchase every beekeeper is required to jump into, someone is there to borrow one from until it makes financial sense. The first tier that I'd point to for purchase is ~$100-150 and gets you a manual two frame extractor. This fits two frames up to Deep size, and newer models usually have a spring-loaded clutch so that if you lose control the handle doesn't break your wrist as it comes around or smack you in the face. The next step up is a big one since you only want to do this a few times in your career, these are motorized and usually do 9-10 frames at a time and cost $500-800. Above that are nice, large, radial extractors that do 30 frames (like this one!) and run you $1400-1600 and get honey out about as fast as it takes to load and unload the machine. The final tier of extractors are custom made 120 frame extracting lines from guys like Cowen whose total bill can easily run you $100k but it's the last extractor anyone in the county will ever need (with good maintenance).

For extracting honey when no one else will help (happens, but usually unlikely unless you haven't been networking, and trust me your network will make you a better beekeeper with an easier time), there are different methods that will get the honey out and done.

Well where are you? There might be a beekeeper near you.
Buying used hives is mostly fine if you trust the beekeeper. You can make your hives, either Langstroth or Top Bar. Plenty of plans online, I would advise getting someone who is good with wood to make them.
Beekeepers for dummies, The Beekeepers Bible (he has a great website), this subreddit (use the search function), beesource.com(huge forum, but very bland).
Hive tool, gloves, veil/helmet. Thats all you need if no one without a suit is 200+ yards around the hive. If people will be within 100 feet then a mist bottle or a smoker.
I would advise just buying the hat/helmet and veil. Will cost 35 bucks or so, and you can use your own hat/helmet in a pinch. For suits if you do not have them you can improvise.
Both myself and Beck do not use traditional suits. I use a pair of Levi carpenter pants and Dickies work shirt just tuck your shirt in (and use a belt). You don't even need to tuck your pants in or wear boots like some do. Jeans and a thick workshirt (it gets hot so use a sweatband on your forehead) will do fine. If you get stung a lot replan that strategy. Beck and others use neoprene gloves instead of leather.
Join your local beekeepers association if they have a extractor. Get friendly with the local beekeepers and share resources. If not then a panty hose/ cheesecloth bag and press the wax. When you get ready to extract use the reddit search function and/or make a post and we can help you. Its going to be a long time (like a year) before you get to that point.

As a noob, I've been reading and acquiring a lot of beekeeping books lately. Here are my thoughts:

"Homegrown Honey Bees" by Alethea Morrison is a nice introductory book that is loaded with photos. It's definitely a gentle intro book more than a reference book.

I really love "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping" by Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer. It covers all the basics and teaches a treatment-free approach. I was put off by the Beekeeping for Dummies book, which repeatedly recommends prophylactic use of chemical treatments.

After that I'd recommend a good reference book that has hive management diagrams, such as "The Beekeeper's Handbook" by Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile.

If you're interested in top-bar hives, I would get "Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honeybee Health" by Les Crowder and Heather Harrell, and "The Thinking Beekeeper: A Guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives" by Christy Hemenway. Backyardhive.com has a great DVD on top-bar hive management.

If you want to geek out on beekeeping history, "The Archaeology of Beekeeping" by Eva Crane is legendary. It's sadly out of print and very expensive to buy. I found it at the library.

Yes it is the 1.02 I believe, its the more expensive of the current two models, whichever that is. I've played with the cheaper polish models but I wasn't impressed with them at all. I have the harbo syringe on it as well. The Schley syringe is more difficult in my opinion, perhaps using the schley with a seperate base and setting it up like a harbo would work.

AmScope SE400-Y, and I love it. Others I've talked to doing II are using $500-2000 scopes, this one is $185, works GREAT and even has a nice light on it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005C77FPY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks. Since I'm working entirely with hand tools, each box takes 2-3 hours, but on the other hand, I work in my living room, so it's a bit more pleasant than working in the garage. The dovetails I do in the Frank Klausz style (I can't find the full article online, I originally saw it in the PWW book on Hand Tool Essentials which is fantastic in and of itself).

I plan on creating a how-to sometime this summer, and I'll post it here when I do.

Eau Claire area here. I also build my own. I’d recommend this book https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1612120598/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518417836&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=tony+pisano&dpPl=1&dpID=51hZnlar6KL&ref=plSrch
If you plan to build your own, this helps a lot. A friend of mine has a site for beginners that some others I have mentored have said helped. http://www.outyard.net/. There are some DIY items there, as well as great advise for beginners.

As for wintering, I have about an 80% success rate. The key is to treat for mites, and wrap on time, and put sugar boards out for extra insurance so they don’t starve.

If you’d like to discuss more, feel free to PM me!

Here's an album with more pics https://imgur.com/a/v5x6h8m
Components

• 2 Deep hive bodies - Mine are 8frame and juuust fit a 5gal bucket. 10 frame will fit more comfortably
  
• 1 piece of foam insulation for the bottom and some pieces of wood to keep the bucket ~6in above the bottom for air circulation. Carboard for the top.
  
• Temperature Controller $17 - includes a thermometer. I set it at 100F
  
• [2 variable speed PC fans with US Connection] (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IJ2J2K0) $15 & an old USB charger - For circulating air in the chamber and keeping the temp more consistent throughout. I put one fan blowing on low across the bulb and the other sucking air from the top and sending it down. There are probably cheaper fans too.
  
• Outlet box, Outlet, & outlet Cover - I used a GFCI outlet for a bit of added safety.
  
• Lamp chord & 75w incandescent bulb & piece of tin foil - First I tried a 40w bulb but it wouldnt get the chamber above 90F. Foil is to put between the bulb and bucket to avoid a hot spot on the bucket.
  
• Some romex or old lamp/extension chords to cut up and wire together the controller, outlet box, and lamp
  
• Wood stirring paddle $10 - 5gal of honey is pretty hard to stir. This beast gets the job done
  
  lmk if I can help with the wiring or anything. It's pretty straightforward. Enjoy!

I decided on this one: 3M Full Facepiece Reusable Respirator 6900/54159

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007JZ1M10/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I purchased this cartridge: 3M Organic Vapor/Acid Gas Cartridge/Filter 60923, P100 Respiratory Protection (Pack of 2)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AEFCKKY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08__o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've included the links to them on Amazon which is where I purchased them. I love the mask as it is easy to get a good seal and easy to take off. I have a small goatee and I get a perfect seal with this mask. I treated five different times last year and didn't smell anything or have any breathing issues after using the mask with the cartridges.

I was reading from the recently-released "Texas Cedar Choppers" book (about the Scot-Irish that settled in The Texas Hill Country — via SE Tennessee — two of the most beautiful places in the americas!) about how the kids used to stir up local bee hives and catch swarms and then release them into the sunday congregations in their one-room schoolhouse / church combination building.

Made me smile what people choose to recollect about their childhoods (and being little bastards). Glad you could share such a positive, mostly pain-free memory — glad you're not allergic.

My pleasure! I see your username and wonder if you're female...well, in case you are, here are links to what my feet love. The ones from Bass Pro are now almost a year old and still going strong, ditto the Mucks. When my best beekeeping friend said she needed new boots right around Christmas, I asked what she was planning to get and she showed me a link to my boots! We got a good laugh out of that. :)

My "everyday" boots: http://www.basspro.com/SHE-Outdoor-Falconn-8-NonInsulated-Waterproof-Hunting-Boots-for-Ladies/product/12032905004425/

My Muck boots: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0083IA6TQ/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Edited to add: I know they're not cheap, but when you're on your feet for 10+ hours a day, I don't believe in skimping on footwear ;)

Yep the kit is an ok start. 8 frame mediums?
no room to grow.

Why not top-bar?

Go to Mann Lake. They ship fast, best service.
I've tried products from all the suppliers, but Mann Lake delivers.

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Beekeeper-Beekeeping-Naturally/dp/1614760640
Good book.

I do not recommend moving them at night. Believe it or not at night while they are clustered they are more aggressive. Right now is a good time to reorient them to a new hive. on Amazon you can buy a Langstroth hive this is my personal recommendation. You will want a veil and probably a smoker. Use pinestraw for the smoker. Youtube before you do anything. Bees are easy to manage in the summer. Finding the queen and shaking her into the box is the only hurdle between you and an established colony (though note in general don't shake the queen into the box, but as a beginner shaking all the bees into the hive is probably the easiest way to transfer them).

I recently ordered a few of these... Been happy so far.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B8L5ZJ6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Looks promising!

​

Is this langstroth-size, too?

https://www.amazon.com/hdbees-Spawning-Controller-Beekeeping-Beekeeper/dp/B07Q8JJ53R/ref=sr_1_217?keywords=queen+excluder&qid=1563176984&s=gateway&sr=8-217

The brood frames will be on one side. If I need to feed syrup I will just replace one of the boards over the frames with a board that has a hole in it for one of these feeders that I have. https://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Feeder-Round-Hive-Easy/dp/B07FNW2VDB?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_6

I have only kept bees for a year but haven't actually fed them yet. I may actually feed in this on though so they can build up wax faster.

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Beekeeper-Beekeeping-Naturally/dp/1614760640/ref=mp_s_a_1_18?keywords=beekeeping+book+natural&qid=1554986172&s=gateway&sr=8-18