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Author Topic: what's your game plan for 2014  (Read 9558 times)

Offline kingd

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #20 on: January 24, 2014, 07:46:01 am »
My game plan is to just get some bees,most people around here are not sure if they will have any to spare
because of this winter.

Offline JanO

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #21 on: January 24, 2014, 01:34:07 pm »
Since I'm beginning this adventure I was hoping to just have a couple of strong hives to go into winter with next year.  Now I'm hoping to catch a couple of swarms and  have at least 5 colony's, and perhaps a couple nucs before fall. 

Offline BingalingBees

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #22 on: January 24, 2014, 01:48:15 pm »
Keep it at 24 to 26 hives... if I have any die-outs, I'll do walk-away splits in May (or swarms captures) to replace. I'm hoping this year to have a really good survival rate, we'll see... :^)
Brad Raspet - Mount Vernon, WA
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Offline GLOCK

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #23 on: January 24, 2014, 08:40:52 pm »
oops aready replyed.
Say hello to the bad guy.
35hives  {T} OAV

Offline 10framer

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #24 on: January 24, 2014, 08:50:45 pm »
when i started keeping bees the beekeepers up north didn't try to winter bees, they just started over with packges every year.  times have changed.

Offline GLOCK

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #25 on: January 24, 2014, 09:01:40 pm »
when i started keeping bees the beekeepers up north didn't try to winter bees, they just started over with packges every year.  times have changed.
The way I see it wintering is part of beekeeping the challenge of keeping them alive .
I only get better have not lost any yet
Say hello to the bad guy.
35hives  {T} OAV

Offline 10framer

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #26 on: January 24, 2014, 09:54:11 pm »
i think that's more the attitude now.  a big part of what we did was sell packages back in the 70' and 80's and most of them went to the guys in the north. 

Offline Stevezone5

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #27 on: January 26, 2014, 10:34:24 am »
Create more NUCs for winter survival.

Same here! I am going to strive for a self sustaining apiary, I think i can pull it off.....I'll know for sure next march lol

Offline T Beek

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #28 on: January 26, 2014, 12:43:55 pm »
when i started keeping bees the beekeepers up north didn't try to winter bees, they just started over with packges every year.  times have changed.

Bees have been overwintered in the North for as long as beekeepers have kept them there, with varying results.  Delivered Packages are a recent development in the beekeeping world.  The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture book (and other old bkpg books) describes overwintering in northern climates in great detail and well 'before' the introduction of package bees, as we know it today.

I know two BEEKS in Canada who have been keeping bees alive over their winters for over 50 years.  Neither has ever depended on package bees.

Our Pal Finski would say the same thing I believe.  Bees are wherever BEEKS decide to keep them……again, with varying success  :)  The North and South Poles would definitely be out…. :-D
"Trust those who seek the truth, doubt those who say they've found it."

Offline phrasmotic

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #29 on: January 31, 2014, 10:30:12 am »
Catch a swarm or grab a cutout.  Any feral bees that can survive THIS winter are bees I want!

Offline 10framer

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #30 on: January 31, 2014, 11:06:25 am »
i'm going to check and possibly feed mine today.  i hope this is the last of the really cold weather down here.  it was about 5 degrees in the country yesterday morning.

Offline MikeTheBeekeeper

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #31 on: February 01, 2014, 02:32:18 pm »
For now I'm just trying to make them grow into the second deep.

I hope to make 2 Nucs per hive after almonds and raise my own queens from 2 hives I have determined to have preferable genetics.

I'm looking for pollination contracts during the spring or would like to place my hives somewhere where they would have enough food to eat (so that I don't have to be feeding them much) and hopefully make some honey.

I've been with bees for about 4.5 years and haven't extracted honey yet. So I'm planning on doing that this year but with things the way they are right now I'm not sure they'll be able to make excess honey anywhere around here.

Offline bbbthingmaker

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #32 on: February 03, 2014, 09:36:48 am »
I'm wanting to try a couple of Long, or Horizontal Hives.  I like the idea of not having to stack and un-stack so many boxes.

Offline 10framer

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #33 on: February 03, 2014, 09:54:03 am »
I'm wanting to try a couple of Long, or Horizontal Hives.  I like the idea of not having to stack and un-stack so many boxes.
i like the idea of having everything at one level.  i'm thinking about building some long horizontal hives for mating nucs.

Offline T Beek

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #34 on: February 03, 2014, 10:27:08 am »
LONG Hives are great fun and I credit them with making me a better BEEK overall.  The only real issues I ever had with them was providing proper insulation, ventilation and ability to feed or even know whether they needed feed, during long cold spells.  That and I found that DEEPS in a Long Hive did better than Mediums (I currently use all mediums in my Langs and NUCs).  I had one really nice colony survive over three years though and made splits from it every year until the queen finally succumbed (but I've got her daughters  :)). 

The experience was/is very self-educating and satisfying, and 'different' in some very pleasant ways.  Brood rearing tends to take place near the entrances (mine 'were' on one end) and honey tends to be placed toward the back. My design allows me to look at any portion of the hive without disturbing the broodiest…unless I want to.

During winter in a Long Hive bees move from front door to the back end consuming honey.  I created a cubby on the back end with a small (bee) access that I could place 5 lbs of sugar, because once my particular design is closed up for winter I don't dare open it (can't check stores) until we reach appropriate temps.

Converting my Long Hives into 3-4 partitioned sections so I can raise NUCs has been successful…so far…and makes sense for what I have going on.  I've only done one and modifications have been drawn up and just need to be implemented.  Fun, fun…. :)
"Trust those who seek the truth, doubt those who say they've found it."

Offline BeeDog

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #35 on: February 03, 2014, 12:34:50 pm »
Double the number of my hives and maintain it's strength till the end Dec 2014 Hopefully I will regain the number of hives I lost last year.
It is highly recommend that split be done with only strong healthy hives that have at least two Brood Chambers with Brood in all stages of development. Frames with capped Brood should be split evenly between the two hives.

Offline 10framer

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #36 on: February 03, 2014, 12:37:50 pm »
tbeek, that's my plan.  i want to make something that looks like atop bar hive that will have several 3 frame chambers.  as fall rolls around i want to pick the best of the queens that are left and pull followers to combine the nucs into a couple or a few larger colonies to winter then split it up again the following spring.  if i keep a few of these going i can start raising queens faster without taxing my production hives.  two deep frames and a division board feeder per nuc is the plan for now.  it could expand to 3 plus a feeder as i get farther into working with it.  i need to be building one now, though and i'm too far behind on other projects to get started on this one.

Offline 10framer

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #37 on: February 03, 2014, 12:41:29 pm »
beedog, my initial plan was to do early splits then a 2nd round but i'm probably going to skip the early ones or at lest dedicate them to mating nuc colonies (so they'll be small splits) and try to get a good crop this year.  i think we're going to have a really good flow in my area this year and i'm going to try to take advantage of it. 

Offline jayj200

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #38 on: February 10, 2014, 06:59:12 pm »
I want more swarms. think it will be a great year for that.
the other half wants to raise Queens here
the one hive we have had Beatles (gone) on their own!
no! mites eather.
a little pissy though

Offline HWDylan

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Re: what's your game plan for 2014
« Reply #39 on: February 11, 2014, 11:56:12 am »
Going to up my queen production game and also split split split when I can.

So far things aren't looking too grim for my wintering hives (especially compared to others in the area). It is still very cold here in IL though so anything can happen.

I am optimistic for 2014.

 

anything