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Author Topic: Burnabee  (Read 2531 times)

Offline carlosdacosta

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Burnabee
« on: March 12, 2013, 04:20:00 pm »
Hi. I'm Yet Another New Beekeeper. Location is Burnaby, BC, Canada.

Built two Top Bar Hives and getting bees in April. New beekeepers average 2-3 years. Will be trying to beat the average. If there are any other top bar users in this area please pm me.

car/os

Moots

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Re: Burnabee
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2013, 04:33:48 pm »
Welcome to the forum...Just curious, why TBH's?  I get the impression that using TBH's won't help your chances of beating the average...it seems to me that a fair amount of Beeks don't experience a lot of success with them.  Your mileage may vary!  :)

Good Luck.

Offline AllenF

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Re: Burnabee
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2013, 06:41:36 pm »
Welcome to the forum. 

Offline Joe D

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Re: Burnabee
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2013, 09:01:12 pm »
Welcome to the forum, Carlos.  I have Langs and TBHs, I like messing with both.  Good luck with your bees.




Joe

Offline Georgia Boy

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Re: Burnabee
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2013, 10:19:32 pm »
Welcome and Good luck...

Did not know the average new beek only lasted 2 to 3 years.  I like you hope to prove that average wrong.

David
"Give it All You've Got"
"Never give up. Never surrender."

Offline carlosdacosta

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Re: Burnabee
« Reply #5 on: March 13, 2013, 02:34:00 pm »
Welcome to the forum...Just curious, why TBH's?  I get the impression that using TBH's won't help your chances of beating the average...it seems to me that a fair amount of Beeks don't experience a lot of success with them.  Your mileage may vary!  :)

Good Luck.

Thanks everyone for the welcome. I chose TBHs over Langs for a few reasons.

1. Recently retired and living on fixed income. TBH is much cheaper to startup. I built two of my own.
2. No lifting of heavy boxes. Langs are ok for the younger people but I don't want the extra back pain.
3. Don't have to store any extra boxes during winter (I have limited space).
4. From my reading, it seems that TBHs are less stressful on the bees - eg, no need to disturb the whole hive to inspect; just take out one comb at a time
5. I'm doing this as a hobby, not commercial, so lots of honey or ability to move hives for pollination is not a goal.


On the con side; there are definitely more Lang users and support available. However, there is a group of TBH users at the local club and the number is growing, so I'm not entirely without support.

Also, I do understand that TBHs require more hands-on (at least initially) but my hives are in my back yard so easy access. And being a new beek I have nothing to "unlearn", so that my be an advantage.

From what I've read (see Kim Flottum's "Backyard Beekeeper" book for eg) the reason that most new beekeepers quit is due to the challenges of the varroa mite. This evil bug would be an issue whatever hive I went with.

car/os

Moots

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Re: Burnabee
« Reply #6 on: March 17, 2013, 10:19:12 am »
Carlos,
Sounds like you've done your homework and have solid reasoning and a game plan for moving forward. I'm a newbie myself, just got my bees a little over 2 months ago, and also wonder if I'll beat the average.

While I appreciate the fact that one can do everything right, and still have things go poorly.  I have to believe, and hope  :), that people like you and I that have taken the time to do some research will be rewarded for our efforts.  

One thing that has really surprised me, I've gone to a number of local bee club meetings, a few I attended even before getting my bees.  During these meetings I ran across numerous folks who had been having bees more than a year who came across as totally "clueless" for lack of a better word on many "basic" issues.

Right or wrong...As a newbie, I found encouragement in this, and thought, If they can do it, certainly I can.  :)

Again, welcome to the forum and best of luck with your bees and beating the average.  :-D

Offline Georgia Boy

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Re: Burnabee
« Reply #7 on: March 17, 2013, 10:57:59 am »
Hey Moots,

I haven't gotten my bees yet but will soon. I the mean time I am doing as much research as my time will allow. It amazes me how little most people do. They are clueless.

To your point of clueless.... Attended a free bee school in Dallas, GA. week before last and a guy with a Warre top bar hive couldn't understand what had happened with his bee. Said he went out over the winter and they seemed to be doing fine then checked on them the week before the meeting and found them all dead in the bottom of the hive. When they ask him if any bees were dead head first inside the cells he said yes.

The first thing that went through my mind was starvation. After the instructor asked a few more questions he came to the same conclusion. Starvation. The fact the beek didn't have a clue really didn't surprise me that much however, his next question did.

"So how do I stop that from happening again?"

REALLY!!!!!

Not a clue and he had been keeping bees over a year.

WOW!!

David
"Give it All You've Got"
"Never give up. Never surrender."

Offline buzzbee

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Re: Burnabee
« Reply #8 on: March 17, 2013, 02:28:32 pm »
You may want to look here for posts on TBH:
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/board,96.0.html

Read and learn all you can . The bees will still show you things because they have not read the books.
 Do not be so fast to judge a hive that starved in the hands of a person that had "more than a years " experience. It happens to seasoned beekeepers too. Sometimes there is more to it than just starving because of lack of feed. If the cluster is small enough they often cannot generate enough warmth to move onto other stores. And other times when raisng brood, they will keep covering the brood rather than move to food stores.
 Sometimes mites weakened the colony  as they were preparing to raise bees for winter.In the Northern climates you are just as likely to lose your bees in early  spring as you are the dead of winter.
And do not be lulled into a false sense of security if you do nothing for mites and they survive the first winter. Year two and three have a better chance of biting you in the butt if you completely ignore the problem thinking you survived one winter so you beat  the system.
On a lighter side,let the bees teach you. If you lose a hive your first year it happens sometimes.