Hello,
I am new to the forum. I have two bee yards, one in my backyard for queens rearing and the other on 61 Acres. I pay my rent on the land with 10% honey from the hives. I have mostly Langstrom Hives, but I do also have a couple of Top Bar Hives as well. The girls seem to be doing fine this winter. We had a weekend of nice weather last weekend and it got over 50 degrees. The girls were making cleansing flights and just hanging out enjoying the weather so I have not opened the up for inspection yet. I try not to open up the hives until spring to keep all the propolis sealed around the boxes and tops. I would like to expand into pollination services in a couple if years and I am trying to get setup for that.
This year I purchased a flat bed truck for hauling my little girls around and will be looking for some new sites for placing the girls. I have found the cheapest way to get a good beekeeping truck is to purchase an M35A2C from the Military. These trucks are 6x6 brutes and will run on used motor oil, used vegetable oil, diesel, gasoline, aviation fuel or pretty much else anything that burns. They can go anywhere having 10 tires and can be registered as farm trucks.
We averaged about 85lbs of Honey per hive last year and that was a pretty respectable year for me. I am very careful to keep plenty in the hive during the winter and expect a small excess harvest right at the start of spring to make room.
Thanks for reading,
Paul