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Author Topic: Hello Everyone.  (Read 2458 times)

Offline HBW1412

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Hello Everyone.
« on: February 06, 2011, 06:18:21 pm »
Just thought I'd introduce myself to everyone...

My name is Heath.  I'm 32 years old and I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.  I became a member because I want to learn all I can about keeping bees.  My grandpa and my dad both kept bees until several years ago when their health no longer allowed them to maintain their apiary.  Of course, all of their hives are lost due to neglect.  For the past 10 years I've lived nearly 200 miles away and couldn't help maintain them, but I sure wish I could have.

So, here I am trying to get back into bees.  The first thing I did was burn all the old hives.  They were mainly rotten anyway and I wanted to be sure I didn't start my new bees in a hive that wasn't up to par.  All of their hives were Langstroths, but I think I will build my own top bar hives as I am a decent wood worker.  The top bar hives appeal to me because of their simplicity and their cost.

I have found the Bee Master forums to be an extremely valuable source of information.  Many of my question have been answered just by reading the forums, but I have a lot more.  I'm sure with all the knowledge on this site that getting them answered will be no problem.
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Offline AllenF

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Re: Hello Everyone.
« Reply #1 on: February 06, 2011, 06:43:08 pm »
Welcome to the forum.   Ask for any questions you can come up with.   Great guy of folks here.
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Online Kathyp

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Re: Hello Everyone.
« Reply #2 on: February 06, 2011, 07:10:43 pm »
great gal of folks here also  ;)
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Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline Course Bee

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Re: Hello Everyone.
« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2011, 08:06:53 pm »
Kathy, Be nice to Allen now. Most of the folks are great, and willing to answer just about any question you can think of. It's easier for them if you put your location in your profile.
Welcome to the forum.

Tim
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Tim

Offline AllenF

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Re: Hello Everyone.
« Reply #4 on: February 06, 2011, 08:22:16 pm »
 :-D           
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Offline specialkayme

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Re: Hello Everyone.
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2011, 03:59:35 pm »
Welcome to the site!
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Offline WPG

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Re: Hello Everyone.
« Reply #6 on: February 08, 2011, 01:01:42 am »
Quote from: HBW1412 on February 06, 2011, 06:18:21 pm
  All of their hives were Langstroths, but I think I will build my own top bar hives as I am a decent wood worker.  The top bar hives appeal to me because of their simplicity and their cost.

Welcome,

Being a decent woodworker will definitely be of help.

Most top bar hives are horizontal, and were developed by Peace Corps workers in Africa trying to transition beekeepers there from logs and similar management practices used with the old straw skeps.
That was - destroy the hive to get the honey.
They tripled honey production.
5lb average to a whopping 15lbs.  A success.

A few top bar hives will be fun to play with, but the main apiaries should be verticaly stacked hives.
I'm not clear on the climate of your location, but I think you do have periods of snow during a real winter.
Bees can move up to food much easier than sideways.
Even in a 10 frame Lang they will starve sometimes beside frames of honey when it is too cold to break cluster and go around the ends of a frame.

Goodluck and have fun.
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Push, Pull or get Out of the Way

Offline TomP

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Re: Hello Everyone.
« Reply #7 on: February 08, 2011, 11:13:08 am »
Hi Heath,

Welcome back to beekeeping and welcome to the world of strong opinions.  WPG says "A few top bar hives will be fun to play with, but the main apiaries should be verticaly stacked hives."  I have been a hobby beekeeper for 12 years, starting and staying with top bar hives.  I live in Colorado and my bees have endured periods of sub-zero weather that last for days and survived quite well.  Last season I harvested approximately 10 gallons of honey from 2 of my hives.  I have a friend who harvested much less than that from his 2 Langstroth hives that are a little over a mile from mine with very similar surroundings. (Suburban residential neighborhood)  I do have a great love of beekeeping and top bar hives, even though I have been told since I first started looking at beekeeping about why i "needed" to do more conventional things. 

Remember the most important thing, as WPG also said, have fun!
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Offline BjornBee

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Re: Hello Everyone.
« Reply #8 on: February 08, 2011, 08:56:17 pm »
Welcome to the forum HBW.

Here is a page devoted to TBH actually showing both pro and con issues.

http://www.bjornapiaries.com/topbarbeekeeping.html

Hope this helps.
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Offline Bee Brothers Apiary

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Re: Hello Everyone.
« Reply #9 on: June 30, 2011, 05:18:18 pm »
Hows it going heath?
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