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Author Topic: finally met my beekeeper neighbor.  (Read 1469 times)

Offline 10framer

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finally met my beekeeper neighbor.
« on: October 07, 2013, 12:37:16 am »
since i found the bee yard i've been driving by now and then to try to meet the man.  he's 70 and has a ton of stories.  i hung out with him for three hours.  his dad started keeping bees back in the 60's and ordered them from the sears roebuck catalogue.  he got up to 60 hives at one time then sold them when he moved to south alabama.  he started again about 8 years ago with 5 or 6 packages from rossman and the rest have come from bee trees.  he put mite strips in his hives once a few years ago but hasn't done again.  he pretty much lets them do their thing and pulls a few frames of honey a year.  he has 16 hives all one deep and one medium.  he lost three this year (could have starved as bad as things were in late spring and summer).  i saw drones coming and going from several of his hives.  bees look like italian/carni mixes.  this is around 2 miles from my yard.  from talking to him i have to think he lets them swarm.  since i want to set up a queen yard on my place this is great news.  almost a decade of treatment free survivors mixing dna with my queens.  the icing on the cake is he was a blast to talk to. 

Offline Joe D

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Re: finally met my beekeeper neighbor.
« Reply #1 on: October 07, 2013, 02:17:33 pm »
Good find farmer.  If he lets his swarm you might be able to catch some of them also.  Good luck to you and your bees.




Joe

Offline 10framer

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Re: finally met my beekeeper neighbor.
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2013, 10:17:29 pm »
joe, i caught one between his place and mine back in may.  i know it wasn't from one of my hives.
i'm just glad to have all that established survivor stock in place already.  he just saved me a few years of selective breeding.

rob