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Author Topic: Who or what makes us love this?  (Read 8435 times)

Offline beewitch

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #20 on: April 25, 2012, 02:59:55 pm »
The first time I stood over a just-opened hive and smelled that intoxicating aroma of beeswax, honey and sunshine, I was smitten.  I seriously believe I did this in a previous life as there is nothing in my background that warrants this love of bees...  Except loving to garden, and fascination with bugs... Wait...  Duh.

Offline forrestcav

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #21 on: April 25, 2012, 03:37:34 pm »
I'm not sure what makes me love it, but i can say what got me interested in it. ALLERGIES!!! I read an article in mother earth news on top bars and got the "bug" I talked to a local beek who loaned and/or gave me two ten frame  deeps, 20 frames, smoker, gloves and a copy of kelly's catalog. I still keep several copies of various supply catalogs in my bag for  work. I love the smell of warm beewax, and the hum of the hive. Or just standing outside and waiting the comings and goings "atlanta airport has nothing on them". Then there's the thrill of seeing your girl start flying in the spring and realizing you over wintered your first hive.  :)
My wife keeps asking can we talk about something other than bees?? Naw
Just a beek trying to get ready for winter.

Offline theblessedlife

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #22 on: April 25, 2012, 11:06:34 pm »
This is my fourth year with bees and I finally feel like a beekeeper!  I don't know why, but I love my bees!  I love working the hives, I love watching them, and I love it when my 5 year old grandson says" Mamaw, I love these bees".  It's a little bit of an obsession----I wanted 2 to 4 hives and now I have 9.  I think my limit will be 10, but who knows...........

Offline GLOCK

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #23 on: April 26, 2012, 01:45:21 pm »
I bought a book 13 years ago on beekeeping i got to the part about swarms and i didn't look at the book for another 10 years then i Had some extra money and i got two hives  . I now have 3 hives that made it through the winter and I'm going to do splits and i have 3 nucs coming in may and I'm right now making a secone apiarie  600 sf. i love my bees for sure I've got around 3000.00 warped up in it and i only used maybe 3 frames of honey but i have really good time beekeeping  and have 2 nice bee yards . Plus i want to learn how to make queens . After this year I'll have bees from 2 PA. apiaries  and 3 queens from NY.  to do my splits with this is for life I'm sure.
« Last Edit: April 26, 2012, 03:11:59 pm by GLOCK »
Say hello to the bad guy.
35hives  {T} OAV

Offline oliver

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #24 on: April 26, 2012, 01:54:10 pm »
I was my grandads shadow, he had kept bees for 50 yrs. My Dad and uncle both agreed the great depression would have been much more depressing without Jeffs bees, they traded honey and bees for other needs. The only time I ever saw him with tears, was they day he decided he could not care for them anymore and sold out. I was too young to be of any real help, but thought some day we'd get them back..dl

Offline Country Heart

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #25 on: April 27, 2012, 03:02:28 am »
My husband liked the idea of keeping bees.   Then...
...I did all the reading, research, planning and purchasing. 

Now he helps me with the hives and the bees are "keeping" us both completely mesmerized and entertained. 
Can't imagine life without them now.    :bee:

Offline forrestcav

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #26 on: April 27, 2012, 09:48:55 pm »
it must be love. Had a guy call me from 40 miles away with a swarm he nuc'd. Five freshly drawn frame with three of them with brood. I jumped on them, sight unseen and said I was interested. while I still have traps hanging. my wife's gonna shoot me, no tell her. It's a siren's buzz, it calls to you.
Just a beek trying to get ready for winter.

Offline Riggs

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #27 on: April 28, 2012, 11:50:25 am »
it must be love. Had a guy call me from 40 miles away with a swarm he nuc'd. Five freshly drawn frame with three of them with brood. I jumped on them, sight unseen and said I was interested. while I still have traps hanging. my wife's gonna shoot me, no tell her. It's a siren's buzz, it calls to you.

80 mile round trip for a 5 frame w/ brood, yep I'd be there too.
Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another. ~
Ernest Hemingway

Offline William F Abell Jr

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #28 on: April 28, 2012, 12:30:22 pm »
In 1946 in Washington DC I was 6 and the apartment complex we lived in (in those days it was families, you played on the front lawn with all the adults on kitchen chairs watching and supervising). Suddenly a huge swarm landed on a little sapling. One of the mom's herded us all into her apartment to be safe & watch. About an hour or so later an older gentleman in a big straw hat drove up in a little black truck got out with a big box, put it next to the sapling, reached his arm up to his elbow into the swarm, pulled his arm out and stuck it into the box and most of the bees went with him. He then bent the sapling over the box and gave it a few shakes After a minute or so it seemed like all the bees were in the box. He waited about what I would guess was an hour, put the box in the back of his truck, gave us kids a wave and drove off. More excitement than TV, oh wait we didn't have TV so how would I know.
This story was brought back to my mind after reading the books of Richard Taylor a couple of years ago-what a delightful and inspirational guy and boy did he love and have a great old time with his bees - so I said why not - and I haven't been disappointed!   

Offline jaseemtp

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #29 on: April 28, 2012, 03:36:25 pm »
My grand dad and dad kept bees when I was a kid.  I remember watching the bees then and enjoying the honey extraction and eating honey while in the comb.  They stopped keeping them when I was in my early teens because they lost them in a hurricane.
Many years later I had a small swarm show up in my back yard on a tree and figured some one was telling me something.  I now have 15 hives and would love to get more.
"It's better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees!" Zapata

Offline melliferal

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #30 on: April 28, 2012, 06:11:25 pm »
Right around 2003 or so, I was in a chat room and a friend of mine told me that he used to keep bees.  I asked him a little bit about it, and became interested enough that I started doing a little research into what exactly beekeeping entails.  I also found out that the only beekeeping supply shop in my half of the state was in my county, which was fortuitous.

Prior to 2003 I didn't know anything about bees, didn't have any family or friends who ever kept them (that I was aware of).
Recently moved; re-keeping in 2014.

Offline beyondthesidewalks

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #31 on: April 28, 2012, 08:16:27 pm »
"Can't imagine life without them now."

Me neither.

Offline AndrewT

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #32 on: April 28, 2012, 08:49:01 pm »
I've always been fascinated by the natural world, and am a biologist and environmental scientist.  You name an animal indigenous to Indiana and I most likely had one for a pet at one time or another. 

I started a new job back in 1990, and there was a guy in my office who had a beehive.  He told me about this little country store in a small town just south of Indianapolis that sold bee-keeping equipment.  I bought my first hive and ordered a package of bees.  I've never had more than five hives at a time, unless you count nucs.  A couple of seasons I've "made" quite a bit of honey, and I have sold a good bit, but I've never really been in it for honey.  I'm just continually fascinated with bees, and experimenting with different ways to do things.

It's sure not as easy now as it was in 1990, but it's no less interesting.
Give a man a fish and he will have dinner.  Teach a man to fish and he will be late for dinner.

Offline NasalSponge

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #33 on: April 28, 2012, 09:16:46 pm »
The first time I was among the bees with my mentor on a trailer with 20 or so hives on it, I was completely surrounded by bees and all went into slow motion.....that was the mid 80's been in love ever since. I told my wife just a few moments ago "People will tell you not to stand in the bees flight path, I love to stand in the bees flight path....it is like being surrounded by bubbles!"

Offline nypam

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #34 on: June 25, 2012, 03:28:58 pm »
We started our first hive in may. I have always loved watching bees gather pollen in my herb garden. Reading about ccd made me want to try and help in some way. Learning more about bees opened a whole new world of fascination for the little creatures. Im learning so much devouring the posts at ths site.  When i talk to non bee people about our new hobby and get all excited....most of them look at you like..are you nuts???

Offline L Daxon

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #35 on: June 25, 2012, 05:03:18 pm »
In 1980 my husband and I were visiting the home of a good friend of ours who also happened to be a very successful attorney.  He walked me out into the back yard of his home in a swank part of Tulsa and showed me his 6 hives.  With no smoke or protective clothing he popped the top of one of the hives and pulled out a frame of bees to show me.  I was hooked.

My husband told me he didn't want me to keep bees, we were living in a historic district in OKC at the time, but I ordered a package anyway and told him about it at a party so he couldn't make too much of a scene in front of all the other people there.  Within a few weeks of hiving my first package, he was hooked as well.  Although he has never worked the hives at all, he is proud that I do and, of course, LOVES to eat the fruit of my labor.  One of his favorite shirts is one that has a big bee printed on it and the words:  "My HONEY is a Keeper".
linda d

Offline Boom Buzz

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #36 on: June 25, 2012, 05:14:29 pm »
My wife kept talking about getting a bee hive.  I really had no interest, mainly because I didn't want to get stung.  I eventually bought her a starter set up - complete hive, with smoker, book, bee suit and gloves.  Then I bought a 3 lb package of bees with queen online for her.  Turns out she was not so interested in becoming a beekeeper, but just rather liked the idea of having bees.  I on the other hand, being a gardener liked the idea of bees as pollinators.  After the first two packages failed, I turned to catching swarms and doing removals and love it.  I now have 8 hives at my place plus one at my friend's house.  He called a month ago to tell me had a swarm in his tree, so we caught it (after chasing the swarm down the street to the neighbor's yard) and I just left the hive at his place - adjacent to the alfalfa fields.  I have definitely been bitten by this bug and love working the hives - getting good honey and all the extra fruit from the better pollination.  The stings aren't so bad after all...

John

Offline bassman1977

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #37 on: June 25, 2012, 11:49:11 pm »
My dad got into bees for a couple of years.  Not exactly sure what got him interested but I think it was a guy he worked with.  He had bees for about 3 years or so.  He had a good harvest or two but he kept getting his hives destroyed by bears and finally threw in the towel.  I think the last straw was when I was in Iraq.  I remember coming home and looking back on it, I think had some PTSD going on as I was starting every project under the sun to keep myself busy.  Asked if he was still keeping and he was not.  I asked him for his equipment and he gave me what he had.  I think enough for 2 hives.  I still have one or two of the original boxes.  Anyway....I was NOT a bee person.  He took me down to his hives once but I'd rather not have that.  I think when I took over his stuff, I wanted to face a fear.  I guess Iraq wasn't enough.  I needed bees.  So that's how it happened...7 years later (crap!) I'm still at it.
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Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #38 on: June 26, 2012, 12:20:03 pm »
Bassman,
Thank you for your service. Sounds like you are doing pretty well now. Enjoy your bees.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
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Offline NC Queen Bee

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Re: Who or what makes us love this?
« Reply #39 on: June 28, 2012, 03:05:43 am »
As long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with bees. As a child, I spent many hours rescuing honeybees from the animal's water buckets and watching them fly/land on flowers.. Yrs ago,  we had been planting more and more seeds in our garden and getting less produce.. Then, fifteen yrs ago, I spent the summer counting honeybees--- I saw two all summer.--That's right 2 honeybees on a 100 acre farm... So, I began looking in to beekeeping. My husband thought I had flipped my lid (as he does with most of my ventures :-D ... I read everything I could find, asked tons of people if they knew any beekeepers and then found our local bee chapter.. I joined and You know the rest of the store.!

 

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